F. Byrnes, as fine a man as lived, I put it up before I knew how Byrnes was going to be. I didn't put it up because Eisenhower made that speech, gentlemen. That was made long after I put it up. But I went home and said to the boys, "Ike is not only going to be elected, he is going to be favorable to us farmers."

Think about as good a man as Eisenhower is, we all know he is a good man, his political enemies would say that, would let Ezra Taft Benson influence him to go back on his word made before 60,000 or 75,000 South Carolinians, gentlemen, it is almost unbelievable that it could have taken place. That is right; almost unbelievable. It is sad to me that a man with the love and esteem of Eisenhower would fall to follow Ezra to that degree.

I regret it most exceedingly.

Now, there is one thing more and I will let you rest. I have been here too long. We are here for the cotton farmers and this one thing is very important. The cotton farmers are the victims of an establishment that has been ruining us and is ruining us today and will continue to ruin us if not regulated by the Congress of the United States. Every day, 5 days a week, they have traded on the New York Cotton Exchange alone an average of 150,000 bales of cotton a day. Some days it goes to 250,000 bales. Now, a man who buys cotton on the New York Exchange is called a bull, a man who sells it is called a bear. Now if you buy-Senator Ellender, I am satisfied, is familiar with this-if you buy a hundred bales of cotton or any amount of cotton, you are called a bull. There comes a day-of-delivery notice for the month you buy. Say you bought December cotton.

The 23d of this month-you get this, gentlemen, because this is important the 23d of this month begins the first notice date. That bear, or seller of cotton, has 20 days in which at any time any day of those 20 days he can tender that cotton to you. Now the buyer of that cotton, the bull, when he notifies him he wants to deliver it, how long do you think he has to say "Give it to me, or I will sell it on the exchange"? Less than 20 minutes; 20 minutes against 20 days.

That isn't the sad part. That bear can deliver that cotton to you at any point in America, any point of 12 different points in America. You might be a millman in Columbia, S. C., or Augusta, Ga., and want your thousand bales of cotton shipped to Augusta or Columbia that bear says I will deliver you that thousand bales in Dallas or Houston, Tex., and it costs $7.50 or $10 to transfer it. This is important because they have been grinding us to death. That isn't all. If you take that cotton and let him send it the farthest way he can it is of such a character and quality no millman wants a bale of it. Now in proof of that statement I don't want to betray a man's confidence because I didn't tell him what I wanted, I called up a good friend of mine that doesn't live in this State, who runs a very large office that does a very large business, dealing in trading, and one of the biggest brokers on the New York Exchange to my knowledge, and he told me, he says, "You cannot accept delivery of your cotton," he said. "If you do, no telling where you would get it and they will not deliver any that you would have."

So in the life of his office, with the amount of cotton they have traded in there, and it is tremendous, he has never had 1 man to call for delivery of 1 bale of cotton. Think about it, gentlemen. In the

life of his office never had one man called for delivery of cotton for the very reasons I have just told you about. It is impractical.

As another proof of what the bear's advantage, they sold last year on the New York Cotton Exchange alone 55 million bales of cotton, you think 10 million is a surplus, what about 55 million surplus? Fifty-five million bales of cotton and today on the 9th of November the New York Wall Street Journal said there were 7,000 bales of certified stocks for delivery on cotton. Trading three-quarters of a million bales of cotton a week and 7,000 bales of cotton prepared and certified for delivery on contract.

Doesn't that prove that a bale of cotton is never sold on the New York Exchange with intention for delivery? One man could corner all cotton in 10 minutes if they wanted to. They would put him in jail for raising the price of cotton. You know that that is an unfair trading institution. I want you all to look into it and see if you can't make it fairer to buyer and fairer to the seller.

Gentlemen, I am not going to detain you much longer, but if Molotov didn't open the eyes of our Secretary of State and of the Congress of the United States and Ike D. Eisenhower, last week, if he didn't open your eyes, God knows you have not eyes to see.

