AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

Mr. Fort. Will you permit a question there? I am interested in
your suggestion.

Mr. CAvERNO. Yes, sir.

Mr. Fort. If you were to sell the wheat that you have in your
bin, it would have a part in determining the price, would it not?

Mr. CaveErno. When I sell my wheat, I have no part in fixing the

rice.

P Mr. Fort. You have a part to the extent of determining, since
you are able to carry it, when it shall be sold.

Mr. CaAvERNO. Yes, sir.

Mr. Fort. And therefor you have that much to say about the
price, have you not?

Mr. Caverno. There are always enough farmers who have not
any say to put enough of the crop on the market so that mine is
immaterial.

Mr. Fort. May I just finish my line of questioning, since that
thought has been brought up? Your wheat is withheld and the
withholding of such other wheat as is withheld affects the price, does
it not?

Mr. Caverno. It has a certain effect on the price, but it is an effect
in which my effort has no part.

Mr. Fort. Your effort to withhold it has a part.

Mr. Caverno. I can not make any conscious effort in that. I am
not willing to admit that the law of supply and demand—and I will
take that up a little later—dictates a price in which favor to the
farmer or the necessities of the case are a component factor.

Mr. Fort. Not a complete factor, I agree with you.

Mr. Caverno. Not a component factor, as I see it, because, Mr.
Fort, I have got grain, I have got cotton, and I have got the livestock
and I am helpless.

Mr. Fort. But if you all withheld, it would have an effect on the
price, would it not?

Mr. Cavervo. If all men were working with a unit purpose; yes.
But nothing has been more definitely settled than that. Mr. Yoakum
made the statement that 80 per cent of a commodity would control
the price, but they have organized tobacco to the extent of 80 per
cent—one of those cooperatives—and their morale was shaken by
the fact that their neighbors stood around on the side lines and
Jingled their money in their pockets while they were carrying the load.

I realize how perilous it 1s to read anything to the committee. I
know how easily they go to sleep, but I want to state that——

Mr. AsweLL. Have: you ever seen anybody in this committee
asleep? I want to put that into the record.

Mr. Caverno. Doctor, you are just the one man I did not want
to get into a fight with. I like to meet Doctor Aswell in his office,
instead of on the committee.

Mr. AsweLL. Before you start reading your statement, you have
raised a question in my mind.

You talked a good deal about having been such a loyal Republican.
Are you still a good, loyal Republican?

Mr. Caverno. I knew I was going to meet that, Doctor. I will
take that up after I read this statement.

Mr. AsweLL. You said that you had been, but you did not say
how you stand now.

86160—28——8ER E. PT 6——

157