1246 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



came through with a very nice air-mail subsidy, and they are all pretty 

 happy right now. 



Wliere did tliat money come from? 



Mr. Murray. That may be. There are a lot of things we have 

 done in the past. 



Mr. Parodneck. This is not the past. 



Mr. Murray. I am talking about here on out. Where are you 

 going to get the money, this billion dollars? 



Mr. Parodneck. Mr. Murray, I am a citizen and I recall just a 

 little while ago that the administration came to Congress with a 

 demand for several bilhons of dollars that were going to be shipped all 

 over the world in support of some policy. I did not hear anybody ask 

 where we would get these $5,000,000,000. Wlien we are talking about 

 the man I spend my days with, the man who is producing the food 

 you and I eat, we become very touchy about where we are going to get 

 $1,000,000,000, supposing it was $1,000,000,000. 



Mr. Murray. That was the estimate given. I am not saying that 

 it will cost that much, because I do not know whether we are going to 

 put it in operation, but I know you have to have some gadget to raise 

 the money if you put any of these programs into operation. 



Mr. Parodneck. If we do not produce and we do not eat, we will 

 not have one billion or a fraction of a billion, but if we do produce and 

 we eat and we work, that billion or 10 times that billion is not signifi- 

 cant in our economy. I think the history of the last 10 years has 

 proven that abundantly. 



It is just a question of what we want. That is what determines 

 the interpretation of the figures. 



Mr. Murray. Of course, you are just confining it to milk. That 

 is only 20 percent of American agriculture. We have to go across 

 the board with it. 



Mr. Parodneck. It happens to be the largest agricultural com- 

 modity in our country. 



Mr. Murray. You would not think so if you sat on this committee 

 for 10 years. You would think that was the last thing they wanted 

 to talk about. 



Mr. Parodneck. That is because, in my opinion, the milk pro- 

 ducer, the dirt farmer, has not been well represented. 



Mr. Murray. Oh, he has been pretty vociferously represented, 

 but the set-up is not right. 



Mr. Parodneck. I think the processors have been very well 

 represented and the distributors. 



Mr. Andresen. Will the gentleman yield? 



Mr. Murray. Certainly. 



Mr. Andresen. What is the average price of milk to consumers 

 in New York City? 



Mr. Parodneck. I think the price today is about 20^ cents. 



Mr. Andresen. Your farmers are getting about 9 cents a quart 

 for their milk on the basis of $3.57. That shows that about 12 to 13 

 cents goes into distribution cost. Out in my country they are getting 

 between 5 cents and 6 cents a quart. I think you will find that Mr. 

 Murray and myself and most of the members of our committee — in 

 fact, all of them — and there are no politics in this — want to look out 

 for the interests of the American farmers. That is what we have 

 been trying to do. 



