form of a bill, covering such recommendations as they desire to make with reference to amending the Bankhead Act. The CHAIRMAN. I would be more than happy to do so but for the fact I understand they do not want to recommend anything. Mr. COBB. We have no proposals to make, Mr. Chairman, that I know of. Mr. BOILEAU. They are suggesting changes in regulations, and I do not think it is unfair to ask them to make those changes they propose in the form of a legislative proposal for us to consider. They might prefer that we leave it to them to make the regulations, but we would welcome their recommendations and would like to have it in the form of a legislative proposal. I do not think we are asking too much to ask them to put it in that form at least for us. The CHAIRMAN. How long would it take you to do that, Mr. Cobb? Have you made any effort to do that? Mr. COBB. We have made no effort at all. Many of the suggested changes, Mr. Chairman, have already been taken care of. For instance, this question of electing local committeemen and the matter of setting up appeal boards. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Hiss, would it be any considerable task to draft suggested legislation to cover the items proposed to be affected by regulation? Mr. Hiss. I would like to know for sure just which items the committee has in mind. I assume first would be ginners' compensation and second would be the exemption, the two-bale exemption. Are there any others? Mr. BOILEAU. And the appeal board. Mr. Hiss. As far as the appeal board is concerned, I do not think the department has any doubt that it has that power today. The other two items Mr. BOILEAU (interposing). I would like to have those two particularly. Mr. DoXEY. Has the Department any definite ideas as to the continuation or not of this act? If you have, I am not making any suggestion at this time-my bill takes care of that-but we would like to thrash it out more if we are going to have new legislation. Mr. Hiss. The present view of the Department is that before they suggest the form of Bankhead control which should be in effect next year, they would like to haxe the experience of 1 year where they start from scratch instead of in the middle of the season. Mr. DoXEY. There will be no Bankhead bill next year, though, until we pass additional legislation. Mr. Hiss. That is correct. Mr. DoXEY. And we will not have any chance to pass additional legislation until we convene here next January, and if we put it on next year's program in the rush of things we will not have any chance to get the expression from the people. If the cotton farmers want it or don't want it, I want to know what their wishes are. I was just thinking of the advantages of knowing their wishes when we come back here in January and not waiting. Mr. COвв. My feeling on that, Mr. Doxey, is this: That we entirely rewrite the Bankhead Act rather than try to patch up what we have with amendments. I think we are going to be able to function all right for the present season with the bill as it is, but we would like a measure that would in many respects be different to what the Bankhead bill is at the present time; and we will be glad to cooperate with you and with the other end of the capital here, in getting such a measure together, if that seems desirable, for passage at this session of Congress. Mr. DOXEY. You know what the practical effect would be if we have to start from scratch with new legislation the next session of Congress. We do not know what will come up before next January, and you know we got this last Bankhead bill through quite early in April 1934. Considering what we had before it was quite early. And if we do not have any legislation and want legislation in this regard we may be mighty lucky if we get it through by May, June, or July of next year and then you people would be in worse shape to administer it than you were last year and we would have missed an opportunity to legislate at this session of Congress. Then, too, I want the farmers to have a chance to say whether or not they want the Bankhead Act continued during the crop year 1936. Mr. COBB. I think that is true, and a little later I think we will have had a good deal of experience in working with this year's program that we would need in rewriting a new measure and I would like to get through with this and get it into the field, and then we can cooperate with you in working out a new measure and passing new legislation. The CHAIRMAN. We will adjourn until 10:30 o'clock tomorrow morning. COTTON EXEMPTIONS, APPEALS, AND COMPENSATION OF GINNERS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1935 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10:30 a. m., Hon. Marvin Jones (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order, please. Gentlemen, the time set for the hearing was 10:30 this morning. Mr. Cobb, chief of the cotton section, telephoned that he would not be able to come this morning, but a little later said that he could come. However, he is not here at the present time, and if the committee desires, we might go into executive session this morning and decide what we want to do about this. Mr. KLEBERG. We would only have a few minutes, would we not, Mr. Chairman? The CHAIRMAN. The House meets at 11 o'clock this morning, and, of course, there is not much time to be given to the hearing. Mr. KLEBERG. The only thought I have about going into executive session at this time is there are some points that I would like to have cleared up in the discussion on the bill from the Department. Mr. DOXEY. We have some Congressmen here who could use the time, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. The only reason I thought it would be well to go into executive session is that we are going to take up the triple A legislation beginning at 10:30 o'clock Tuesday, and this legislation is such that if we are going to hear everybody the probability is that we may not have any legislation. Mr. KLEBERG. I am not interested so much in extending the hearing, Mr. Chairman, as I am in satisfying myself as to whether or not we ought to take action respecting the suggested amendment, and I would like to know more about the proposal of the Department. The CHAIRMAN. Yes, Mr. Kleberg. Mr. KLEBERG. I am not entirely satisfied in my own mind what direction the Department regulations are going to take to remedy the trouble that we are having and whether or not they are going to be able to reach it, and I would like to know more fully the attitude of the Department with reference to regulations. That is the only point I have in mind. The