NEW DEAL: FIRST PHASES 477 



permits from the proper authorities before shipments could be made. 



No sooner had the surpluses been disposed of and the markets resumed 

 their buying operations than new difficulties were faced. There was a 

 limited number of permits available for each market, and this gave 

 speculators an opportunity to profit: many farmers conceivably could be 

 made to sell at discriminatory terms to dealers who had obtained a large 

 number of permits. 



Some farmers lost out for other reasons. There were those who were 

 ignorant of the existence of such a program even after it had been an- 

 nounced. Then there were those who knew nothing of the program that 

 was being devised, and so they sold their hogs at low prices to dealers 

 who bought them in large quantities and disposed of them later at the 

 higher prices provided by the emergency program. But except for some 

 troubles involved in regulating shipments and the control of dealers who 

 bought pigs from farmers at unwarranted prices, the program went off 

 in a fairly satisfactory fashion. 6 



Administration leaders believed that the emergency corn-hog measures 

 adopted would do the producers more harm than good unless a program 

 for production control was adopted. There was little difficulty involved 

 in agreeing on a program for corn reduction through acreage rentals, but 

 differences developed over the methods of curtailing the hog output. 

 Finally, the A.A.A. decided to reduce hog production by requiring each 

 contracting farmer to decrease the number of hogs for sale in 1934 litters 

 to 25 per cent below the number so raised in the average of the 1932 and 

 1933 litters. On October 17 the main features of the corn-hog program 

 for 1934 were announced. 7 



In the fall of 1933 two supplementary measures were initiated: one 

 consisted of corn loans, prompted chiefly by the sharp decline in corn 

 prices and the agitations of governors in the Middle West who began 

 pressing for price-fixing measures; a second called for the purchase of 

 "fat" hogs for distribution among the needy, a proposal which became 

 feasible when the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation was established in 

 the fall of that year. 8 



6. U. S. Dept. Agri., A.A.A., A.A.A. , May, 1933, to February, 1934, pp. 103-18. 



7. FitzGerald, Livestoc\ Under the AAA, pp. 57-59. 



8. Ibid., pp. 59-61. 



