1455 A4 no.98

and domestic wool; (b) the establishment of quo-
tas on the importation of foreign wool limiting
the amount that could be imported in any one year
to the amount by which annual consumption ex-
ceeds annual production; (c) the purchase of all
wool, both foreign and domestic, by a Government
agency which would sell at a price equivalent to
the
average cost of procurement; and (d) the
maintenance of prices of domestic wools at present
ceiling levels or cost of production plus a reason-
able profit by the sale of domestic wools by the
Commodity Credit Corporation in line with the
price of duty-paid foreign wool at all times, the
Commodity Credit Corporation being reimbursed
with funds procured from duties collected on for-
eign wools imported.

The program, (c) above, advanced by Dean J.
A. Hill of the University of Wyoming received
wide-spread support including that of wool-grow-
ers associations, the American Farm Bureau Fed-
eration, and the Livestock Marketing Association.
Under this plan, the Secretary of Agriculture
would be authorized and directed to support,
through purchase operations, a price for domes-
tically produced wool not less than the higher of
(a) comparable prices as of January 15, 1946, or
(b) current comparable price. The Secretary of
Agriculture would also acquire by importation or
from foreign-held stocks in the United States
amounts of foreign wool which when added to the
available domestically produced wood would be
necessary to meet the requirements of manufac-

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that the program would be continued during the reconversion period; (b) foreign wool supplies and prices would, during the period of liquidation of surplus foreign wool stocks, be controlled by a joint organization established by the United Kingdom Government and the Governments of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa; and (c) under these circumstances the domestic woolgrowing industry was declining. He expressed the belief that, unless the Government of the United States adopted a constructive long-term policy, the very existence of the wool-growing industry of this country would be threatened. President Truman requested the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion to review the wool situation with other interested departments and agencies and to propose a wool program that was mutually satisfactory. Such a program was prepared and was transmitted by President Truman to Senator O'Mahoney in March 1946 as representing the considered views of the Administration on the best methods of solving a serious problem.

The President's program suggested that Congress enact wool legislation which would provide that: (1) the parity price of wool be revised or established at a so-called "comparable level," since 1909-14 was an unfavorable period for wool prices; (2) the Commodity Credit Corporation support incomes to wool producers through purchases, loans, or payments within the same percentage range of the revised parity prices as it was directed to support prices to producers of basic agricultural commodities, at not less than 50 nor

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