28 GRAZING FEES GUARANTY PRICE ON WHEAT. 



was necessary. I do not think they had authority to do it, and I do 

 not think they ought to have done so. j. i • 



At the same time, the case of the farmer and the case of the gram 

 dealer are not analogous; 'there is no question about that. As to the 

 farmers, there have been compensating circumstances in connection 

 with the fixing of the price of wheat, and I believe the farmers have 

 been pretty well satisfied. And I will state this for your information, 

 although you probably already know it: Since the release of the mills 

 from this contract that ^ou made reference to, to pay only the price 

 that the Grain Corporation would pay for the wheat, the market has 

 been an open market for the farmer, and he has gotten whatever it 

 would bring. 



Mr. RuBET. And it has gone up ? 



Mr. Clement. Yes; the market has advanced. 



Mr. TiNCHEE. There is not any question but that the price of that 

 one product was kept down. 



Mr. Clement. Yes, sir; absolutely; but only for that one year 

 of 1917. 



Gentlemen, we have not had anybody prepare a bill for us, and we 

 have not attempted to prepare any bill ourselves. We came here for 

 the purpose of presenting these facts to this committee, with the 

 hope, and, I might say, with the expectation that this committee 

 would see the justice of giving us relief and finding a way to do it. 



We want to express our grateful appreciation of your kind atten- 

 tion and your courtesy in having arranged this hearing at this hour 

 for us, and we shall be very grateful if some one on the committee 

 will prepare a bill that will give us the relief that we deserve, and 

 that, I believe, you will agree we deserve. 



It may be that such a bill should provide for a special commission 

 to determine the correctness of the claims that we will present. , We 

 are prepared to furnish the evidence to show that these losses were 

 sustained. We have come here merely to present the facts showing 

 how these losses were sustained, so that if you agree with us that we 

 should have relief you may provide a means by which we can prove 

 these things to the satisfaction of the Government, and then arrange 

 for the protection of them after they have been proved. 



Mr. Wilson (presiding). We are very much obliged to you for 

 your intelligent and illuminating statement, and we will be very 

 glad to hear from anyone else you have. 



Mr. YoTJNG. You might add that we can see from his statement 

 why they have not employed an attorney to present their case. It 

 has been very ably presented. 



Mr. Wilson. Whom else have you ? 



Mr. Clement. I do not believe there is another member of this 

 delegation that expected to present anything in addition to what I 

 have presented. If there is any member of the committee that wants 

 to add anything, I should be very glad to have him do so. 



Mr. Young. I understan you gentlemen have already talked the 

 situation over among yourselves, and you are simply the spokesman 

 for the rest? 



Mr. Clement. Yes, sir ; for the entire committee. I am the spokes- 

 man, as chairman of the committee. 



