1244 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Furthermore, the present market-support program is breaking down. 

 I do not suppose this is news to this committee. The present poHcy 

 of sustaining market prices by buying is not working. The Govern- 

 ment is supporting butter at 59 cents, but I can buy all the butter I 

 want at 57 }2 cents today. 



Mr. Murray. Will the gentleman yield there? 



What is the committee going to do about it? We cannot help it 

 because they do not follow the law. That was brought out yesterday. 

 They are not following the present law so why get us into another law. 



Mr. Parodneck. I am merely indicating to this committee that 

 you have a program now which is not working. I am not qualified to 

 tell you why. 



Mr. Murray. If they cannot follow the law now, what reason do you 

 have to think they will follow any law? I agree with you that they are 

 not following the law. The dairy farmers are being bushed out of 

 over $100,000,000 under the present law, but what is the use of telling 

 us that another law is going to be even better for them when they will 

 not follow the law now on the books? 



Mr. Pace. He has not told us that yet. 



Mr. Parodneck. I think the present law is not adequate. If it 

 were adequate, it would work. 



Mr. Murray. The law says 90 percent of parity on milk and its 

 products. If we cannot live up to that law, what is the use of talking 

 about some other law? 



Mr. Parodneck. Why does it not work? 



Mr. Murray. That is not my responsibility. It is the administra- 

 tion's responsibility to follow the law. 



Mr. Parodneck. Mr. Murray, when you have a law which for some 

 reason is economically unworkable, it is the function of Government 

 to find why it does not work and to substitute one that will work. 

 It is my purpose here this morning to submit that the proposal under 

 consideration will work because it attacks the source of the trouble and 

 that is under consumption, while the present program does not tackle 

 that; it merely supports prices. In the process it is doing a very expen- 

 sive, ineffective and inefficient job. 



Mr. Murray. Were you here yesterday? 



Mr. Parodneck. No; I was not. 



Mr. Murray. I asked the Secretary of Agriculture why he did not 

 follow the law. The present law has a parity price of milk at $3.69 a 

 hundred; 90 percent of that is $3.21 a hundred. If I were wrong, he 

 surely would have a whole score of fellows who would say I was 

 wrong. So what is the use of trying to talk about some other nebulous 

 program when they do not follow the law we have at the present time? 



Mr. Parodneck. Mr. Murray, I am sorry to disagree with you. 



Mr. Murray. You cannot disagree with me because it says in 

 black and white that that is the case. There is no chance to disagree 

 with me. 



Mr. Parodneck. Things are not always black or white. There 

 are always a lot of shadings in-between and a lot of reasons why things 

 happen. I do not pretend to be qualified to give you the reason for 

 that, but I am sure there is a good reason. I can read the figures and 

 I know that this is not doing what it is supposed to do. Certainly it 

 has given our farmers a cut in income which they cannot afford and a 