CHAIRMAN. It might be well to have discussion as to whether we are going on with further hearings; however, there is not going to be much time for additional hearing. Mr. Cobb has just come in, and we will continue to hear from him what he desires to add. 53 STATEMENT OF C. A. COBB, CHIEF, COTTON SECTION-Resumed Mr. COBB. I will be glad to answer any questions, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Cobb, I think some of the members have some questions they desire to ask you about certain provisions in the bill. If anyone wants to ask Mr. Cobb any questions, he will be glad to answer them. Mr. FULMER. Mr. Cobb, I would like to ask you to turn to page 2 of my bill, and I want to ask you a question or two on section (ĥ). On page 2, subsection (h). I am sure that you are familiar with the various types of farmers in the country and in the section in which you have resided, in Georgia, for quite a long time. I am very familiar with the classes of farmers who are deeply concerned here. I have furnished that type of farmers for years in my mercantile business; many of them are located right around my farm, and the type of farming that I want to mention to you is done by the fellow that runs a 1-horse farm or a 2-horse farm, the type of farmer who has not any capital or any money. He is dependent upon someone or somebody to secure for him a seed loan of whatever amount they will let him have, because he is not able to buy fertilizer and farm extensively like the large farmer; he is the type of farmer that makes about 5 or 6 bales of cotton, or 4 bales, in comparison with the average farmer that is able to farm that same place and would make 10 bales to his 4 or 5. Now, you propose to take care of the farmer that produces 1 bale, 11⁄2 bales, to 2 bales. I have many of that type of farmer in my district who would not produce more than 1 or 2 bales. This will be helpful to this class of farmer; but this other type of farmer above the two bales is the type of farmer which, under the Bankhead bill, as previously stated, is absolutely put out of business. Now, so far as I am concerned, we want to amend this bill to take care of this class of farmer. So this subsection is aimed to give the farmer five bales if his allotment is below five bales. Now, that will not make very much difference in the long run, but that would be somewhat helpful to that type of farmer that I have referred to. I would like very much to have your reaction on that type of amendment. Mr. CоBв. Our proposal, Mr. Fulmer, would, I think, in all probability adequately cover the particular type of farmer you have in mind. Now, if we should issue these nontransferable certificates to this 2-bale man, that man, up to 3 bales, and including the 3-bale man, they will come within that provision, and they would even with the 4-bale man. There is one difficulty we get into, if we should assume it to be a difficulty, when we attempt to exempt them. I am going to get Mr. Gaston, who is in my group, to answer you and show how it will work out. We are not spoofing you, if you know what that word is; but what you gentlemen want and what we want is to have as definite an understanding as we approach this problem as it is possible to arrive at; and before Mr. Gaston makes his statement on that point let me say this, that we have approached this whole problem sympathetically, and it is our desire to go just as far as it is possible to go without drawing so much cotton away from other producers beyond that class that it would become immediately unfair. We cannot do that, of course. We can go just so far, and beyond that point I am sure we want to know just how seriously it will affect the other groups, because we do not want to be unfair to another group of people. The question that was asked yesterday morning that we did not have time to answer, if I remember it correctly-I do not recall the exact phraseology of it--but I would like to take a moment to answer the question, which was to this effect: That the Department did not want amendments to the present Bankhead Act, and our point of view on that is this: That we prefer, if it is possible to do it, to regulate the matter affecting these problems as they arise from the various sections. As you know, it is almost cotton-planting time in Mr. Kleberg's district now; and if the program is delayed while we wait on amendments to the Bankhead Act, in my judgment, we will have so delayed our problem because of the fact that we will not know what to do or how to do it or how to approach it that the whole matter will have been delayed until we have lost our opportunity, I think. Mr. FULMER. Right in that connection, there is another important amendment, so far as the committee is concerned, dealing with the type of appeals board that you propose to have. And we would like to have, and it would be necessary to have, some information about that. It is my belief if we could take care of that Mr. COBB (interposing). The appeals boards have already been set up, and these boards will work like this: If you have a cotton producer who is not satisfied with his allotment, he will be privileged, as all cotton producers will be throughout the entire Cotton Belt, to list in a blank that we supply to them Mr. FULMER (interposing). I appreciate that, Mr. Cobb; you have pretty fully gone into that before; but the appeal board of the type you have already set up will not appeal to me or to this committee, I do not believe, unless you can have an appeals board composed of men who will be sure that the farmer is going to get his proper allotment. Your proposal, as I understand it, is to set up the appeals board from the Extension Service. Mr. CоBB. Not at all. Mr. FULMER. That is my understanding from what you said yesterday. Mr. COBB. No. If you are satisfied with the statement that has already been made with reference to the mechanics of the appeals board-that was just the point I was going to talk about, and I see no reason to follow that particular point further unless there are some questions raised about it again. The appeals boards are being constituted in this manner: We have attempted to bring into the appeals board farmers from the various sections of the State. Now, we realize that in many, many cases these farmers are not familiar with statistics and they cannot handle statistics, but they will look to the reporters for expert statistical guidance. In some cases the crop reporter may sit in the room with the board in order to interpret the statistics. Our cotton statistics perhaps are as good as any crop statistics in the whole |