1184 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



lawyers to defend themselves against such discriminations as Mr. 

 Brannan implied he might make ia the application of his wool subsidy, 

 it is we livestock feeders who pay the bill. The same thing would 

 apply if the rules were made that the subsidy would apply only on 

 hogs sold at the market, on the assumption that sales to the local 

 butcher or the locker-space renter would take the subsidy into 

 consideration. Did Mr. Brannan tell you yesterday how much per 

 hundred that subsidy would be? He could not possibly do so. So 

 how could the buyer in the country? 



Many hogs are sold one or two or three head at a time to the local 

 hog buyer and he assembles a carload. If the assumption were that 

 the subsidy could be paid only at the yards where commission men are 

 under bond and under Government supervision, how could this local 

 man operate? Would he buy hogs on the basis that they would be 

 sold at the terminal market, or at the country point? Once you start 

 the wheels rolling, there are more and more wheels that immediately 

 become involved. 



Another proposal might be that the subsidy payment would be 

 made only on sales of hogs weighing between 200 and say 250 pounds. 

 This would not only be extremely unfair to farmers but would open 

 up new avenues of fraud and also new avenues whereby scalpers 

 either at the markets or in the country could make fortunes. 



Only a small percentage of the farmers have a scale capable of 

 weighing live animals on their farms. While some can guess accu- 

 rately they are a minority. The difference in the quality of the meat 

 from a hog weighing 1 pound over any fixed maximum limit and a hog 

 weighing the limit is absolutely nil. So is the difference between a 

 hog weighing 1 pound under the minimum and that minimum. But 

 the loss of the subsidy might mean the difference between the seller of 

 those hogs making a profit for the year particularly if his death losses 

 were suddenly eliminated, and the loss of his farm. 



During OPA days, when hogs were supposed to weigh within the 

 brackets or fall without the fixed price range, one of the most lucrative 

 businesses of the country was to buy a bunch of heavy hogs, mix in 

 enough light hogs with them so that the average weight was within 

 the bracket and sell them at the fixed price. Under those circum- 

 stances, the seller met opposition from the packers who did not want 

 the heavy-weight hogs. But under this set-up, if the hogs were sold at 

 the market and the subsidy paid only on certain weights, this opposi- 

 tion might be eliminated. 



And when it came to the sale of hogs to the local butcher or to the 

 renter of locker space or from one farmer to another for home slaughter, 

 it would just be astonishing how many of the hogs slaughtered each 

 year fell within those bracket weights regardless of what they were. 



Gentlemen, this whole proposal is perfectly absurd. No rules or 

 regulations on it could be written that were fair and equitable in 

 operation. One regulation would lead to another. Chaos would 

 follow confusion. Even if it were at all practical, which it definitely 

 is not; even if it were necessary, which it is not, we would still be 

 opposed to this "trial run" on hogs because: 



II. It would be completely disastrous to the balance of the livestock 

 feeding industry. 



Normally at this time of yesn' there is a fairly good movement to 

 market of young sows weighing from 275 to 300 pounds. These are 



