AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

367
the scale which is included in the Ketcham bill, and taking the sta-
tistics of actual exportation from month to month during——

Mr. Kercaam. I do not think that is the point I had in mind.

Mr. STEwART. I think I will reach it in a minute. During the last
six years. It becomes evident that there would be a seasonal fluctua-
‘ion in the way the export debentures are issued.

Now, if it ever so happened that you should put in such high rates
or make the debenture applicable to so many commodities that you
would issue more debentures during one month than there are duti-
able goods coming in immediately thereafter, then you would set up
what would be called a monthly overissue. Now, a monthly over-
issue might require that the exporters would have to wait a month,
or that the importers who purchased the export debentures then
would have to wait a month, or maybe two months,, before they could
use them. Debentures do not bear interest. It would be necessary,
therefore, to discount the instrument because of the fact that it bears
no interest. However, at the rates of debenture indicated I think it
would be perfectly clear to anyone analyzing it that there would
have been no discount during the last six years in which there would
have been even a monthly overissue.

Mr. Jones. Those figures were made from the schedules in the
Adkins bill, were they not?

Mr. Stewart. No.

Mr. JoNEs. Are they not the figures that Mr. Adkins inserted in the
record as coming from you about a month or six weeks ago, or did
you see that?

Mr. Stewart. What happened was that S. S. Knight, of Petaluma,
Calif., made up some estimates at certain rates, and just for the sport
of it I used those rates.

Mr. Jones. The reason I broke in here was the fact that those
rates and the schedules he put in the record were on a much higher
basis than the ones here.

Mr. STEWART. Yes.

Mr. Jones. And I wondered if you made your graph from the
old rates.

Mr. KiNcHELOE. You say that will not show in six years where
there was a monthly overissue of debentures in excess of the imports?

Mr. Stewart. I think if you would take one month, which I can
not recall off hand, in which there was the nearest equality between
the amount of dutiable goods coming in duty paid compared with
the amount of debentures being received by exporters that there
would be twice, or at least half again, as much demand for the deben-
tures as there would be supply of them.

Mr. KincueLoe. That is based on all dutiable goods coming in
ander the Fordney-McCumber bill, is it not?

Mr. STewaRT. Yes; at those rates, which are higher than the rates
in the Ketcham bill. whereas our tariff has been producing an aver-
age of over $45,000,000 a month during the last several years, reach-
ing $50,000,000 a month, or a little better than $600,000,000 last year,
debentures issued would not have exceeded $15,000,000 a month.

It would seem that while there is a difference in seasonal character
you need not anticipate monthly overissue if there is a conservative
use of this agency. It is like many other principles. if abused it can