239 
AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
Mr. Swank. As some of the members said, if we do not consider 
that seed bill now it will not be any use to consider it at all. 
The CHAIRMAN. Is there any objection to the consideration of the 
seed and other bills that were considered and reported out before? 
Without objection it is so ordered and Thursday will be devoted to 
their consideration. 
The committee will now stand in adjournment until 10 o'clock 
to-morrow morning. 
(Thereupon, at 12 o'clock m. the committee adjourned to meet 
to-morrow. Wednesday, February 1, 1928, at 10 o’clock a. m.) 
House oF RREFRESENTATIVES, 
COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, 
Tuesday, February 1, 1928. 
The committee met, pursuant to adjuournment, at 10 o'clock, 
a. m., Hon. Gilbert N. Haugen (chairman) presiding. 
The CHatrMaN. The committee will be in order. We will hear 
Mr. Weller, of South Dakota, this morning. 
STATEMENT OF CHARLES S. WELLER, CHAIRMAN, SOUTH 
DAKOTA AGRICULTURAL EQUALITY COMMITTEE, MITCHELL, 
S. DAK. 
Mr. WeLLer. My name is Charles S. Weller, Mitchell, S. Dak. 
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am the chairman of the South 
Dakota agricultural equality committee, which is created by the 
legislature of our State. There are two other members. We have 
an advisory committee appointed by our governor of 22 members. 
Last December, the 19th, a meeting was called of the advisory 
committee. We went over available bills on so-called farm relief. 
We worked for 14 hours. I want to say that we did thresh them out. 
Our instructions were to stick for what we choose to call and un- 
emasculated McNary-Haugen bill. We discussed the equilization 
fee particularly, and that is what we stand for. 
Personally, I am engaged in farming. I live in town. I carry on 
a 520-acre farm by means of hired help. The family carried on more 
than that prior to what we call the “deflation,” at which time our 
815 hogs were changed into $5.40 porkers; where we used to put up 
2 bushels of oats to pay a land tax of $1.50, we found ourselves 
putting up 10 bushels of cats; other things in proportion. 
Our part of the State of South Dakota is a diversified region. We 
are engaged in dairying, and we grow the feed to feed those dairy 
cows. We do considerable fattening of cattle. Our corn crop 1s, 
however, largely turned into hogs. We have the Pacific coast market. 
We believe we are the nearest fat-hog point to the Pacific coast; and, 
by the way, we ship train loads of hogs to the Pacific coast. If you 
say we are hard up, I guess it is unnecessary to go into that. 
0, we are sold on the equilization fee and the McNary-Haugen 
oil, believing 1t 1s the only thing that promises to give agriculture 
a look. 
Now, we are not a land of small farmers. I like to call it the 
home of the eight-horse hitch.” Bv that I mean we have large