STATEMENT FILED BY RALPH WILSON, JONES, OKLA.

A farm program should make possible a fair return from labor and investment for an efficient operator, with the least possible amount of regulation and controls. It seems to me we have made a step in this direction, but to turn back to high rigid supports would be to undo all the progress that has been made. The large surplus has been a threat to our market.

We should determine and make public what is an adequate and reasonable reserve for any crisis, and the Federal Government stockpile enough farm products to carry us through it; for this would be for the welfare of all people. This would not be a surplus, and should not be referred to as such; and it should not have a depressing effect on the market until such time as it is needed.

At no time should the market be free from the direct effect of supply and demand.

I believe in the same percentage of parity for farm people that other segments of our economy enjoy, but this cannot be obtained by price alone, for it is the total income that affects the spending. If we have 90 or 100 percent support with 30 or 40 percent acreage reduction, are we any better off than to just have a flat 50 percent support.

We need a system of orderly marketing, but we also need to remember that a product has not been marketed when it is in Government loan. I believe we need more research to expand our markets on present products, and possible use of new crops. If we must have lay-out acres, then take them completely out of production.

I believe our lawmakers should use extreme care in trading legislative support, lest we all lose our freedom of enterprise—the very thing that has made America great-and the only thing that can keep her great.

I have the utmost confidence in Mr. Benson, simply because I believe he will do what he thinks is best for the Nation as a whole, without any regard for his political popularity.

PRICE-SUPPORT PROGRAM

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1955

UNITED STATES SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY,

Alexandria, La.

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9 a. m. at Hotel Bentley, Senator Allen J. Ellender (chairman) presiding.

Present: Senators Ellender, Eastland, Young, Thye, and Schoeppel. Also present: Senator Long.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order.

The committee is very glad to be here in Louisiana today. We have been on the road now since October 23. We started out in the State of Minnesota and heard many witnesses there and then we went on to North Dakota, Iowa, South Dakota, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Fort Worth, Hutchinson, Kans., then to Stillwater, Okla., and now we are here in Louisiana.

We heard anywhere from 75 to 125 farmers at every session.

Before proceeding I want to introduce to you good people the members of this committee present today. To my extreme left is the distinguished senior Senator from Minnesota, former Governor of Minnesota, Senator Edward J. Thye.

Next to me on my left is the distinguished senior Senator from North Dakota, a good friend of agriculture, Senator Milton Young. To my extreme right is another fine Senator and former governor who is devoted to his job and who is from the wheat-growing State, Kansas, Senator Schoeppel.

The man to my immediate right, of course, needs no introduction to this audience. He is our neighbor, the senior Senator from Mississippi, Senator Eastland.

Now, as I have stated at other places, these hearings were decided upon about 4 months ago when the matter of whether or not we should take up House bill 12, which would reinstate rigid price supports. After quite a discussion before the committee it was decided to go to the grassroots for as much information as we could in the hope that we would get some light on the subject and bring in something new. I wish to say that this type of hearing is nothing new to us. It may be recalled by many of you that when I first went to the Senate back in 1937, it was my pleasure and honor to sit on the subcommittee that held hearings throughout the Nation in the fall of that year and these hearings formed the basis of our present Agricultural Act of 1938.

I had a very active part in the formulation of that and later in 1948, during the 80th Congress, Senator Aiken, who was then chairman of the committee, decided-the committee decided-to hold hearings

again in order to go back to the grassroots and find out how the farm program that we had enacted in 1937, and then amended during the war, was working out.

We got the almost unanimous opinion from all farmers that unless and until we could get something better, to leave well enough alone. During those hearings Senator Thomas from Oklahoma and I were the only two Senators who had served originally on the committee that held hearings back in 1937.

Now, today, I happen to be the only surviving Senator still in the Senate of that committee that held the hearings back in 1937 that formed the basis, as I said, of the present law as amended.

We have today quite a few witnesses from Mississippi and Arkansas, as well as Texas and Louisiana, as intended. Many of you were told to come here on the 9th and 10th, that we would hold hearings on both those days. We have arranged the witness list so as to hear you on the basis of commodity produced. For instance, cotton, dairying, rice; and then any other commodities than those three. I talked to members of the committee a moment ago and since in one or two places we permitted heads of organizations to testify, we will permit it here, but it is my hope that the heads of these organizations will not use the committee as a springboard to enhance or to obtain more membership. We want these hearings to be nonpolitical, nonpartisan, and we want to be able to say that the views come from the farmers.

