AGRICULTURAL RELIEF
Now, that was from New England. This statement more recently
comes from a North Carolina paper and has a date line of Gastonia,
N. C., January 28 [reading]:
MILL CURTAILING HELD NECESSARY—ORDERLY CONFORMANCE TO LAW OF SUPPLY
AND DEMAND, SAYS WALKER HINES
Gastonia, January 28.—The present curtailment program being carried out in
various branches of the textile industry are orderly steps on the part of mill
men in conforming to the-law of supply and demand, Walker D. Hines, of
New York, president of the Cotton Textile Institute, explained in an address
to-day to 100 or more combed yarn manufacturers of Gaston and surrounding
counties.

The curtailments, Mr. Hines said, were initiated to ward off what might pos-
sibly develop into a much more serious situation than obtains at present, indi-
cating nothing more, he said, than an organized and intelligent effort on the
part of the manufacturers to cope with conditions in the most effective manner.

Pointing out that a slight overproduction had been in effect in the industry,
Mr. Hines declared that respective mill owners had their choice of bringing their
production in line with demand by acting promptly in an orderly manner, or of
adopting disorderly and much more drastic and injurious methods of action.

The Textile Institute head asserted that failure to keep production in line
with demand would result in an overhanging surplus which would break prices
to a point below the cost of production. This situation which mill men are seek-
ing to avoid, would, he pointed out, lead to a very dangerous instability and seri-
ously injure the best interest of the mill owners, their employees and customers.

Mr. KiNncHELOE. Are you reading that to get it in the record?

Mr. KiLGoRE. Yes.

Mr. KincueLoE. What is the idea of encumbering the record in
that way? I would like to get your ideas, but I am not caring about
what these other fellows said.

Mr. Kinore. I have just two or, three lines to read, and I will
cover that if I may. [Concludes reading:]

The Textile Institute head asserted that failure to keep production in line with
demand would result in an overhanging surplus which would break prices to
points below the cost of production. This situation which mill men are seeking,
to avoid, would, he pointed out, lead to a very dangerous instability and seriously
injure the best interest of the mill owners, their employees and customers.

In presenting this, Mr. Kincheloe, I was calling attention to the
movement reasonably successfully carried out already of bringing
about stability in prices of the various industries, whereas 1t 1s
proposed in this bill to bring about stability to agriculture.

In 1922, 1923, and 1924 cotton brought good prices. During that

time, cattle, hogs, corn and wheat brought disastrously low prices.

As a consequence there were some seventeen million acres of land in

the main cotton States that went from these other crops, because of

ruinously low prices, largely into cotton. Eight to ten million
acres of that land was in Texas and had previously been in corn and
wheat and devoted to grazing in the production of beef cattle mainly.

The instability there in the low prices for these other products caused

a transfer to cotton, and this increase in the acreage of cotton brought

about the overproduction in 1925 and 1926, and we had a swing

there during that brief period from cattle, hogs and corn and wheat to
cotton; and now that cattle are bringing better prices the swing 1s
back to cattle and other crops.

Crops compete with each other for the use of land. As one crop is
more profitable than other crops it takes land from other crops, and
mn this way we have a shift from year to year or in very brief periods