AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

143

Mr. KiLcore. Yes; I think they can handle it.
Mr. Fort. How? By uniting or by handling it in a separate
organization?
Mr. KiLGore. I do not know just what they would do. I should
say they would work together; they would operate together a subsidiary
 or stabilization corporation, and not have separate organizations.

Mr. Fort. Then we get back again to the same kind of a theory
that the Crisp ** ' has « ‘he organization of this thing through the
cooperatives.
Mr. KiLcore. They are both the same.
Mr. Fort. And the cooperatives, you think, under the Haugen bill
at least have sufficient strength and ability to manage the stabilization?

Mr. KiLGoRrE. Yes, sir.
Mr. Forr. Generally speaking, the farmers in and out of the
cooperatives know what the prices are for cotton on the cotton exchanges,
 do they not?
Mr. KiLcorE. Generally speaking; yes.
Mr. Fort. They would get net for their cotton on any given day
that they sold it under the equalization bill, if cotton was selling at
18 cents in New Orleans and the equalization fee was a cent a pound,
they would pick up the paper the next day and they would see that
cotton sold at 18 cents, but they got 17 cents for theirs, would they
not?
Mr. KiLcore. There would be no difference in what the cooperative
and the noncooperative producer got. The equalization fee is to be
collected on the transportation or sale, and would be reflected in the
price that would be actually paid to the farmers, but it would not
necessarily be deducted from a New Orleans price.
Mr. Fort. Why not?
Mr. KiLGorE. I mean it would be deducted by the buyer or carrier ;
the farmer would not pay it directly.
Mr. Fort. Say the equalization fee was a cent and cotton was
selling in New Orleans to-day at 18 cents and the farmer delivered his
cotton to the merchant or transportation company, he would get 17
cents, would he not? Would not that be the situation. whether he
was a cooperative mem ber or noncooperative?
Mr. KiLGore. They would both be entirely on the same basis.
The equalization fee there would probably be collected on the transportation,
 and it would not show itself in the price any more than the
tariff shows itself in the price of goods
Mr. Fort. In trying to bring it down to dollars and cents, cotton
is selling to-day in New Orleans at 18 cents, for example. N ow, you
are a farmer in Louisiana, and you have got a bale of cotton and you
are selling that bale to-day to the merchant as actual spot cotton.
He will pay you on a 17-cent basis, will he not?
Mr. KiLcore. I think you may have that entirely wrong. I think
the price that would be paid the farmer would not show the equalization
 fee any more than the tariff that goes into goods is seen by the
man who purchases the goods. It is a part of the price.
Mr. Fort. How would it be done then?
Mr. KiLGorE. You know how the tariff is tacked onto the price of
goods. You do not say 10 cents plus a 10-cent tariff, but you say
20 cents.