will pass in some form we urge that all livestock and livestock products be exempted from operation of bill or any tax levied thereunder. J. ELMER BROCK, President, Wyoming Stockgrowers Association. Senator WHEELER. Let me ask you a question. May I ask whether you got a similar telegram with reference to the proposed power to be vested in the Bureau when the bill was before Congress with reference to the soldier bonus, soldier compensation? Senator KENDRICK. No; I did not receive it from this man. [Laughter.] The CHAIRMAN. I want to impress on the witnesses and on the committee the fact that it is our intention to get through with the hearings this afternoon so that we may begin study of the bill, looking to its final passage. Our next witness is Mr. Charles W. Holman. Mr. Holman, will you give your name and address and occupation? STATEMENT OF CHARLES W. HOLMAN, SECRETARY NATIONAL COOPERATIVE MILK PRODUCERS FEDERATION, WASHINGTON, D.C. Mr. HOLMAN. Mr. Chairman, my name is Charles W. Holman. I am secretary of the National Cooperative Milk Producers Federation, with national offices at 1731 I Street in this city. I am filing with the reporter a list of our executive committee, directors, and 49 member organizations, which embraces the federation. Executive committee: John D. Miller, G. W. Slocum, C. E. Hough, Harry Hartke, Frank P. Willits, John Brandt, N. P. Hull. Alternates: W. P. Davis, R. Smith Snader, W. S. Moscrip. DIRECTORS Butter: G. H. Benkendorf, Modesto, Calif.; John Brandt, Litchfield, Minn.; R. G. Kinsley, McGregor, Iowa. Cheese: Carl Haberlach, Tillamook, Oreg.; R. B. Melvin, Plymouth, Wis. Other manufactured products: U. M. Dickey, Seattle, Wash.; J. H. Mason, Des Moines, Iowa; W. S. Moscrip, Lake Elmo, Minn. Fluid milk and cream: W. P. Davis, Boston, Mass.; Harry Hartke, Covington, Ky.; G. W. Solcum, Milton, Pa. DIRECTORS AT LARGE H. D. Allebach, Philadelphia, Pa.; W. B. Belknap, Goshen, Ky.; P. S. Brenneman, Jefferson, Ohio; C. F. Dineen, Milwaukee, Wis.; A. E. Engbretson, Astoria, Oreg.; D. N. Geyer, Chicago, Ill.; I. W. Heaps, Baltimore, Md.; C. E. Hough, Hartford, Conn.; N. P. Hull, Lansing, Mich.; J. B. Irwin, Richfield, Minn.; John D. Miller, Susquehanna, Pa.; J. R. Smart, Columbus, Ohio; R. Smith Snader, New Windsor, Md.; H. C. Warren, Los Angeles, Calif.; Frank P. Willits, Ward, Pa. MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS Berrien County (Mich.) Milk Producers' Association, Benton Harbor, Mich. California Milk Producers' Association, 947 Maple Avenue, Los Angeles, Calif. Cedar Rapids Cooperative Dairy Co., 560 Tenth Street SW., Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Challenge Cream and Butter Association, 925 East Second Street, Los Angeles, Calif. Champaign County Milk Producers, 201 North Walnut Street, Champaign, Ill. Dairy & Poultry Cooperatives, Inc., 110 North Franklin Street, Chicago, Ill. Connecticut Milk Producers' Association, 450 Asylum Street, Hartford, Conn. Cooperative Milk Producers' Association for San Francisco, Inc., 740 Pacific Building, San Francisco, Calif. Cooperative Pure Milk Association of Cincinnati, Plum and Central Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio. Pa. Coos Bay Mutual Creamery Co., Marshfield, Oreg. Dairymen's Cooperative Sales Association, 451 Century Building, Pittsburgh, Dairymen's League Cooperative Association, Inc., 11 West Forty-second Street, New York, N. Y. Des Moines Cooperative Dairy Marketing Association, 1935 Des Moines Street, Des Moines, Iowa. Dubuque Cooperative Dairy Marketing Association, Inc., 1568 Iowa Street, Dubuque, Iowa. Falls Cities Cooperative Milk Producers' Association, 202 Bourbon Stock Yards Building, Louisville, Ky. Illinois Milk Producers' Association, 208-210 East State Street, Peoria, Ill. Indiana Dairy Marketing Association, Muncie, Ind. Inter-State Associated Creameries, 260 Hoyt Street, Portland, Oreg. Inter-State Milk Producers' Association, Inc., 219 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Iowa Creameries' Association, 908 Pioneer National Bank Building, Waterloo, Iowa. Land O'Lakes Creameries, Inc., 2201 Kennedy Street NE., Minneapolis, Minn. McLean County Milk Producers' Association, Farm Bureau Building, Bloomington, Ill. Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers' Association, 1731 Eye Street NW., Washington, D. C. Md. Maryland State Dairymen's Association, 810 Fidelity Building, Baltimore, Miami Valley Cooperative Milk Producers' Association, 136–138 West Maple Street, Dayton, Ohio. Michigan Milk Producers' Association, 406 Stephenson Building, Detroit, Mich. Milk Producers' Association of San Diego County, Eleventh and J Streets San Diego, Calif. Milk Producers' Association of Summit County and vicinity, 145 Beaver Street, Akron, Ohio. Milwaukee Cooperative Milk Producers, 1633 North Thirteenth Street, Milwaukee, Wis. National Cheese Producers' Federation, Plymouth, Wis. New England Milk Producers' Association, 51 Cornhill, Boston, Mass. Ohio Farmers' Cooperative Milk Association, 3068 West One hundred and Second Street, Cleveland, Ohio. O. K. Cooperative Milk Association, Oklahoma City, Okla. Pure Milk Association, 608 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, Ill. Pure Milk Producers' Association, 853 