506 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



who have, perhaps, not read the law at all, and who do not know 

 what it provides. As a matter of fact, what this law does is to say to 

 those exchanges. '" You must operate under the supervision of the 

 Federal Government, and you must see to it that the prices on the 

 market are not manipulated or controlled, that there are no attempts 

 to comer the market, that there shall be no dissemination of false 

 and misleading information about the crop and market conditions, 

 that vou keep ade(|uate records showing all the facts of transactions, 

 and that you shall make such reports as the Government may require 

 from time to time showing how the business is going on, plus a 

 requirement that you must not discriminate against cooperative 

 associations of producers solely upon the ground that they are paying 

 patronage dividends. 



I thinlc that is a fair statement of what the law requires, and I do 

 not know of any reason why anyone should look upon that as an 

 extreme exercise of governmental power, or as giving power to do 

 anything that ought not to be done. The gram futures act is a 

 means by which the Government will be enabled to say what are 

 the facts as to the amount of business, and how it is conducted on ^ 



the exchanges, and will be able, if necessary, to formulate a basis 

 upon which to prepare legislation that will get at the real needs. In 

 other words, it puts the Government in a position to get the facts. 



Last year the case that was brought before the Supreme Court was 

 taken up in December and decided in May, and this year it is up in 

 November, and I see no reason why the Supreme Court should not , 



decide it as soon or sooner than it did last year, particularly because 

 of flie fact that last year it was apparent that the decision was delayed ^ 



by reason of the child labor decision. j 



Mr. Anderson. That would mean, then, that if the decision was ] 



favorable to the Government's contention, the enforcement of the ] 



act would begin about the time the appropriation for the fiscal year 

 covered by this estimate would be available ? 



APPROPRIATION FOR 1924. 



Mr. Morrill. Yes, sir; it should be in full swing by that time. 

 The estimates presented to you now are precisely the same as those 

 for this year. 



Mr. Anderson. And your plans will be the same? 



Mr. Morrill. The same plans will also apply. I see no reason 

 to alter the plans, because there has been no alteration of the condi- 

 tions that would require a change of the plans. We are expending 

 approximately S30,000 tliis 3'ear on investigational work and in 

 getting up all sorts of information that will be of use, both in con- 

 nection with tlie Htigation in the Supreme (\)urt and in connection 

 with giving the work active supervision when that time comes. 



Mr. Ma(;ee. Do you expect to spend the appropriation of $103,600 

 for tiiis fiscal year ? 



Mr. Morrill. I drew up the estimates, at the time tlu\y %yere 

 drawn up, upon the basis that the same estimates would be required jj 1 



from the standpoint of giving supervision to the principal markets 

 and getting up the information that will be necessary from the 

 investigational standpoint to support the conclusions that the 

 Secretary of Agriculture might draw from the economic standpoint. 



Mr. Maqee. Tiint does not answer my (juestion. 



