AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
339 
Mr. KincueLoE. That is the reason I asked you. Do you not think 
that is too high in order to be a popular measure and probably to 
meet the approval of the President; do you not think that 1s too 
much of a reduction of the tariff; that is what I am getting at. 
Mr. Goss. You mean we have made it too low; that we should 
have gone closer to the tariff. 
Mr. Jones. It is not a reduction of the tariff at all. 
Mr. KincHELOE. I mean your debenture rates: do you not think 
you have got them too high ¢ 
Mr. Goss. I think not. We have said this. The bill provides that 
the board, after investigation, may establish an export debenture 
rate on any other tariff-protected commodity, based on the difference 
in cost of production between home and abroad, but not to exceed the 
amount of the tariff. That demands thorough investigation. We 
have not had the facilities for making the thorough investigation to 
determine the difference in the cost of production which, of course, 
is always approximate, between home and abroad. But we have 
estimated as closely as we could what that difference might be. 
Mr. KincaELOE. Of course, the higher your debenture rates the 
more money that you will take out of the Treasury, and I was just 
wondering if you put it too high and it ever got to the President 
whether he might not veto it. 
Mr. Goss. That will be a matter, of course, for your committee 
carefully to consider—the rates of debenture which we have estab- 
lished in this bill. There must be some place of beginning. We at 
one time considered naming no rates in the bill whatever, but leaving 
it up to the board to establich the rates, after thorough investigation. 
But we did not follow out that course of procedure for this reason: 
We felt there were some crops which have been in distress for a 
number of years, and we thought we should establish something to 
start it. 
Mr. KiNcHELO: 
establish the rate. .. 
‘'t, that is all. 
Mr. Goss. That was our idea. We established it as in our judg- 
ment appeared best; and then the provision is incorporated in the 
bill, that as conditions change those rates may be lowered or they 
may be raised. 
Mr. Fort. You said to Mr. Kincheloe—and I did not quite get 
the answer to the question, that you took the world’s price as a 
basis, anmd then put the debenture on top of it. That is not strictly 
‘rue, 1s it? Was not that a slip? 
Mr. Goss. I did not mean to say that. I meant to say this, that 
~hat the farmer would receive for his crops, of which we have an 
exportable surplus, which are now dependent on the world’s markets, 
would be based on the world price plus the amount of the export. 
lebenture ; and as the world markets went up and down according to 
‘he supply and demand, the price which the farmer received would 
co up and down. But he would always get that difference in cost 
f production between home and abroad to which he is entitled 
secause of our higher standards of living. That difference is repre- 
sented by the export debenture. 
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