AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

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who had to sell, because he could not hold, while the one who was
better off and could hold up to 15 cents got the benefit.

Mr. AsweLL. If you had stopped buying when it reached 15 cents
and stabilized, would you not have sold for 18 cents?

Mr. KiLgore. I do not know. I think with hind sight we would
have sold at 18 cents, and maybe something better than 18 cents.

Mr. AswerLL. Then there would not have been any loss in that
operation.

Mr. KiLcore. If we had bought the cotton at 15 cents and sold it
at 18 cents, certainly there would have been a profit.

Mr. AswerLr. What would you have done with that equalization
fee, if you had had an equalization fee?

Mr. KiLcore. That equalization fee would now be a part of the
stabilization fund for cotton right there, ready to be used in future
years of operation.

Mr. Apkins. You could have used it to repay the money borrowed
from the Government?

Mr. KiLGore. It could have been used to repay the money bor-
rowed from the revolving fund.

Mr. FuLmeR. Doctor, if we had the machinery now proposed to be
set up under this bill, and the money at hand, do you believe cotton
would be going down as it has been for the last two months, in the
face of a very short crop for the past year?

Mr. KiLGore. I do not think so, Mr. Fulmer. Cotton is below
the cost of average production now, and has been for the last two
months. It may not be enough below the cost for the board to come
in there and say, “We will pay 17 cents or more for cotton, but I do
think that under a bill of the kind that the McNary-Haugen bill is,
with its equalization fee which guarantees the return of any losses to
the revolving fund, the board would be more liberal; that it would
take greater chances in stabilizing a price more nearly the cost of
production of cotton than it would on a mere loan bill where there is
no such guarantee for the repayment of loans such as the equalization
fee affords.

Mr. KercaaM. Now, Doctor, let me come back to the illustration
and ask you to give a moment to it.

Mr. KiLGoRE. Yes.

Mr. Kercuam. I want to follow that through with a few more
questions. If I understood you correctly, we assumed that the
price last year was 12 cents a pound on the average, and that the
production was 18,000,000 bales, and you said you thought a fair
price would have been attained had the equilization fee been in opera-
tion and the board set in operation, of around 15 cents a pound.
ry KiLcore. That would have been conservative and none too
iberal.

Mr. KercHaM. It is none too liberal?

Mr. KiLcore. None too liberal.

Mr. KercaaMm. I want it to be that way. Let us see if these
figures are right. If I have made the computation correctly, I find
that, in the first instance, that at $60 per bale his receipts from the
cotton crop would have been $1,080,000,000, and, in the second
Instance, $1,350,000,000. I have not checked the accuracy of those
figures, but I think they are approximately correct—illustrating
the difference to the farmers it would have been realized in the return
from the crop