Every word he said indicated and proved beyond any doubt whatever they are out to enslave the rest of the world. And God knows we better be prepared with cotton, wheat, all agricultural foods, men, radar, bombs of all descriptions, because we just as well get ready if we expect to remain a free people. If that wasn't in every word he said, last week when he pulled the veil down and didn't smile. Think about all the world leaning on one smile of the arch double-crosser of the history of the world. Because he met the reporters with a smile the whole thing is changed and we will be free because Molotov smiled. We should never have met him. He unveiled the subject. last week and there is nothing for us to do as intelligent men and freedom-loving Americans but to get ready to meet the challenge and keep prepared to meet the challenge with plenty of food and fiber, guns and shells and plenty of equipped boys. So help me God, the day is coming.

Senator JOHNSTON. You think that our surplus is helping to deter war?

Mr. MANNING. I have it in the manuscript here. Instead of 10 million bales of cotton being a surplus, every man here ought to get on his knees tonight and thank God Almighty for the abundance he bestowed upon our country, foods, and fiber, because we are the best country on this earth. When we think of the hungry, nakedness and illiteracy over the world, we speak of this as a burden. It is all right for newspapers, one of the most subsidized bunch in the world, but for the Senate and Congress of the United States to talk that way it is not wisdom. I want you to consider our cotton surplus. We are going bankrupt and you all can relieve us. So help me God, I know that you didn't vote for it, I know Senator Thurmond didn't vote for it, I don't believe Senator Scott did, I don't know about Senator Ellender, when you reached in your pocket and found no money there, you can't live in Washington on $5,000, it takes that to live in the sandhills of South Carolina at a decent scale, you reached in the Treasury of the United States and pulled up $7,500 a year more. I am not critical of you for doing that.

The CHAIRMAN. I didn't vote for that.

Mr. MANNING. I appreciate you didn't, but I want you to listen. You did that because you knew everything in the world was up so that you had to have a decent living and it took it. Nobody would condemn you that is informed on the situation at all. But personally, I am speaking now for myself, if I had reached down into the Treasury of the United States and put $7,500 on my salary which amounted to 50 percent of my salary and then would fail to do something for the lowest and only low-paid class in North America, I wouldn't feel like kissing my beautiful granddaughter or beautiful grandchild or beautiful wife goodnight.

More than that, I wouldn't feel like meeting the Lord of all of us on the last day because there is poverty coming in this land of great abundance because we are out of gear and God knows our prosperity can't last with the upper section enjoying unprecedented income and the farmers enjoying not a dime. It is up to you gentlemen. God gives you the strength to act on what you know is right because I know Johnston and Thurmond, have known them for years and thank each of them for the position you have taken as to the farmers of the United States and you, too, Senator, being one of the leading men in the land for us and I am aware of it. All I pray is God will give you the courage to do like you did for the minimum-wage people and everything else in the land. That is all I pray, God bless you all.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you ever so much.

(Mr. Houston Manning's prepared statement follows:)

I am Houston Manning, of Latta, S. C., 62 years of age and have farmed all of my life, having no other business whatever. I am most familiar with cotton and tobacco as these are the two crops which I have produced for sale for 40 years. However, I know that hogs, cows, rye, and oats, and other grains and other agricultural products cannot be made at the present prevailing prices, and that the situation now leads toward destruction for both the farmers and finally, for our Government structure itself. No economy can stand with the great difference in the top of our economic prosperity of today and the bottom which has a great portion of our people facing financial ruin. There is an old axiom that "prosperous agriculture means prosperous and contented people." Cotton and tobacco are nonperishable products and, as such, can and should be treated differently as perishable products, and cotton which, with steel, is the woof and warp of American life, as well as of all civilized countries, is such great part of our industrial life as to deserve special attention. It is said that of each dollar produced by agriculture that the ultimate value in trade amounts to 7 or 8 times that and, so you see $15 billion that the farmers get really amounts to over $100 billion annually to us in commerce.

Cotton is practically nonperishable as it will keep for 100 years without much deterioration if kept in dry storage. I would not know how to begin to suggest that you help to get reasonable and good prices for the very perishable things, such as a lot of our food crops, but with cotton and tobacco, it is entirely different and a supposedly called surplus can be kept and dealt with in a manner as to secure a living from their production, if you only have the will to do so. Our tobacco program has and will, if you only keep it working, bring us a very fair return for our labors. Of course, we have to keep supplies limited as we cannot continue raising more than we use and hope to keep the price at a profitable level.

