Notes: Free trade is inevitable, an opinion shared by the National Association of Manufacturers and desired by the United States Chamber of Commerce, major oil companies, Detroit Chamber of Commerce, and Clarence B. Randall, economic adviser to the President. As the United States economy adjusts to free trade, parity will automatically decline with cost of living. Many segments of our economy have been subsidized since 1815. Cotton has been partly subsidized since 1933. Most segments of the cotton industry desire unlimited production with the domestically consumed cotton price supported and foreign exported cotton sold at world prices. This would be dumping on a major scale. Would be considered as unfair competition by Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, India, Mexico, and other cotton exporting countries. Although farm prices have declined, parity has remained high because of increased cost of distribution. STATEMENT FILED BY J. T. WOODSON, GOBER, TEX. It is a privilege for me that this Senate group hear me, a farmer of the northcentral section of Texas. The area that I live in is a diversification area. We raise several of the agricultural commodities that are fast becoming a surplus problem both to the Government and to the farmer. There is much concern among farmers about the future of our industry. Certainly, we feel that a program that will permit us to produce our agriculture commodities and market them into a competitive market, instead of having to store them in warehouses at a big cost to the Government would be to our choosing. If a control program has to be instituted, we in our section of Texas are studying the soil fertility bank method as a program of more freedom to the farmer, as to his choice of agricultural commodities and at a much lower cost to the Government. We must see world trade expanded to an extent that these surpluses will not be a burden to the Government nor to a healthy, competitive market. It is the thinking of the farmers in my section of Texas that, if we are to continue to farm for a livelihood, we must produce and sell. X PRICE-SUPPORT PROGRAM HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY EIGHTY-FOURTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON PROPOSED MODIFICATIONS OF THE GENERAL FARM PROGRAM PART 5 NOVEMBER 7, 1955-HUTCHINSON, KANS. NOVEMBER 8, 1955-STILLWATER, OKLA. Printed for the use of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry 64440 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. EIGHTY-FOURTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON PROPOSED MODIFICATIONS OF THE GENERAL FARM PROGRAM PART 5 NOVEMBER 7, 1955-HUTCHINSON, KANS. NOVEMBER 8, 1955-STILLWATER, OKLA. NOVEMBER 9 AND 10, 1955-ALEXANDRIA, LA. Printed for the use of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry UNITED STATES WASHINGTON: 1956 |