AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

Let me make a confession right there. I have not even read the
bill with that thought in mind.

Mr. JoxEs. As I understand the bill, as it is written, it provides
that the fee may be so much per unit of value, as well as it may be
so much per measurable unit.

Mr. Fort. I said that.

Mr. Jones. Well, unit of value may be on percentage. It may
be 2 per cent or one-half per cent.

Mr. Fort. That is not antagonistic, or unfavorable to the equal-
ization-fee proposal. The only question I was trying to get Mr.
Stone’s judgment on was, in the unfortunate event we adopted it,
shouldn’t it be limited to the percentage of value?

Mr. Joxes. Your line of questioning indicated they would have
to make it a unit of measurement.

Mr. Fort. No; I said as it was in all three bills.

Mr. Jones. Mr. Stone got the idea that vou did not think it
could be put on a percentage basis.

Mr. StoxEe. I said with reference to cotton, I do not see how you
can put it on a percentage basis.

Mr. Jones. Without going into the merits of the proposition, the
hill would permit them to do it either way, if it were practical.

Mr. Fort. There 1s no question about that.

Mr. Jones. If it were practical and fair to put it on a percentage
basis, they could do it.

Mr. Stone. I will give you this as an answer to it, for what it
may be worth. In the levee district in which I live we have a cotton
tax, and we have tried every way in the world to make that tax
fairer in its application, but we were absolutely driven back to fall
back on a tax per pound. For a long time we had taken it per bale,
but we have to make it on the pound regardless of that particular
cotton, because nobody knows what it is going to do before it reaches
the trade. I would say in that connection, when I said I had not
read the bill, what I meant was this; I have read various of these
bills, but the particular bill here I have not had time to read, and I
have confined my discussion with you gentlemen, which has certainly
been very pleasant to me—not that I like to hear myself talk, but
that I like to take part in a general discussion of this sort—I have
confined it to what I conceive to be the general principles of the thing,
and I am going to submit here to this clerk a discussion that I wrote
of surplus control, and with it the criticism of Sir Charles W.McCarra,
who was president of the Federation of Master Cotton Spinners, one
of the greatest cotton authorities in the world. I might say he
approves absolutely the principles I lay down in my discussion of
the surplus control bill.

Then, I want to submit in conclusion this statement that one of
the most hopeful signs of this whole business is we are getting together

on it. I think one of the most hopeful things about the whole propo-
sition is that Mr. Fort is on this committee. He wanted to get on
this committee. Here is an article from the Nation’s Business by
Walker D. Hines, president of the American Textile Institute, and
Mr. Hines takes the same view that I do in regard to it, and he
makes this statement—this is all I will read to you:

It is a satisfaction to record that from all sides the institute has met with the
most cordial‘cooperation.

159