29

AGRICULTURAL RELIEF
I don’t know whether we want, as we had in the last bill, these
commodity councils which would have had difficulty in getting
together, and, if they got together, would have extreme difficulty at
times in agreeing upon a method of procedure.

Mr. Fort. You want it to be forced on them without a hearing?

Mr. Gray. Not forced on them at all. Let each district make up
its mind in its council what it wants, and if the districts—12 in num-
ber—all ‘reporting to the Federal farm board, show an aggregate
representation of 50 per cent of the commodity, and recommend that
certain things need to be done, then the board, looking at its later
findings, does that thing or does not do it, as the wisdom of the board
dictates.

Mr. Forr. By a board that does not, necessarily contain a single
wheat grower.

Mr. Gray. I did not get the question.

Mr. Fort. I say the decision can be made as to wheat by the
boards from a group of territorial districts which do not necessarily,
under any provision in your bill, contain a single wheat grower.

Mr. Gray. I hardly see how you get your mathematics, Congress-
man Fort. I would not imagine that 50 per cent of the commodity
could recommend to the Federal farm board from the districts
which do not contain a single wheat grower.

Mr. Fort. I did not say from districts. I said without a single
individual member of the board, or of the commodity council itself,
being a wheat grower.

Mr. Gray. That might be true in one district,

Mr. Fort. It might be true in all.

Mr. Gray. But it would not be true all over the United States.

Mr. PurNeLL. That would carry with it that your board would
just ignore public opinion and general conditions in recommenda-
tions, which is hardly to be expected of the board.

Mr. Gray. Congressman Purnell, we still have some faith in
public opinion. We are in a representative democracy, and it
applies not only in governmental affairs but in economic ones as well.

Mr. Apxins. I have fought out in my mind the probable reason
i this suggested change. First of all, this bill is a surplus control

Mr. Gray. Above all things it is that.

Mr. Apkins, Above all things. If it has any excuse for being
here, that is what it is for.

Now, then, I can see that, if there is a surplus of corn, a surplus
of wheat, a surplus of cotton, a good many members of the council
would be customers for that surplus, and naturally they would want
it at a low price, and I can see now, with this line of questioning that
has been brought out, the probable cause for this suggested change,
that the Federal land bank districts that are located in the cotton
sections of the country, the Federal land bank districts located in
the corn sections of the country, those located in the wheat sections
of the country, where the surplus is, there is where this district board
representing all the surplus producers of cotton, corn, and wheat
would be in touch with the situation and would have the authority
to initiate before the board a suggestion to declare an operation
period, where a fellow who might happen to be selected in Illinois,
for instance, where they produce but little cotton, or a fellow from