Live Stock Exchange Building, Kansas City, Mo. Richmond Cooperative Milk Producers' Association, 605 East Canal Street, Richmond, Va. Sanitary Milk Producers, room 609, Chamber of Commerce Building, 511 Locust Street, St. Louis, Mo. Scioto Valley Cooperative Milk Producers' Association, 303 Grand Theater Building, Columbus, Ohio. Shelby County Milk Producers' Association, 1039 South Bellevue, Memphis, Tenn. Stark County Milk Producers' Association, Canton, Ohio. Tulsa Milk Producers' Cooperative Association, 1120 North Boston Street, Tulsa, Okla. Twin City Milk Producers' Association, corner Raymond and University Avenues, St. Paul, Minn. Twin Ports Cooperative Dairy Association, 6128 Tower Avenue, Superior, Wis. United Dairymen's Association, 635 Elliott Avenue, west, Seattle, Wash. Valley of Virginia Cooperative Milk Producers' Association, Harrisonburg, Va. I am passing around a little map which shows the distribution as to homes where the farmers live. We belong to the constituent units of this organization. It is entirely agricultural in character. Mr. CHAIRMAN. I have been instructed by the executive committee of our federation-and I will be very brief-to express the approval of the Federation of the House bill. We do not advocate any changes in the bill as it came to this committee. We are supporting the bill in all particulars. I shall address myself, however, only to those phases of the bill that may affect the dairy farmers of this country. We supported the former allotment bill as it came to the house, asking for certain amendments before this committee. Those amendments were drafted into the bill that is now before the committee. We believe that the bill is far superior in its draftsmanship, in its workability, than the bill that was before this committee in the last session of Congress. So far as the dairy industry is concerned, there are some provisions in this bill that we believe will be of great benefit to our people. First, the tax, if it should be imposed, is flexible, and there is a rule, of course, governing and limiting the power of taxation, notwithstanding the charge made in the telegram just read by the Senator here. Being flexible it would be a case of trial and error, some trial, some error, perhaps, but it would not be mandatory upon the Secretary at any time to put the full tax into effect if he found that it would not have the effect of supporting prices. I speak of that because if the bill should become a law at some distant date, the tax might be applied to some part of it. But the particular provisions that we desire to commend to you cover the power giving the Secretary the right to license the trade including the cooperatives, and to control in interstate and foreign commerce operations so far as the licensees are concerned, so far as licensing is concerned. There are a great many evils existing today in the diary industry, both with regard to price discrimination in country districts, where at noncompetitive points butterfat is often bought at anywhere from 4 to 5 cents a pound under the price paid by the same creameries at competitive points. Through a lincensing system we think that that could be corrected in great measure and considerable benefit would come to our farmers as a result. Also, I think, I can state conservatively that while dairy products and the price of milk in the cities has fallen tremendously, that fall was not so much due to the lack of consumer buying power in the cities for our milk as it was due to the lack of coordination among the farmers themselves and to the lack of cooperation among the distributors themselves, the result being a series of disastrous price-cutting tactics which forced the price of milk down in many cities of this country to far below what there was any consumer demand for it to go down to. We believe that through licensing and through conferences with the industry, the Secretary of Agriculture can do a great deal toward stabilizing conditions in the urban communities where we are marketing our milk. Further, the diary farmers do need relief at the present time. Their prices have dropped; buying power has dropped considerably. The simple average on some of the important markets in the price of class 1 milk, which is milk that goes into bottles, as between 1929 and February 1932, will range from 36 to 68 percent, with an average, a simple average, of about 45 percent in the drop in price. Senator WHEELER. It has not dropped very much in Washington has it? Mr. HOLMAN. No, Senator; there are peculiar conditions surrounding the Washington market which make it difficult for farmers to produce milk here at much less than what they are now getting for it. There has been a distinct decrease in the buying power of butterfat, and I might call your attention to the fact that in the chief dairy States of the United States we have the highest percentage of farm mortgages outstanding, and our people are having as much difficulty as anybody else in trying to find a gross income on which to pay their interest and their mortgage debts. In that connection the average amount of butterfat that it takes to pay the tax on an acre of land has increased from 1913 to 1932, 176 percent. In other words, while 1 pound of butterfat