The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Miller, for the benefit of you and the others, our plan is to hear the growers Thursday morning. We would be glad to have you here to listen in.

We will now adjourn until Thursday at 10 a. m.

(Thereupon at 4 p. m., a recess was taken until Thursday, March 10, 1955, at 10 a. m.)

of 0.7 acre or less provided such reductions for these allotments are limited to a maximum of 0.1 acre per year.

Comment: This proposal brings up the touchy minimum acreage allotment controversy which has been troubling the program since 1947 and which in my considered opinion has contributed more than any other single factor to our present serious situation. Among others present in this room today I had a small part in urging the enactment of this minimum legislation in the spring of 1944.

It is perhaps ironical that legislation designed and enacted by Congress to continue the program has now evolved into a vehicle to destroy it. The 1-acre minimum allotment for burley tobacco was enacted in March of 1944 as a wartime measure to increase production and continue the program at that time. Simply, it provided that for any farm having a 1943 acreage allotment of less than 1 acre the allotment for 1944 would be increased to 1 acre subject to certain limitations relating to the acreage of cropland in the farm. You will remember that this was during World War II and that all other farm programs had been suspended except those designed to increase or encourage production of food and fiber crops. I would like to read to you the preamble of the legislation as enacted by Congress in the spring of 1944 as Public Law 276.

Whereas the increased demand for cigarettes and other tobacco products has resulted in record usages during recent years of burley tobacco; and

Whereas due to a shortage of labor and equipment and the need for the production of essential food and fiber crops, the production of burley tobacco has not kept pace with this increased usage; and

Whereas small growers of burley tobacco could, if their acreage allotments were increased, produce additional burley tobacco without adversely affecting their production of essential food and fiber crops: Therefore be it

Resolved, ***

I am sure you will agree that the condition outlined then is vastly different from that facing us today. There is evidence to show that this legislation accomplished the desired objective. Production was increased and the quota acreage allotment program was maintained without interruption. Public Law 276 was in the light of the circumstances that followed mistakenly enacted as permanent legislation. At the time of its emergency passage no one could foresee an end to the worldwide conflict in which we were then engaged.

No reductions in allotments were made for the year 1945 but by 1946 when it was realized that a reduction in allotments was necessary it became evident to many of us that some action was needed with respect to revision of Public Law 276. The first such legislative action came in that year when Congress kept the legislation but for the year 1946 only permitted 1-acre allotments to be reduced by 10 percent which was the same reduction applied to all other allotments in that year.

In 1947 a further decrease in acreage allotments of 19.6 percent was invoked with the reduction applying only to allotments above the 0.9-acre level. By this time the group of protected allotments had increased to an estimated 150,000 or an estimated 50 percent of the total number. Since the 19.6-percent reduction for 1947 applied only to that 50 percent of the allotments of 1 acre or more the actual overall reduction obtained in total allotted acreage amounted to less than 16 percent. Thus the first seeds of inequity, injustice, and unfairness were sown.

STATEMENT OF RANDOLPH S. TAYLOR, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, BURLEY AND DARK LEAF TOBACCO EXPORT ASSOCIATION, INC.

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I start my prepared statement, I might say I am expressing for myself and I feel quite sure the other grower representatives our thanks for giving us this opportunity to appear before you.

My name is Randolph S. Taylor. I am executive secretary of the Burley and Dark Leaf Tobacco Export Association, Inc. This is a federated trade association with officers here in Washington having as its members associations of growers, dealers, warehousemen, and farm organizations from the eight-State burley tobacco producing area. The primary objective of the association is to promote the use and sale of burley tobacco in domestic and export channels.

The critical situation facing growers of burley tobacco was outlined in detail to your committee by witnesses of the Department of Agriculture last week. Briefly and bluntly it can be summarized simply as a situation where we have too much tobacco in the face of a downturn in domestic consumption with 442 million pounds including onethird of the 1954 crop under loan to the various grower cooperative associations. In fact if there were not one single pound of burley tobacco produced during the year 1955 our supply situation at the beginning of 1956 would only then be at about the desired level. The paramount question facing all of us who are interested in the commodity is therefore one of finding a suitable orderly solution to the problem which will save the program and at the same time prevent economic disaster in the areas where it is grown.