Before proceeding, the Chair will recognize any of the members on this committee who desire to make any statement.

Senator YOUNG. I would like to make a very short statement.

I have enjoyed these hearings greatly. Farmers and publishers of local papers every where we go have praised the hearings highly, as did the farm organizations. I regret that some unfortunate statements have been made in recent days regarding these hearings. These hearings are not on a political basis. In fact, I think every Republican member of this committee, with the exception of one, requested hearings be held in his State, and those hearings were held.

It is a pleasure to be here in Louisiana and particularly as a guest of your chairman, who has done an outstanding job for agriculture for so many years.

Senator THYE. Senator Ellender and my colleagues of the Senate and you, the representatives of the various farm organizations and producer-groups and producers, I want to say that I am glad to be down here in Louisiana this morning.

The air outside was very much like a Minnesota autumn day and I stood out on the street a couple of minutes and enjoyed it.

You know, we have come clear down across this Nation. We started in Minnesota; we went northwest into the Rocky Mountain region, then down along the Pacific coast and back across the southern tier of States to Louisiana. Sitting up here on the hearing side of the table, I may say that all of you look alike no matter what section of the Nation you come from. That is as it should be. We are one united people.

You and I are concerned about the Nation's agricultural economy. That is the reason why I am here with you this morning. I have served on the Senate Agriculture Committee in the United States Senate since 1947, and I have been privileged to serve with your dis

tinguished United States Senator, Senator Ellender, and I have also been privileged to serve with Senator Eastland of Mississippi, as well as with Senator Young, in all of these years. Of course Senator Andy Schoeppel and I were fellow governors together.

As we proceed with these hearings this morning, we are trying to find the answers to this question: Why is agriculture at such a low economic level in relation to the rest of the Nation's economy? We have the highest employment, corporate earnings, retail and wholesale turnover ever in the history of this Nation. Yet, agriculture is suffering. I hope that we shall find some answers here this morning.

I want to say in closing that you have sent to the United States Senate from this State of Louisiana an able representative, one who has served in an unbiased, nonpolitical manner on the Agriculture Committee, and whatever might be said nationally about politics, these hearings have not been used as a political vehicle. I personally have heard testimony in various sections of the United States that was most helpful to me in formulating thoughts and ideas relative to an agricultural program.

Thank you very much.

The CHAIRMAN. I believe Senator Schoeppel has a few words to say. Senator SCHOEPPEL. Mr. Chairman, and you gentlemen and ladies before us this morning, coming from the State of Kansas, I want you to know I appreciate the opportunity to come into a part of the great Deep South. I am a member of the Agriculture Committee of the United States Senate and am proud of that fact, coming from a State that produces a lot of wheat, and ranking second, third, and fourth at times on cattle production and other livestock.

I am glad to be on this series of hearings, listening to the folks as we go through the various States. I haven't been in the United States Senate nearly as long as your senior Senator has been, Senator Ellender of Louisiana, but I can echo the sentiments expressed by my colleagues on this committee, Senators Ed Thye and Milton Young. And I say I have never served on a committee in the United States Senate that has been headed by a man who has been any more fair than Senator Ellender, and this committee is one committee in which I can assure you that politics makes no difference, irrespective of what has been said through the press from some places back Washington way.

I am hopeful as we go through the remainder of these hearings that we can obtain a good cross section of what a lot of you folks are thinking. Some of it has been critical, some of it has been absolutely constructive, and all intended of course to express the sentiments of those individuals who have been given the opportunity to testify, and I think that is a very fine thing.

I am glad, again, to serve with fellows like your Senator Ellender and my good friend Jim Eastland from down Mississippi way. I am hopeful that out of these hearings such as we have today and the remaining ones we yet have, we can use some of the views and some of the sentiments in these committee hearings, trying to find out what constructive changes we should make.

Again I assure you of my appreciation of the fine hospitality you folks have extended to us.

The CHAIRMAN. All right, Senator Eastland.