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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