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sible for the farmer's income to be maintained on a fair level without high support prices. In our opinion, the reason why the high support price has not succeeded is that the Government has failed to take any concrete action in regard to the disposal of surplus cotton.

When a piece of machinery, cotton goods, etc., is produced in a foreign country and is imported into this country, it strikes a tariff wall which raises the price and the taxpayer receives the benefit in the form of customs duty. There is no reason why when the commodities are exported and strike the tariff wall going out, the price should not be reduced to world levels and the taxpayer pay the difference in order to protect the farmer. To accomplish this end, a year-round sales agency should be set up; the purpose of this agency to insure an annual movement of 5 million bales or more of American cotton into world channels. Action of this sort would not be well received by foreign competition, but is it not better to aid our own flesh and blood rather than the cotton producers of Mexico, Brazil, and other cotton-producing countries?

In the overall picture, the interest of the textile mills in this country should be considered. If they are to spin domestic-supported cotton, they should be protected by legislation from low-priced goods shipped into our Nation from Japan and other foreign lands.

With our very sincere thanks and firm belief that the fine and conscientious work you are doing will result in a solution to this problem.

STATEMENT FILED BY E. F. VICKERS, PRESIDENT, THE CITIZENS BANK AND TRUST Co., BAINBRIDGE, GA.

I was invited to appear before your honorable body but, due to illness of various members of the personnel of the bank of which I am president, it was not possible for me to stay over and enjoy that privilege. I have taken the liberty therefore of preparing a brief statement to file with you.

Senator George very kindly sent me a book containing a record of the hearings before your committee in July of this year. I have read this and am impressed by the patience and cooperation and knowledge of things agricultural on the part of the members of the committee. I cannot escape the conclusion that you are doing and intend to keep doing your best for the welfare of the farmers of the United States.

It is my understanding that for an agricultural product to be supported it must be on the list of basic commodities. Corn, wheat, cotton, tobacco, and peanuts are currently on the list. Most of the hearings referred to above dealt with the wheat situation. We do not raise much wheat in Georgia or in the Southeast. Corn is getting to be quite a money crop with us. Cotton, of course. always has been. Peanuts are a major crop throughout our section-in fact. in the county in which I live they are our chief money crop. I understand they are grown extensively also in Virginia, the Carolinas, to some extent in Florida. rather largely in Alabama and Texas. The No. 1 peanuts go into the making of edible products, such as candy and peanut butter. The offgrade peanuts are used in making oil. At the present prices of these products the manufacturers can still make handsome profits out of peanuts.

Living in a rural area as I do, I feel the impact very quickly of any decline in prices of farm products. On page 21 of the report of the hearings, referred to above, I notice the statement-which was apparently uncontradicted—that the net income of farmers is down 28 percent since 1947, and that the farm prices are down an average of 22 percent since 1952. I notice also that the farmersTM share in the national income has dropped 9.4 percent in 1951 to 7.2 percent in 1954. Against this is the fact that the net income of most all other classes of our population is constantly on the increase. For instance, the minimum wage goes to $1 next year and this will further accentuate the unattractiveness of farm life. We see in the papers about the vast profits that large corporations are making and a big share of these profits are being passed on to their workers in the shape of increased pay, guaranteed annual wage, etc.

As a country banker it has been my thought for many, many years that the farmer gets the dirty end of the stick in all of his dealings. He sets the price on nothing he buys and nothing he sells. It is fixed for him by somebody else. Then he is beset by the vicissitudes of the weather and the invasion of all sorts of pests. His crop will fail 1 year and the next spring he will find that the price of fertilizer and the prices of tractors have gone up. It is no wonder

that he gripes and complains. There is a terrific unbalance between the of the farmers and the conditions of all other segments of our population. not understand why it is that there is so much hue and cry about some ate sum that might have been lost in supporting a crop when subsidies sort or another reach so many other segments of our population, albeit ay reach them indirectly.

as told not long ago that two ships of the United States Navy became imor damaged in Japan and that they could have been repaired at a cost exceed $1 million in Japan, but that they were towed back to the United to be repaired in shipyards here at a cost of about $5 million. I have ord of our own Congressman on this.

derstand that some of you gentlemen are farmers and you surely must that when agriculture gets in the doldrums it carries other lines of busiwith it. If farmers are prosperous, our little town is prosperous. It s with activity and happiness prevails.

ve the word of the president of the Georgia Farm Bureau that a year ago 00 was raised at a dinner in Chicago to sustain a drive to get peanuts off the list of basic commodities. That would mean that the price of ts would not be supported any longer. If this should happen there would rible distress in the peanut-growing sections of the country. Tractor sales fall off and land values would go down. We people in Georgia, and the States, think that since peanuts have become a major crop with us they 1 remain on the list of basic commodities and that the price of them should pported at a reasonable figure. You know, of course, that the population ms is decreasing. It is my opinion that the reason for this is that farm s becoming so unattractive as compared to the wages that people can earn è cities. If this trend continues, some of these days we will need no farm support but, on the other hand, people will begin to go hungry. ealize that perhaps supports do, in some instances, result in overproducThis can be cured by acreage restrictions. I think also that there have some inequities in the allocation of acreages, but it seems to me these are matters that can be worked out. I am endeavoring to look at the matter broader sense and appealing to you to muster your influence to keep price orts in effect on peanuts, corn, cotton, and wheat.

ferring back to the matter of overproduction, I really do not believe there ver been a year in which there has been real overproduction. Distribution een faulty. There are people living on this earth who have never, one e day, had enough to eat. If our Nation expects to survive we must take per view of the matter. We must think about a little something other than cing the budget and eliminating a few losses because of supporting the s of crops.

