AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 185 i came before your committee and you generously reported a bill out here, two years ago, trying to get some information from the manufacturers as to how much tobacco really existed in the country— merchantable tobacco. That bill failed, but is yet before you. Had we secured the passage of that bill we would have known there was no surplus of Burley tobacco, although they made our members believe there was and carry a portion of the 1923, 1924, and 1925 Crops. Mr. Fort. That bill passed the House. Mr. Kenoe. No; I do not think it passed the House. Mr. Fort. It did pass the House. Mr. KincHELOE. Yes; it did pass the House. Mr. Keror. Did it? Then it failed to pass the Senate. Mr. KiNcHELOE. Yes. Mr. Kenoe. Had that bill become a law the tobacco growers of Kentucky would have been $20,000,000 or more better off to-day than they are. When we had dumped the 1926 crop and sold it for about 13 cents a pound, and notwithstanding they said they never would buy our other crops, then on hand, in less than 60 days from the time the 1926 market closed and they had taken that crop of tobacco at 13 cents, they bought every pound of tobacco we had on hand at around 21 or 22 cents, and we have delivered it all to them. We would not have dumped the 1926 had we been able to get the governmental information we so sorely needed, and which the bill that you so generously passed gave to us. Gentlemen, my belief is that no cooperative organization, without the assistance provided by the McNary-Haugen bill, including the equalization fee, can ever help the American farmer. His sources of information are not sufficient; his power to individually resist the temptation of high prices and unfairness and the unkindness of carrying his neighbor are too much to expect from him. You know the farmer, if you never have thought of it, has got to be the best all-around business man in the world to get along. In his individual operations he does not have anybody to advise him as to the science and cultivation of crops, excepting what he reads in the bulletins. He has got to learn how to cultivate, to know when to plant, what kind of seeds to use, how to fertilize, when to harvest; and then he has got to be a splendid financier to finance himself on 60, 90 days, or six months’ paper over portions of the year; and then he has got to be a high-class salesman in order to go out and sell his stuff in competition against the efforts made by trained buyers to take it away from him. He has the hardest burden of any business man in the country. All other business is organized differently, having in their service financiers, salesmen, manufacturers and other specialized employees, but he has the whole burden to bear. and his burden is more than he can manage, gentlemen. [f you would pass this legislation, as we understand it in the country, you are giving the farmer no kind of a subsidy; you are not giving him a dole of any kind; you are not making of him a charity patient of the Government. He wants to pay, out of his efforts, for all his own benefits. He can do 1t under your equilization fee, and his cooperative associations can operate under an equilization fee. Mr. Crarke. Would you mind if I interrupted you right there? Mr. Keno. No. sir.