[8

AGRICULTURAL RELIEF
is, the powers that are underthe marketing agreement—from the board
to the advisory councils.

Mr. Gray. May I read these amendments now, Mr. Chairman, so
that we will have the basis of our discussion more adequately before
us? v

Having suggested the changes for section 4, it necessarily follows
that changes be made in section 7, and these are proposed:

(a) When the advisory councils in the districts which in the aggregate represent
more than fifty per cent of any commodity, or when a substantial number of
cooperative associations or other organizations of producers of the commodity
in such districts favor the full cooperation of the board in the marketing of the
surplus of the commodity——

Now dropping into the text of the bill:
And whenever the board find—

First. That there is or may be during the ensuing year a surplus above the
requirements for the orderly marketing of any agricultural commodity or above
the domestic requirements for such commodity;

Second. That the durability, the conditions of preparation, processing, and
preserving, and the methods of the marketing of the commodity are such that
the commodity is adapted to marketing as authorized by this section.

Then leaving out the third condition in the bill as printed, and
dropping over to line 4 on page 10:

Then the board, after publicly declaring its finding, shall arrange for the
marketing of such surplus.

And so forth.

Mr. Crark. Now, Mr. Gray, I believe you are just setting up there
nothing but a buck-passing machine, as I think you are going to
find, in your advisory council. That is right herein your proposition.
Now let us center somewhere the authority. That is my idea.

Mr. Apkins. It seems to me right there, Mr. Clark, as long as you
have brought that up, that this matter of an operating period on any
commodity should not be started unless most of the farmers inter-
ested in the commodity think that it ought to be. This very
amendment cures that very condition.

Mr. Fort. May I ask a question? In fact what you have done is
take what was third in section 7, which was one of the things the
board had to find existed, namely, that a substantial number of
cooperatives on the advisory council wanted the board to act. That
had to be found as a fact by the board before it could act.

Mr. Gray. Yes; in the bill as written.

Mr. Fort. Now, you have taken that out from a thing that is
necessary to be found by the board as a fact and made it a recital
preliminary to the board’s finding any fact.

Mr. Gray. Yes, sir.

Mr. Fort. In other words, you have put the initiative for any
action by the board not in the board itself, but in the commodity
councils. ;

Mr. Gray. In the commodity councils in districts which represent
more than 50 per cent of the commodity.

Mr. Fort. Or the cooperative associations.

Mr. Crark. I don’t think that is quite right.

. Mr. Fort. On the geographical council or the cooperative associa-
bion. You are putting the initiative on the geographical council or