1146 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Secretary Brannan. Mr. Murray, I look upon the offshore sup- 

 phes of wool and our dependency upon them, when you study the 

 problem of price supports, merely as a factor in fixing the price of the 

 commodity as it would be in the market place. That is all it means to 

 me, as I view the problem from the standpoing of support. It does 

 not change the mechanics in any way whatever. It simply has a 

 bearing upon what the level of the price of the commodity would be 

 in the free market place. Therefore, it does not really bear upon the 

 price support problem, as I see it. It may make the margin between 

 the support level wider or narrower but it really does not make any 

 difference. Mr. Hope has added a new element to that by relation- 

 ship to the sugar program which, it seems me, is simply this: Be- 

 cause there is a supply coming in from outside of the country all the 

 time, some kind of a tax on that would be the source from which you 

 would raise the funds to pay for the support operation on the domestic 

 commodity. 



Again, that is really incidental to whether or not you use production 

 payments to support the price of wool to the producers thereof or 

 whether you use purchases as we are now doing. 



Mr. Murray. But the point is, Mr. Secretary, that if this wool 

 goes from 50 cents to 20 cents — and I have seen it sell for 10, so I 

 guess it can be 20 if it wants to — you automatically reduce the amount 

 of wool that is going to be imported. That will be one of the auto- 

 matic circumstances that will take place. It will decrease imports 

 as the price goes down. That stands to reason. 



Secretary Brannan. You mean you are taking an analogy from 

 the sugar law now? 



Mr. Murray. Yes, the sugar act controls the imports. Then it 

 could be an instrument for increasing the domestic wool production 

 in the United States. If we put the Brannan plan in operation to- 

 morrow morning it would have a tendency on these deficit products 

 —and wool is a good example — of lowering the imports of those agri- 

 cultural commodities that are coming into the United States to com- 

 pete with what we produce in the United States. Your support to 

 the farmer, paying the dift'erence between what he gets in the market 

 place and what the support price is, would stimulate the sheep business 

 and automatically lower imports. 



Secretary Brannan. Mr. Murray, that is a very complicated way 

 of saying simply that the price to the domestic consumer is the thing 

 that he is going to look at primarily. If I understand you correctly, 

 that is what you are saying. 



Mr. Murray. Do you think our imports of wool would be as great 

 if wool was 20 cents a pound as we have at 40 cents? 



Secretary Brannan. I do not know that the price would make a 

 great deal of difference. It is the domestic demand for the com- 

 modity and the people will pay for it if they have the money to buy 

 it. I do not think you can tie it to one thing. Certainly you can 

 raise the tariff' what you will to the place where you can keep all 

 commodities out but the domestic use is another thing. 



Mr. Murray. But you agree that if the price goes down the imports 

 will be reduced, Mr. Secretary? 



Secretary Brannan. The price of what? 



Mr. Murray. Well, take wool, for example. If wool goes to 20' 

 cents a pound, the imports would go down. 