Now, I want to call to your attention the fact that most of the cotton textile industries are in fine shape and making plenty of money, and if we can take the word of the presidents of the three leading firms, they are expecting the fine times to continue through next year, as they have come out in the past few weeks and said just that. In truth, they should be feeling good. For, 80 by 80 print cloth, 4 yards to the pound, and the chief product produced from cotton is selling at 20 cents per yard, or 80 cents per pound, with cotton on the New York Exchange quoted from 28.75 cents to 33.50 cents per pound, whereas it

sold from 17 to 18 cents per yard or at approximately 70 cents per pound when cotton was at the limit of 45.39 cents established by Chester Bowles. Cloth away up while cotton is off 35 percent we cannot possibly endure it much longer. Gentlemen, while I shall speak in great respect for you who represent the most august body of the world (see Supreme Court once held that distinction but not anymore, in my opinion), but, the situation in the farming areas is such that we must deal plainly with it as well as intelligently, and as courageously as we are able. And, that, I fully intend to do. If it were felt that you were Senators of closed minds and decisions there surely would be no need of our gathering here today as well as all over the four corners of our America. For, America is my first concern today, and then the welfare of our agricultural classes who labor in the most basic industry of all, that is, furnishing food and fiber for our people.

Would like here to state that I get most of my information from the Wall Street Journal, the U. S. News & World Report, the Congressional Record and from daily newspapers. Of course, I read other publications but the vast majority of my information comes from the mentioned four sources and from my knowledge of farming in growing of cotton and tobacco for 40 years and from my contacts in the business world. It is only natural that you members of the Senate and the Congress, with your very great and many responsibilities, would not be as well informed on some aspects of the agricultural situation as are some who have devoted all their time to them during their whole lives. And, I feel that is the very reason you are here today.

To remedy any situation, we must first look into the cause of it and then act accordingly. First, I want to lay most of the blame for the present plight of the farmer on the Congress of the United States. For a truth, that is where most of it belongs, as it has been the laws passed by the Congress and the rates and regulations given force by agencies established by Congress that has caused prosperity to reign everywhere except on the farm. By acts you have fixed the minimum wages far above that which any farmer can pay at present or prospective prices of the farmers' products; you have raised the income of every member of our defense forces, to name the Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and the Marines; you have raised the pay of every postal employee and of every civil service employee, and in fact, you have raised the pay of every employee of our Government, some to the great jump of 50 percent at one time as you did for the Federal judges and all others in the Department of Justice. Your instrumentalities created by Congress, such as the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission have all served to impose on American people the highest rates in all our history, rates which were undreamed of until a few years ago. As an illustration, when the railroads went before the Commission they were blessed with a "temporary" raise in rates which gives them $900 million per year and it has been extended yearly until week before last, when they made it permanent. We could go on thusly for hours, but time will not permit it, but let me mention one of your great benevolences to you and see the results. General Motors enjoyed your tax relief legislation to the extent of $236 million per year and so following the $584 million per year profits, unprecedented profits in all history, they are this year claiming for the first three-quarters a rate of profits of $1,200 million and they are now coming out in their appreciation, and raising the price of every car which they produce. How, in the name of God, can farmers compete with an all-time high in prices in everything produced by industry and by commerce and by Government acts and regulations, which prices are from 25 to 100 percent higher than they were 5 years ago, while our prices are 34 percent lower. While on the subject of General Motors I purchased a Buick Roadmaster in 1951 for $3,124.26 while cotton was bringing 45.39 cents and seed brought $25 per bale above ginning and, today, with cotton bringing from 28.75 cents to 33.50 cents on the New York Exchange and my seed lacking $3 of paying for ginning, we find the Buick Roadmaster priced at $4,200 plus and every other car, truck, tractor, farm implements, household appliances and furnishings up accordingly. Everything for everybody up, up, and up, month after month, year after year except for the farmer who has been in reverse for so long that we are today flat on our bellies and you know and God knows that we can't stand it much longer.

