GRAZING PEES — GUARANTY PRICE ON WHEAT. 19 



Mr. Clement. Is that so? I did not think there were but three 

 men on the committee. 



Mr. Dorset. Oh, yes; there were 11, 1 think. 

 ^Mr. Etjbet. Was not the president of the Agricultural College of 

 Kansas a member of that committee ? 



Mr. Dorset. Yes, sir; he was. He was the one that protected us 

 from having the price fixed at $1.50. 



Mr. Tin CHER. You mean Mr. Waters, of Missouri? 



Mr. Etjbet. Waters, yes. He was formerly connected with the 

 Missouri College. 



Mr. Tincher. He was the man who offered the resolution for $3 

 wheat. 



Mr. Dorset. And he tied them up from the 22d of August to the 

 3d of September to keep them from fixing it at $1.65. 



Mr. Clement. From the very moment that the announcement was 

 issued that the price of wheat was going to be fixed the price of 

 wheat began to decline, so that on the date that the price of wheat 

 was finally fixed the price of wheat was approximately a fixed price. 

 That is a fact. 



Mr. Young. Let us stop right there a moment. When this com- 

 mittee was appointed, clothed with the authority to fix the price of 

 wheat, that resulted in the normal flow of wheat, and the normal 

 market for wheat being disturbed, as I understand it, and people 

 kept out of the market ? 



Mr. Clemjent. Absolutely. 



Mr. YoTJNG. And the grain dealers did not dare buy ? 



Mr. Clement. We could not afford to. The fact of the matter is 

 that those who had wheat at that juncture could not sell a bushel. 



Mr. Young. You dared not buy, and could not sell ? 



Mr. Clement. We dared not buy, and we could not sell. Between 

 the time they announced they were going to fix th.c price and the time 

 they actually fixed the price there was no wheat bubiiiess. 



Mr. EuBET. How long a period was that ? 



Mr. Clement. That was between August 13 and September 3. 



Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Are you not getting a little ahead 

 of your story. The law did not authorize the fixing of a price, but 

 authorized the determining of the minimum price; that is, that the 

 price should not go below that? 



Mr. Clement. Yes, sir. 



Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. And that is all that this committee 

 did. Later there were some activities of the Grain Corporation, and 

 Mr. Hoover acting with them, that made that minimum price the 

 maximum price? 



Mr. Clement. Exactly ; I was coming to that point. 



Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. That was what you were more 

 interested in than the matter of determining what the minimum price 

 should be, it seems to me. 



Mr. Clement. Exactly ; I am coming to that. 

 When this bill was passed and Mr. Hoover was appointed and the 

 Food Administration began to function, the first thing they did was 

 to create a milling division, through which they made contracts with 

 the mills, under which the mills could not buy any wheat from any- 

 body but the Grain Corporation, and the Grain Corporation would 



