3 
i 
AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
Mr. KixncHELOE. In order to have a bill that will become law you 
had better find out from the President, because we might send one 
down there and he would veto it and we would have to go home 
without anything. 
Mr. Jones. Have you had some conferences with the President 
recently, since this session began? 
Mr. Gray. I see the President occasionally on various projects. 
Mr. Jones. Have you any assurance—without undertaking to 
quote him—that if we were to insert this second condition the Presi- 
dent would probably approve the bill with the equalization fee in it, 
or have you anything that you might specify that would give us a 
reason to hope for that? 
Mr. Gray. I would describe President Coolidge’s qualifications in 
this way, Mr. Jones: He has a remarkable facility for getting infor- 
mation and giving none. 
Mr. Jones. What I was getting at—he gave out a good deal of 
information when he vetoed the bill before. There was a good deal 
of information in that message. [Laughter] 
I wanted to know if you had any assurance that if we inserted this 
additional provision of section 2 he would change his attitude or 
might approve the bill? I think that is a very practical question. 
Or, have you any statement from him or indication from his attitude 
that might lead you to hope that he might have changed his attitude? 
Mr. Gray. We could not expect the President of the United States 
to commit himself to a representative of a citizen's group, such as 
that of the American Farm Bureau Federation, on a proposition like 
his, Whew I doubt if he has committed himself even to his own inner 
amily. 
Mr. Jones. I just wanted to know if you had any basis for a hope 
that he might, by putting in this additional condition, sign the bill. 
Mr. Gray. The basis of hope would be that it gives the loaning 
provisions an opportunity to be tried out if the cooperatives want to 
try them out; and from various sources, the President included, there 
has been an advocacy of the loaning mechanism of various farm 
relief bills; and this bill, with the se@ond condition from Senator 
MecNary’s bill included in Chairman Haugen’s bill, would give the 
loaning provisions a try out and leave the equalization fee plan, as 
we stated a while ago, a pinch hitter, a thing to be used when there 
was a real surplus question which the loaning provisions will not 
grapple with and can not handle. 
Mr. JonEs. If the President did approve it; but I was wondering if 
you had any basis for hope that even if we put section 2 in and made 
this condition in that further way, the President would approve it 
and thus give you a chance to try it out. I am asking that in an 
honest effort to get some information. if we can. I think that is an 
important question. 
Mr. Gray. It is an important question and I wish someone could 
answer 1t with more specifications than I can give. [Laughter.] 
Mr. Kercaam. Mr. Gray, suppose the bill without the equaliza- 
tion fee passes both Houses of Congress and is approved by the 
President, and then after two years trial—I think this would cover 
the present and might have some effect upon legislation after two 
years, including 1928 and 1929—do you not believe that the prophesies 
of your people as to the effect of these other provisions will have been