m on the State school building authority and, since I have been appointed on by our governor, I have been thinking about children more than ever y life. The school building authority has floated $200 million worth of s and has built or is in process of building about 160 projects. We see now these facilities are inadequate. Schoolchildren are knocking on the doors hoolhouses all over Georgia, and those who have gone through high school knocking on the doors of colleges and failing to gain admittance. If this 1 continues and is prevalent all over the Nation, it won't be long until e will be no overproduction of any of the basic commodities-there will ore mouths to feed and more clothes to be worn. In the meantime, I hope nothing will be done to undermine or impair our agricultural situation. conclusion, I should like to point out one other fact to you. There are orts of people in this Nation-most of them loyal and most of them patriotic. when you go into the rural areas and contact the farmers, you are at the ock of patriotism and loyalty. Nothing bordering on communism is found e. And when a crisis strikes the Nation, as it did in the First World War, nd World War, and the Korean affair, the farmer gives up his son to enlist mounts his tractor or gets behind a mule with less griping and grumbling anybody else. I implore you not to do anything or let anything be done ake the lot of this man any harder.

PRICE-SUPPORT PROGRAM

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1955

UNITED STATES SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY,

Columbia, S. C.

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9 a. m., Hotel Wade Hampton, Senator Allen J. Ellender (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Ellender, Johnston, and Scott.

Also present: Senator Thurmond; Representatives Ashmore and Dorn.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order.

This grassroots procedure is not new to me. Exactly 18 years ago this fall, when the late Senator Cotton Ed Smith was chairman, and I was serving my first year in the Senate, we held hearings in this very city, part of our hearings held throughout the Nation. From those hearings we presented to the Congress the present Agricultural Act of 1938, which has done such a good job in agriculture.

About 10 years later I again came back to Columbia. In the meantime, the Republicans had taken over the 80th Congress and instead of the committee being headed by a Democrat it was headed by a Republican, Senator Aiken. I can well remember all the farmers coming before us and saying we like the program, unless you can get something better, leave well enough alone. That was the cry then.

Today I am the only survivor of that group that started way back in 1937 in order to hold hearings, and this committee is now trying to obtain all the information possible from all of the farmers, not Senators and Congressmen and business people, so much but from the farmers, in order to find out how this program is working, how it can be improved. That is why we are here today.

This committee has been on the road now since October 23 and we have had meetings, overflow meetings everywhere we have been, and we have received much valuable information.

Senator Johnston or Senator Scott, have you anything to say before we proceed with the hearing of witnesses?

Senator JOHNSTON. I think you have already outlined what we are here for. We are here to get the information from the farmers and not to give information at this time.

We are glad to have you here in Columbia, and in South Caroline, you and Senator Scott, and we appreciate your making this one of your stops.

The CHAIRMAN. We are privileged to have Congressman Dorn from the Third District with us, and we hope that you can stay all day, Congressman, but I understand that you folks are busy now beating the bushes and making speeches here and there.

64440-56-pt. 6- -9

Senator JOHNSTON. I talked with Congressman Dorn and he says, "I am going down there just as a farmer, I grow cattle and I have a farm."

The CHAIRMAN. I wish to state to those who will testify that the first witnesses, in fact probably all the witnesses who present themselves, may be cross-examined as to any plans or programs that are offered and please don't judge the questions we may ask as indicative of the way any of us feel.

You know, I find in having witnesses before us the best way to get the facts is to take the negative, if the witness takes the affirmative, and vice versa. Oftentimes witnesses say "this is the plan that will cure all." It does not take long sometimes to show by a few questions that it is not as easy to put into law as the witness contends.

So, any time any questions are asked, do not feel hurt or do not think you are being abused because members of the committee may not agree with you. We are here to get the facts and it is hoped that from these facts we will be able to get a law on the books that will give to the farmer a program that will be long lasting.

All of us, I am sure, would prefer being home. I know I would. I have been riding in an airplane now since August 13. I have made a complete circuit of the world on this foreign-aid program. Many of us have led the fight in the Senate in order to curtail it, curb it; some of us succeeded last time in cutting a good deal of the foreignaid program that was requested by the President.

I wish to say that in connection with this recent trip of mine, when we meet next year I am going to be loaded for bear and hope to be able to continue to curtail these foreign expenditures.

You know we have a lot of folks on the Washington level as well as those who represent us abroad who when they make a recommendation for these huge expenditures abroad, do not take into consideration what effect these expenditures will have on our own economy.

We have spent millions of dollars to show people how to grow cotton and now it is hurting us. We have shown a lot how to grow rice and how to grow other commodities that are now in surplus in this country. I have learned a lot and I hope, that from the facts I have gathered, we will be able to do a little better job next year.

Mr. Warner, please.

Mr. GARDNER. I am speaking for Horace Warner.

The CHAIRMAN. You are speaking as the witness?

Mr. WARNER. Yes; I am presenting this for Horace Warner.
The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed.

STATEMENT OF JAMES GARDNER, GREENWOOD, S. C.

Mr. GARDNER. I am reading this for Horace Warner. My name is James Gardner.

My name is Horace Warner. I reside at route 1, Greenwood, S. C. I am a bona fide farmer, having never followed any other occupation. I am presently engaged in raising cattle and growing pine trees. I am sure I speak the sentìments of a vast majority of my fellow livestock producers in my section of the State.

At one time I planted over a hundred acres of cotton on my farm. But with a gradual reduction of acres over the years, and the increase in the cost of production, I was forced to abandon the cultivation of cotton entirely. I now plant no cotton. I now raise 400 head of cattle.

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