362 
AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
was the Pacific price agreement, in the case of wheat during the 
war period or immediately after the armistice. The result of the 
investigation, which occupies a good many pages, 1S to show that 
despite the very desperate efforts that were made by those who 
had entered into the agreements in a preliminary way the agree- 
ments broke down. That was true in both the Gulf price and in the 
Pacific price case. S0 far as I have been able to learn, there has been 
no charge of the existence of a successful price agreement In the 
case of wheat. 
Mr. MENGES. You say No successful price agreement was reached, 
therefore the price of all those fellows is the same, is it not? 
Mr. Stewart. Not absolutely the same, but it is a question of the 
buying margin. The buying margin as determined for export has 
been most graphically presented, I think, in studies which have been 
given publicity by the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes people, who have 
shown, I believe, for Beardstown, IIL, a normal cost differential 
of about 32 cents under the Liverpool price. Now, to be sure, that 
is subject to some personal equation as between exporters and to 
some fluctuation from one part of a year to another. It is a govern- 
ing fact, however, that one exporter must be able to meet the com- 
petition of other exporters. In the case of wheat I believe it is 
said that there are approximately 40 of the exporters engaged 
in the business in this country. In the case of cotton, I believe, it 
is alleged that in the Memphis market alone there are 170. I am 
not sure of that. 
Mr. Mences. 1 am asking about that, because 1 have had a little 
experience in that connection. 
Mr. Stewart. Is it your experience? 
Mr. Menges. My experience has been that what one pays they 
all pay. And so your proposition would not be any different to my 
way of thinking. 
Mr. Stewart. In other words, the presence of an export premium 
or even the presence of an export tax, which of course is the oppo- 
site, would make no substantial difference so far as the possibility 
for a price agreement or the impossibility of a price agreement is 
concerned. 
Mr. Forr. Doctor Stewart, is it not a fact that the actual compe- 
tition between the exporters is not upon the cash wheat but on the 
exchange? They do their buying generally on the exchange in 
futures, and, of course, will not pay more than the exchange price: 
is not that the fact? 
‘Mr. Stewart. Yes; they contribute their share in the competitive 
bidding which determines prices in our markets. Turning now to 
the case of cotton, I have it directly from an exporter in Memphis 
that his buying margin and the buying margins he has to face con- 
stantly on the part of the others in the Memphis market is 3 cents 
a pound under Liverpool; and that he stood no chance month In 
and month out of cutting that margin, and that if he did so he 
would have to go out of business; that that figure prevails so far 
as that market is concerned. 
The point I want to reach is that the higher price which would 
be made possible by the presence of an export premium would pre- 
v with respect to those portions of the product which