would pay that much taxes, it now takes 14 pounds of butterfat to do that. Without consuming any more time of the committee in direct statement, beyond this, to say that if this licensing provision goes in there are approximately 4,000 milk distributors in cities of over 10,000 population; there are approximately 3,500 creameries, not all of whom would have to be licensed, because many of them are under consolidated ownership; and there are something around 450 to 470 evaporating and condensing plants. That is not a large job of licensing, but the effect of helping to straighten out these bad trade practices would result, in our judgment, in stabilizing the industry to where we could begin to come back. In closing let me say that our people recognize that this is simply one of the pieces of legislation intended to fortify us through this liquidation period. We do not regard this as the ultimate answer. We stand primarily for this, for the farm-mortgage bill that is coming on, and then for the bigger thing and the real thing we want, and that is monetary reform, a new deal, but I do not feel that I should go beyond that before this committee. The CHAIRMAN. Let me ask you just one question: If the situation so far as the volume of money available were rectified now, is it not your opinion that most all of these that all of these distressing symptoms would disappear? Mr. HOLMAN. Personally I believe that if that could be done now, Senator, it would not be necessary to have so much legislation of the fortification character, as I described it. The CHAIRMAN. The vessels are all aground and we are trying to dig pools under each one to see if we can float it, but the thing to do is to get water enough in the stream to float them all. Mr. HOLMAN. But we must take what we can get. We want the mortgage legislation, we want this bill, and we would like to have it come out of this committee without changing a comma. Senator SHIPSTEAD. Mr. Holman, you recognize the disparity of exchange between industry and agriculture? Mr. HOLMAN. Yes. Senator SHIPSTEAD. Now, if we got a cheaper dollar, that cheaper dollar would mean cheaper for everybody, including industry. Mr. HOLMAN. We follow Dr. Warren, of Cornell, on that proposition. Dr. Warren, according to our understanding, makes the point that in these big basic commodities that have been stabilized and have not come down to the present average level of all commodities, that in the event of a cheapened dollar, those commodities would not and could not go up as rapidly as would the commodities that are of a lower value. In other words, we would come up and level up rather than having to level down, as is the present sad prospect before our people. Senator SHIPSTEAD. Do you think that a cheapened dollar would dissipate the disparity between industry and agriculture? Mr. HOLMAN. Not entirely; but it would greatly relieve all forms of industry. Senator SHIPSTEAD. You realize that there was great disparity at the time the dollar was cheaper, and that agriculture was really losing out at that time? Mr. HOLMAN. Yes. Senator SHIPSTEAD. So you would not say that just cheapening the dollar would solve the problem of the farmer? He would still be below par with industry? Mr. HOLMAN. No; there would still remain the fight between industry and agriculture as to the division, the right division of the national income, for which we have been working for many years. The CHAIRMAN. We are very much obliged to you, Mr. Holman. The next witness listed here is Mr. Broussard. I understand that Mr. Broussard wishes to speak in behalf of the rice growers, as the other speaker spoke in behalf of the rice millers, as I understand it. We will hear you for a few minutes now, Mr. Broussard. Will you state your name and occupation? STATEMENT OF JAMES BROUSSARD, BEAUMONT, TEX. Mr. BROUSSARD. My name is James Broussard, Beaumont, Tex. I am both a rice farmer and a rice miller. I have been in the ricegrowing business for 40 years, and consistently farmed from the time I started, and am still farming. I will say I represent the Rice Growers Association at this time and myself. We are in a terrible predicament, and we believe that there is merit in this bill, the House bill, and we want to give you our entire approval of it. We believe there are parts of that bill under which the rice-growing industry can be placed on a paying basis. We are now producing rice at about 15 cents a bushel loss, actual loss. That is money gone. I believe under the system of reducing acreage it can be worked out with the department here that we can put the rice industry on a basis where we will get from 75 to 85 cents a bushel for our commodity. That is due to the fact that we are protected with a tariff, and we are growing today about 25 percent more rice than can be consumed in the United State. The CHAIRMAN. What is the tariff on a bushel of rice now? Mr. BROUSSARD. The tariff on rice is about 21⁄2 cents a pound for the cleaned rice. It is a highly protected industry. Senator MCNARY. Mr. Broussard, what is the annual production expressed in bushels? Mr. BROUSSARD. Forty million bushels today, a little over. Senator WHEELER. You are affected by the depreciation in the price of silver in China and India? |