AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

Mr. StoNE. Yes, sir, and those things worry me a good deal about
any proposition.

Mr. Fort. We would prefer to have the equalization fee stay in;
with no proviso that thev might use the money rates for the equaliza-
tion fee.

Mr. Stone. I don’t know that I can answer that question off
hand. I merely stated a general proposition, the general feeling I
have that if there is any way in the world vou can avoid that sort
of operation I would like to see it done.

Mr. AsweLL. You wouldn't avoid it with the equalization fee.

Mr. Fort. Not with this bill.

Mr. AsweLL. That is very pertinent under this bill. You would not
vioid that buying and selling corporation with the equalization fee
init. That is what it was intended for. this bill. It creates that same
thing.

Mr. Stone. Here is the proposition; the equalization fee is pro-
posed on the commodity, the cotton to be benefited.

Mr. AsweLL. But the board handles it as a corporation.

Mr. Stone. But the commodity pavs the cost of it. not the
Government.

Mr. AsweLL. But it is a corporation buying and selling cotton,
the thing vou said you objected to.

Mr. Stone. The corporation is not buying and selling cotton in
the ordinary sense of the word. In other words, taking a certain
amount of cotton off the market and holding it by a cooperative
enterprise is not buying and selling it. That is one place I think
you would gain out of this thing, because in the whole operation,
you would have all the cotton coming under this stabilizing effect,
and benefiting in the results and carrying the costs, and that,
roughly, in a crude way, is what I want to get at. I can illustrate to
vou what can be done by it.

Mr. FrLmer. In other words, in 1926, when we were blessed with
an 18,000,000 bale cotton crop, not having this machinery and the
funds to control the surplus, isn’t it a fact that about 19,000,000
bales were taken over by export and home consumption, 5,000,000
bales more than in any year before that, and not being able to do
that ourselves, they took this cotton at from 6 to 10 or 11 cents and
the profits above that price that we should have received, not having
the machinery and money to control the surplus, they are now
selling that same cotton back in manufactured goods at these high
prices, and making the millions we should have had, had we had this
machinery and the money to control that same situation? Isn’t
that your observation?

Mr. Stone. That is substantially it. The cotton is in existence.
Somebody had to discharge the function of carrying it when you
have more than you need. That is going to be done at a profit if
cotton advances. It is bound to be, in the long run. You can’t
have any trade unless it goes up. Those are the fundamentals of
Mr. Bledsoe’s insurance feature; that when the cotton passes out
into the channels of trade there must be ultimately and gradually
an advance; bound to be, or the people can not carry 1t, and the whole
cotton world would go broke if they didn’t do it, and our investi-
gations show, in order to determine whether or not our conception of
cooperative marketing was sound. our investigations show that the

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