AGRICULTURAL RELIEF
the burden of carrying the surplus then you automatically have the
tendency to increase his acreage.

Mr. Apxins. If I caught the trend of your thought, I think we
are in accord. This bill is proposed to doa] with the surplus, but
still we have agencies or others in the Department of Agriculture to
encourage and furnish information and assist, so far as the Govern-
ment ought to, the cooperatives which will continue to function.
This bill has for its object the control of the surplus, which, as you
very well stated, is an experiment, and we have got to try it out and
in all probability it will have to be amended from time to time, as all
other bills have been amended.

Mr. BLEDsOE. Yes, sir.

Mr. Apxkins. This bill should provide only for the handling of the
surplus, and we think we should not undertake to make the responsi-
bility the cooperatives’ for the handling of this surplus. The function
of this bill is to provide means to assist the cooperatives and private
agencies, or whoever this board may employ, in the disposition of the
surplus, on the theory that by doing that the general price level of
our commodities will be higher and that our cooperatives will go
along unmolested so far as the board is concerned, except little
things.

Mr. BLepsoE. Did you understand me to say that? I didn’t say
anything like that.

Mr. Apkins. Let me illustrate, further.

Mr. BLepsor. Well, I didn’t say anything like that. You say that
I said something, and I want to refute every statement that you made
there. You say that the man to carry the surplus is the grower him-
self, in his own organization, whether it be cooperative or any other
device. No; I did not say that. I am perfectly frank with you
about that.

Mr. ApkiNs. And that is what I am trying to be, but what I am
trying to get at is this, stated in another way. Do you believe that
under this law, by which we are trying to devise a plan to keep the
surplus from depressing our markets, do you believe that we ought
to deviate from that and undertake to go out and enter into the
financing and promoting and building up of organizations handling
the entire production; for instance, they ought to go out on the
domestic market, and so forth——

Mr. BLEDSOE (interposing). I think we are all agreed.

Mr. Apxins. Let me illustrate a little further. Take, for instance,
say corn. I always refer to corn, because we are corn people.

Mr. BLEpsoE. And I am just a cotton man.

Mr. Apkins. We have a good many agencies which have been
prosperous, but some of them failed in handling corn in a cooperative
way, but they are very well satisfied to go on and develop as they
have for the past 25 years. But, the point I have in mind, and on
which I want to get your notion, is this, that whatever device we
work out, we have in mind the surplus under this bill.

Mr. BLEDSOE. Yes, sir.

Mr. Apxins. Now, a great amount, 90 per cent of our stuff is
used in the domestic market. We market some and the independent
agencies market some of it, and so forth. I do not’think the provisions
of this bill, about the marketing of the stuff, should enter into the
domestic market, but we are trying to put the producers, as you put

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