GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 1159 



The noncomplier comes in and sells his potatoes a httle under the 

 support level and the market absorbs them and we buy all the com- 

 pher's potatoes through the Government and dispose of them. We 

 move up into New York or Alaine, we will say, for the late marketing 

 season. 



Here are the compiler and the noncomplier. We teU the non- 

 complier under the law that we will not support the prices of his 

 commodity because we are now applying production payments. 

 That fellow, it seems to me, would be quite hate because he would 

 say 'T got into this business this year relying on the existing law 

 and what you are doing to me now is very drastically penalizing me 

 by changing the law in the middle of the season." It would be 

 applicable to any crop which had gone into the ground. 



Air. Hope. Do you feel that you are under a moral obligation to 

 support the price even to the noncomplier in the case of potatoes? 



Secretary Brannan. No; I do not feel we are under a moral obliga- 

 tion to him, but I think a person has the right to rely upon the law 

 as he finds it and he saw title 1 was going to apply until January 1 

 and he figures he could get in with his type of operation and get out 

 and he has done it. 



I do not think we owe him any obligation, Mr. Hope, but I do think 

 we would have a great to-do if we tried to switch this program in 

 the middle of the marketing year, after the planting. 



Air. Hope. To that extent there certaiidy is a difference in the 

 potato program and any program you might put into effect on hogs. 



Secretary Brannan. On hogs we have done nothing, you see. All 

 marketers would be treated alike. 



Air. CooLEY. WiU the gentleman yield there? 



Air. Hope. Yes. 



Mr. CooLEY. Did you say, Mr. Secretary, that we are now sup- 

 porting the potato market by buying potatoes in the South and 

 destroying them? 



Secretary Brannan. Yes, sir. Excuse me, I did not mean destroy- 

 ing them. We are finding the best possible uses for them. 



Air. CooLEY. I thought you used the word destroy and that is 

 the reason I asked you about it. 



Secretary Brannan. Alay I change the record to say that we are 

 finding the best possible uses for them. We are having trouble 

 finding any uses, I must confess. 



Mr. CooLEY. Are you giving some to the school-lunch programs? 



Secretary Brannan. We are giving all that they will take. They 

 are going to starch, alcohol, potato flour. 



Air. CooLEY. In other words, whether you are actually destroying 

 them now or not, there is a possibility that you might have to destroy 

 some before the program is over, is that it? 



Secretary Brannan. That is right. 



Mr. CooLEY. That is all. 



Mr. Hope. Mr. Secretary, Mr. Hoeven raised a question awhile 

 ago which seems to me most disturbing concerning the matter of 

 price supports by payments on hogs or any other commodity. That 

 is how you would get the price up once it got down to a level at which 

 consumers would take the current supply off the market. 



91215 — 49 — ser. v, pt. 6 3 



