GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 1211 



Mr. Jones. Yes. Under this proposal, it is just like every other 

 commodity we have discussed. Yesterday the committee and the 

 witness spoke of the difference in quality of eggs. We have the same 

 thing in the difference of the quality of wool. There are various 

 grades and characteristics, and those grades and characteristics de- 

 mand at all times a difference in price. 



Mr. Pace. Oh, well, I agree with you that the support price should 

 be the base, and, of course, if you have wool of a grade higher than the 

 base, your support level is more. 



Mr. Jones. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Pace. That is recognized. But if, in taking that into account, 

 the producer actually receives for that grade up to the full support 

 price, you would not insist that he still get the payment? 



Mr. Jones. We think on the basis of the clean wool content, he 

 would be entitled to the payment. For instance, take the purchase 

 program at the present time of fine wool. I am talking about clean 

 wool, wool from which the dirt, grease, and vegetable matter has been 

 removed. The scheduled price the Commodity Credit Corporation 

 today will pay is $1.30 per clean pound for that wool. On a grease 

 basis, that would mean he would receive less, perhaps, for the amount 

 he produced of half-blood wool, because half-blood on the schedule 

 is $1.26 per clean pound. 



Mr. Pace. I am frank to say I had not contemplated that the man 

 who in the market receives the full support price would, in addition, 

 get a payment. While the price that man receives for wool will enter 

 into the calculation of the average price that the whole wool crop will 

 get, I had not contemplated that the man who in the market receives 

 the full support price would, in addition, get a payment, because the 

 purpose of the payment is to maintain the support price, and that 

 producer, when he received it in the open market, T had not con- 

 templated would, in addition to that, get the payment. 



Mr. Jones. The trouble is there is no such thing as an average 

 grease price for wool. There is where the problem lies. But that is 

 the basis upon which the calculations of the price received by the 

 fanners is figm'ed. The man who received, we will say, just exactly 

 the support level is the average, and under all of the wool that is taken 

 into account and after the Secretary has made a determination of the 

 difference between the average price received and the average support 

 price, then, regardless of what the man received, he is entitled to that 

 percentage of difference, in our opinion. 



And it does not cost the Government any more. If one man re- 

 ceives more for his wool than the other, he is entitled to it because of 

 the clean value of his wool, and it does not cost the Government any 

 more to support on the percentage calculation than it does "straight 

 across the board" on so much per head. In fact, we see no advantage 

 to a program of this kind unless his support is on a percentage basis. 



Mr. Pace. I am not going to pursue it in the recorcl now, but I want 

 to discuss this matter with you. 



Mr. Jones. I will be happy to do it. 



Mr. Poage. Mr. Jones, as I understand, you do not want to follow 

 the policy the Secretary suggested of simply determining when the 

 average price — of course, adjusted to grades — -was below the support 

 level and then paying each producer the difference between that sup- 



