AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

13
Now it would be ridiculous for me to stand here and say that if
the Congress and if this committee can not pass the equalization fee
bill the American Farm Bureau Federation will support another
bill. We can not support another bill. So I answered the question
of the Congressman from Illinois by saying that it is our best judg-
ment that the Congress should pass the equalization fee bill, and I
do not think that the record will show that the answer to the question
went any further than that. If the Congress goes further than that
or if this committee goes further than that and reverses its former
position, such action will show that it has a greater elasticity of
position than the farm organizations can possibly have: The
responsibility for enacting legislation other than that which con-
forms to our best judgment will not lie upon the farm organizations
advocating this bill, but will lie with the members of the committee
and the Members of the Congress.

Mr. AxpreEsEN. Now, Mr. Gray, if we act on the official state-
ment made by you and do not pass any legislation, then the respon-
sibility would not be the responsibility of the Congress but would
be the responsibility of the farm organizations? Is that correct?

Mr. Gray. Just how was that again, please?

Mr. ANDRESEN. You stated that if we reported a bill out of this
committee and it passed the House and became law, which did not
have the equalization fee in it, the responsibility would be the
responsibility of the committee and of the Congress and not of the
Farm Bureau Federation.

Mr. Gray. It would be.

Mr. AxpresEN. If we act on your suggestion and do not procure
the passage of a bill that does net “ave the equalization fee in it,
then the responsibility would not -e our responsibility here, but it
would be the responsibility of the farm organizations? Is that
correct?

Mr. Gray. If we who are associated together in behalf of the
equalization plan of farm relief legislation persuade this committee to
follow its prior record of reporting and standing for an equalization
plan and that bill should pass into the Congress and be voted upon
and be defeated, the responsibility then would be more largely that of
the farm organizations than of this committee. But if the reverse
should be true, as I have just stated; that is, if this committee, in
its wisdom, should disregard the groups here appearing and formerly
appearing in behalf of the equalization plan, and report out favor-
ably some bill without the equalization fee, then the responsibility
primarily is upon this committee, and almost equally primarily upon
the roll call in both Houses of Congress.

Mr. Pur~eLn. Mr. Gary, if I may interrupt Mr. Andresen for
just one question, on the other hand, if some of us decide to follow
the views of the farm organizations, as we have done here for a
number of years, and take the responsibility for sending a bill down
to the President which we know now will be vetoed, and we rely upon
your judgment and the farmers get no legislation, then you take the
responsibility for our action.

Mr. Gray. We are not shirking that responsibility.

Mr. Pur~NELL. I say it is a two-edged sword. If we do what we
think is richt and it does not agree with what vou think is right, then