AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

Mr. Gray. But the fee is in the bill ready for use whenever neces-
sary.

Mr. PurNeLL. Yes; the fee is in the bill and may be called into being
if.it becomes necessary to do so; but the point is that in an honest
effort here to harmonize these different objections and various con-
tentions, you have, in the amendment to the bill that you have
presented to us, set up certain machinery, that you have the board,
the revolving fund, and along with it the hope that you may operate
and stabilize prices and not have to call into being the equalization
fee, or at least you save that as a last resort. Is not that true?

Mr. Gray. If the cooperative marketing organizations are unable
or unwilling to use the other instrumentalities set up in the bill, the
equalization fee, to use a baseball expression, is a pinch hitter.

Ar. Harn. Would that bring about a complete pooling of the
surplus commodity?

Mr. Gray. I beg your pardon.

Mr. Harr. Would that bring
surplus commodity?

Mr. Gray. It would do so.

Mr. PurNELL. And to pursue your baseball expression a little
further, so to speak, you would save vour pinch hitter, the equaliza-
tion fee, for the ninth inning?

Mr AswerL. That whole matter can oe
bill.

Mr. Purnern. That is the Aswell bill?

Mr. ASWELL. Yes.

Mr. Pur~ELL. I have heard of it.

How long, in your judgment, if you care to Hursue the line of
thought I have suggested, do you think it would pe before we could
actually determine whether or not it is necessary io call into being
the equalization fee?

Mr. Gray. That would be merely a guess on w= mart, but it likely
would be a year.

Mr. PurNELL. During which time what would the board be doing?

Mr. Gray. Getting its feet under, in a general way— —

Mr. Pur~ELL (interposing). Acquainting itself with its duties and
the conditions surrounding it. and. in other words. orienting itself?
Is that true?

Mr. Gray. Those are ways of describing what the board would
be doing in the first few months, or, perhaps, the first year of its
existence. This is a tremendously big job. It is the first time we
have ever tried to set up a Federal farm board with definitely out-
lined functions, and that board, composed as we feel it will be, of
conscientious as well as able men, will approach its questions with
some caution and after mature judgment and investigation, before
indulging in any proceedure. That might lead us to surmise that
under the four conditions set out in Senator McNary’s bill, and
under the four conditions to be set out in Chairman Haugen’s bill,
providing the second condition of the Senate bill is lifted into the
House bill, in trying out and seeing how to meet these four condi-

tions, it is not unreasonable to surmise that 12 months would go by.
But listen, please. During all that time, there would be in formation
the findines of the Federal farm board, cetting ready for the onera-

tr