I desire to submit for your consideration a three-point package legislative proposal which I sincerely believe will accomplish the objective we all desire. I shall list the proposals involved and discuss each one individually.

Proposal No. 1: The Secretary of Agriculture should be given legislative authority to redetermine the 1955 burley tobacco quota and individual farm acreage allotments on the basis of the most recent statistical data available provided that the additional reduction for 1955 shall not exceed 15 percent.

Comment: Present legislation does not permit the Secretary to further decrease a quota previously announced. Due to the drastic change in the supply situation now as contrasted with last November the Department of Agriculture in testimony before this committee has requested the authority to take this action and has indicated that the additional reduction in acreage might be as much as 25 percent. The eight-State burley tobacco committee, various associations of growers, farm organizations and other groups have recommended this action. Everyone with whom I have talked considers this action absolutely necessary in order to spread out the needed reduction over a 2-year period and in order to avoid a reduction in 1956 of such proportions as to wreck the program and completely cause economic ruin to the principal burley tobacco producing areas. The proposal for the 15 percent limitation will be recognized as a moderate approach in developing a means of softening the reduction insofar as practicable for

1955.

Proposal No. 2: Notwithstanding any other provisions of present law legislation should be enacted to permit a reduction in allotments

of 0.7 acre or less provided such reductions for these allotments are limited to a maximum of 0.1 acre per year.

Comment: This proposal brings up the touchy minimum acreage allotment controversy which has been troubling the program since 1947 and which in my considered opinion has contributed more than any other single factor to our present serious situation. Among others present in this room today I had a small part in urging the enactment of this minimum legislation in the spring of 1944.

It is perhaps ironical that legislation designed and enacted by Congress to continue the program has now evolved into a vehicle to destroy it. The 1-acre minimum allotment for burley tobacco was enacted in March of 1944 as a wartime measure to increase production and continue the program at that time. Simply, it provided that for any farm having a 1943 acreage allotment of less than 1 acre the allotment for 1944 would be increased to 1 acre subject to certain limitations relating to the acreage of cropland in the farm. You will remember that this was during World War II and that all other farm programs had been suspended except those designed to increase or encourage production of food and fiber crops. I would like to read to you the preamble of the legislation as enacted by Congress in the spring of 1944 as Public Law 276.

Whereas the increased demand for cigarettes and other tobacco products has resulted in record usages during recent years of burley tobacco; and

Whereas due to a shortage of labor and equipment and the need for the production of essential food and fiber crops, the production of burley tobacco has not kept pace with this increased usage; and

Whereas small growers of burley tobacco could, if their acreage allotments were increased, produce additional burley tobacco without adversely affecting their production of essential food and fiber crops: Therefore be it

Resolved, * * *.

I am sure you will agree that the condition outlined then is vastly different from that facing us today. There is evidence to show that this legislation accomplished the desired objective. Production was increased and the quota acreage allotment program was maintained without interruption. Public Law 276 was in the light of the circumstances that followed mistakenly enacted as permanent legislation. At the time of its emergency passage no one could foresee an end to the worldwide conflict in which we were then engaged.

No reductions in allotments were made for the year 1945 but by 1946 when it was realized that a reduction in allotments was necessary it became evident to many of us that some action was needed with respect to revision of Public Law 276. The first such legislative action came in that year when Congress kept the legislation but for the year 1946 only permitted 1-acre allotments to be reduced by 10 percent which was the same reduction applied to all other allotments in that year.

In 1947 a further decrease in acreage allotments of 19.6 percent was invoked with the reduction applying only to allotments above the 0.9-acre level. By this time the group of protected allotments had increased to an estimated 150,000 or an estimated 50 percent of the total number. Since the 19.6-percent reduction for 1947 applied only to that 50 percent of the allotments of 1 acre or more the actual overall reduction obtained in total allotted acreage amounted to less than 16 percent. Thus the first seeds of inequity, injustice, and unfairness were sown.