AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

13Q

of a surplus is the basic and fundamental problem in American agri-
culture, and that is true for the simple reason that it is the surplus
which depresses the market, whether it is the seasonal surplus which
goes on the market at the time cotton is being delivered or whether
it is the annual surplus which comes on as it is accumulated during
the entire season.

Mr. AsweLL. Will you kindly tell the committee what you con-
sider the surplus in cotton is this year; is that export or world surplus?

Mr. Stone. I imagine it was about five or six million bales.

Mr. AsweLL. What do you call the surplus in the case of cotton?

Mr. Stone. Well, we call the surplus—the surplus, of course,
varies. We call the surplus that portion of the crop which depresses
the price and which can not be readily absorbed at a fair price. That
varies with various conditions.

Mr. AsweLL. In the case of wheat we call it surplus if it is ex-
ported; in the case of cotton it is two-thirds export. I am not clear
in mind as to what you call a surplus of cotton.

Mr. Stone. The surplus is not a determinable quantity. It is
simply a factor which varies with varying conditions.

Mr. AsweLL. This year what is it?

Mr. Stone. I suppose the surplus right now would run in the
neighborhood of 5,000,000 bales. That would not miss it far.

Mr. Furmer. Did you see the statement of the Secretary of Agri-
culture in connection with surplus, the amount carried over last vear
and this year?

Mr. Stone. I did not. I am simply speaking in general terms.
The surplus of any commodity varies, as I said awhile ago, with the
particular conditions at the time. Take, for instance, in our own
case, there isn’t any surplus whatever in Delta staples. On the
contrary, there is a very definite shortage in Delta staples, but Delta
staples have suffered a decline of 6 or 7 cents a pound since the
opening of the season in the fall, because staples are affected by the
general depression and general lack of demand for all American
cotton, regardless of which kind or variety. In other words, we are
inseparably bound up with the American cotton crop. The surplus
which exists in the Delta to-day—that is to say, the condition which
exists in the Delta to-day is not a condition incident to surplus at all.
There is simply a lack of demand. As a matter of fact, there is
to-day available less than one-half the staple cotton that was avail-
able at this time last year. Our investigation discloses that fact. 1
have a statement to that effect in my pocket right now, from our
general manager, Mr. Garrett, our cotton salesman, but notwith-
standing the fact that you have a supply less than half what it was
last year, you have a depression, because there is no immediate
demand for it. That brings us immediately to the question of what
we are going to do about it, and that problem has agitated all of us.
[n other words, the thought by a great many people is that the
farmer ought to prevent a surplus; that the time to handle that
thing is at the source. Our study of the situation discloses he can
not prevent it. In other words, there is no such thing as preventing
a surplus in an agricultural commodity on a large scale. The only
problem and final problem is to control the surplus after it comes
into existence.