Statement of-Continued Patterson, B. B., Manitou, Okla.. Page 2348 Patterson, R. L., president, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, Oxford, Kans_ 2012 Pearce, Hon. Dave L., commissioner of agriculture for the State of Phinney, Clyde E., Kingman, Kans 2172 Pieper, Orville, Otis, Colo.. Rall, Harold E., Menlo, Kans.. 2173 2310 2349 2060 2143 2110 2423 2349 2189 2349 2309 2452 2297 Sasseen, Eldred, chairman, board of supervisors, Washita County 2341 Savage, Howard A., McDonald, Kans... 2173 Sayre, C. R., chairman, cotton economics committee, Delta Council, 2438 Schlotzhauer, Ralph W., Louisburg, Kans 2174 Scott, Owen, Omega, Okla.......... 2350 Scrivner, Hon. Errett P., Representative in Congress from the Second Congressional District of the State of Kansas.. 2179 Selle, Ernest, Great Bend, Kans.... 2180 Shannon, George, radio farm editor of station WWL, representing the Soder, Keats E., secretary-treasurer, Oklahoma Wheat Research White, V. F., Augusta, Kans.. 2196 Wickersham, Hon. Victor, Representative in Congress from the Sixth Williams, Lewis, Cushing, Okla... 2282 Wilson, J. L., secretary-treasurer, Farmers Union Local No. 51, Alva, 2356 Wilson, Ralph, Jones, Okla. 2357 Winfrey, J. W., assistant manager, Pure Milk Producers Association, 2028 Womack, Lantz, Winnsboro, La.. 2433 Wood, Mrs. Ruth M., Grimes, Okla. 2285 Worthington, Henry W., Mangum, Okla. 2305 Yarborough, F. A., Dairy Farmers Cooperative Association, Kent wood, La., also representing the Louisiana and Mississippi Milk 2566 Yoder, Dayton, Conway, Kans.. 2061 Yoder, R. D. & Sons, Cedardale Dairy Farm, Yoder, Kans 2190 Young, C. R., secretary, Pure Milk Producers Association of Eastern 2253 Zimmerman, H. H., Belle Plaine, Kans.... 2127 Zollars, C. C., Harper, Kans... 2107 PRICE-SUPPORT PROGRAM MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1955 COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY, UNITED STATES SENATE, Hutchinson, Kans. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9 a. m., Hotel Baker, Senator Allen J. Ellender (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Ellender, Young, Thye, and Schoeppel. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order. The Chair will recognize the distinguished Senator from Kansas, Senator Schoeppel. Senator SCHOEPPEL. Senator Ellender and ladies and gentlemen of Kansas, I understand folks are here from Colorado, Oklahoma, and Missouri. It goes without saying that we are very much pleased that Senator Ellender and the other members of the Agriculture Committee of the Senate chose the State of Kansas for one of these important series of meetings being held throughout our Nation. I want to introduce at this time the members of the Agriculture Committee who are here, and those who will be here later. I want you to know that this is a work session, as our chairman has pointed out or will point out. We are glad that as many of you are here as were able to come, and the chairman will go into certain phases of that. To the left of the chairman here is my good friend, Ed Thye, the Senator from the State of Minnesota. Ed was Governor of Minnesota when I was privileged to be Governor of this State. Ed is deeply interested in agriculture, he is a real dirt farmer and dairyman within the State of Minnesota. I give you the senior Senator from the State of Minnesota, distinguished member of this Agriculture Committee of the United States Senate. Senator THYE. Thank you, Senator Schoeppel. Senator Ellender, my good friend Frank Carlson, ladies and gentlemen, we are glad to be in your State of Kansas, and while Senator Schoeppel introduced me as a dairyman, I am just one of these general farmers, the ordinary type of farmer-dairyman. We have a beef herd, also, and pork, and poultry, and therefore I know your farm problem not just from the statistics but I know it from the pocketbook to the end of the pitchfork. I am glad to be here with you this morning. I want to say you in all sincerity as a member of this committeeand I can speak for all members of the committee-we are seeking information, endeavoring to find out what you are thinking as a producer, and also we hope to find out what is necessary in the way of legislation to develop a farm program that will lift agriculture back on a basis of an equal share in this Nation's great economy. There has never been a higher purchasing power in the history of this Nation. There have never been more jobs, retail turnover and wholesale turnover has been rapid, wholesome and strong. For these reasons there cannot be any justification for agricultural prices to be as low as they are. If you and I have overproduced, let's find out how we get our farm plant down so that it will be in balance with what our domestic consumption is and with what our export abilities are. I am delighted to be with you. You are a fine looking group of folks and I am anxious to hear what you have to say. Senator SCHOEPPEL. Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen, we have the honor today of having our own United States Senator, and my colleague in the United States Senate, with us. Frank tells us he can stay with us throughout this entire hearing. I give you at this time my colleague and your United States Senator from Kansas, Frank Carlson. Senator CARLSON. Senator Schoeppel and Chairman Ellender and Senatory Thye, I want to assure you I deeply appreciate, as I know the people of Kansas do, that this committee will hold this important hearing in our State. It has been my privilege to visit, I think, 70 counties in Kansas in the last 2 months. I hope the farmers today will express themselves to this committee as they have expressed themselves to me in these private sessions and meetings I have attended. I would be less than candid if I didn't say I think we have a farm problem. I think this committee will get testimony here today which I hope they will give consideration to next January, and I think it is very important that we try to work out a program that will get the farmer his fair share of the national income, as Senator Thye said, which we are not receiving at the present time. Again I say many thanks. Senator SCHOEPPEL. I regret very much that probably due to weather conditions our colleague, the Senator from North Dakota, Milton Young, is lost some place between Minneapolis, Minn., and Wichita, Kans. We have a car standing by, if he gets off the plane between 8 and 9 o'clock in Wichita, to bring him here. We have extended invitations through our distinguished chairman here to other members of our Kansas congressional delegation. Many of them are tied up in other affairs and have expressed regret that they could not be here. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I want to say that I assure you that in my introductions here I saved the last purposely for our distinguished chairman. I have served a little over 6 years in the United States Senate. It has been my happy privilege and honor to be a member of this great Agriculture Committee. I have worked with the chairman of this committee for a great length of time in these important hearings, and before. I have served with him, and under him as chairman of this committee, a man who is deeply interested in agriculture, a man who knows a lot of things about farming, and it may interest many of you to know that a good many years ago he was in this State, in Stafford and Montgomery Counties, harvesting wheat. He knows something about our conditions out here, much beyond that which you would expect some of these good friends from the Deep South to know about the wheat fields of Kansas. I want to say something else. There is less politics in the Agriculture Committee of the United States Senate than on any committee under which I have been serving, or which I am privileged to be a member of. I want to get that before this great crowd of friends here, and you interested folks who are here at the beginning of these hearings in my State. I want to tell you very frankly that Senator Ellender, heading this committee, not only in this State but throughout the United States, has done a magnificent job. Senator Ellender, I want you to know that the people of my great State appreciate the fact that you gave us the opportunity within the State of Kansas to hold this hearing here. We appreciate what you have been doing in these hearings and what you have always striven to do as chairman of the Agriculture Committee in looking at these problems as they are manifested in these hearings as we go about the country. I turn over to you, sir, the list of participants from Kansas, and Colorado, and Missouri, and some from Oklahoma who are interested in agriculture. Senator Ellender, our chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Andy. I am very happy to be back in Kansas. As Andy just indicated, 45 years ago I pitched wheat in Kansas in order to pay my way through college. I worked for Mr. Allmond near Stafford. I think Mr. Allmond has died since that time, but I knew his family well and we corresponded long after I worked with him. I wish to say that our hearings so far have been very successful. As Senator Schoeppel just stated, I have striven to keep these hearings above partisan politics. You know, it matters not whether the administration is Republican or Democrat, when we lose on the farm, everybody suffers. I noticed here in the paper that "Republican Kansas fails to roll out carpet for visiting Democrats." I am glad you did. It gives me a chance to rest. I wasn't offended at all. As a matter of fact, I have gained 5 or 6 pounds on this trip. I ate so much pork and beef, and chicken that I took on some weight. My hope is that the witnesses who will appear before us today will not use this committee as a method or way to increase the prestige of their respective organizations. We come here to hear the farmers. We are going to hear the organizations on the Washington level and, as a matter of fact, they are pretty well established and whenever we have any farm problems before us or any bill presented to the committee for hearing, the farm organizations usually have their say. It is all right for members to testify before us as members of their organization, but I know that the committee will appreciate it very much if you confine your testimony to the problems before us. There is no doubt that we have a farm problem. I have known that for quite some time. We are here to try to help you solve it. This is not new with me. I am the only surviving member of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry today that was on a committee similar to this one in 1937. I was on the committee that held hearings throughout the United States at the grassroots, and the hearings that we conducted |