Let us be realistic, gentlemen of the committee, and if you do, one thing that I am now going to call to your attention should serve to move you to help the cotton farmers in our unprecedented distress. In 1932 and 1933, the Federal

64440-56-pt. 6-13

It

budget or appropriation amounted to $4 billion and the public debt we owed amounted to $20 billion and cotton was 6 cents per pound. Today and for several years our, or your appropriations, have been approximately $70 billion and the national debt is near $300 billion and cotton is quoted on the New York Exchange at from 28.75 to 33.50 cents. So, we find that cotton prices are about 5 times as high as 1933 while appropriations are 17 times as high and our national debt is 15 times as high as they were in 1933, a very grevious time for all of us. For a truth, gentlemen, it does not take Solomon, neither does it take a financial wizard to sense the greatest danger which lies in such situations. And while we farmers are going fast into bankruptcy we, with everyone else, are being taxed beyond all reason to give away to peoples overseas from $10 billion down to $42 billion annually. And, yet, old Ezra T. Benson tells us that the way to help us to get on our feet is to cut support rates from 90 percent to 75 percent of parity and to think you gentlemen followed him in it all. seems almost unbelievable to me. And, the way he brought it all about seems to me to be the most dastardly action in all our governmental history. He, Ezra T. Benson, Secretary of Agriculture, which Department was formed with the first and foremost aim being to help the agriculture classes of America, set out in every possible way by misleading newspaper articles and speeches made all over our country to mislead the American people, and especially the consumers of farmers' products, into believing that they were being robbed and that the Government was going bankrupt in their efforts to help the farmers get a living out of the soil. Everyone of you, regardless to which political party you belong, know that he put out the impression that the Government had lost about $20 billion in supporting the price of agriculture products thereby undermining the opinion of the people in the wisdom of the Congress in helping the farmers. But when he was put on his oath before your committee, where the perjury law would get him, he admitted that the losses sustained during 20 years amounted to $1,100 million, or only $55 million a year.

Now, $55 million per year, when you were appropriating $70 billion per year, $10 billion of that being given to people overseas will serve to relieve us farmers from the charges of bankrupting our Government. And, with old Ezra and his like coaching, you gentlemen got right into the game. The first thing you did to help us was to hunt up a little more ungodly formula for figuring "parity" on farm commodities and one of the results was to take a cent or two off of the parity price for cotton. God help you to open your eyes and your hearts and strengthen your spines to the realization that the formula that went back to the first of this century was most unfair to us. The period from 1909 to 1914, so-called a favorable period for the farmers, was the same period in which I, who lived on a farm, formed my opinion that I didn't want to follow agriculture as a business as I had observed that most everyone else in the land seemed to have more gainful occupations and I had made my mind up to go to Harvard and study law. But having contracted tuberculosis, the leading doctors in the land advised me not to do any office work but, instead to live out in the open on a farm. That is the only reason I am here today. Suffice it to say that any man who believes that 34 or 35 cents per pound for cotton give farmers of today "a just share of the national income," as President Eisenhower spoke of on the statehouse steps just over the street out there in September 1952, before 60,000 South Carolinians, in these days of high prices, has to be classed as ignorant of the subject or of impure heart and as no friend to the farmer.

Again referring to the President's speech over there in 1952, I do not pretend to know what the candidate for the Presidency said in Minnesota or in the Dakota speeches as I only read about them, but these are his words to us that September afternoon as to his attitude on the farm situation. Now, listen, gentlemen, to his exact words: "There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I stand for 90 percent of parity support for our farmers and more too, if necessary, to give them their just share of our national income." Now, the all-time sad experience of my lifetime, with the one exception of our sending our boys to bleed and die in Korea without sending the might of the American flag with them, is the fact that a man who had gained the confidence of the American people, and more, the love of them, to the extent that he was given their overwhelming endorsement for leadership, and the good man that we all know him to be (there is no doubt in that fact) should be so misled by such a little thing as Ezra to go to the length of sending most everybody in the Department down to Congress to work against 90 percent support for our farmers and have them to inform Congress that he would veto 90 percent parity support prices.