474 - AGRICULTURAL RELIEF
there are varying factors in there, and that is so in industry where the
response is much more direct, and it is true of farming generally.
Coming back now to the operations of the board: Under the Aswell
bill, without any equalization fee, as I see it, the board would be com-
pelled to protect itself against buying at a price which would not dis-
pose of the whole crop. Now, what is the evidence of overproduc-
tion? What is the evidence of too high a price? You have got a
surplus left on your hands. Suppose you set a price that is high
enough to step up production.
Mr. AsweLL. Doctor, my bill does not make any such proposal as
that.
Mr. CavErNo. Wait a minute.
Mr. AsweLL. The board proceeds to buy as soon as cotton reaches
a certain price.
Mr. CavErNO. You can not know in advance whether a certain
price would cause an accumulating surplus or not. We admit that
farm prices are on too low a basis; we want to peg the price as high
as we can. You want to peg it as high as you dare. If this board
is taking on cotton, it has got to dispose of it again, and if it gets the
price too high it would have a surplus left on its hands.
Mr. AsweLL. You are making a fight on my bill, but it does not
make any such proposal.
Mr. Caverno. Now, taking the practical problem of the board,
it is going to set a price which it thinks is the highest: price which it
can give and still dispose of its cotton, which may cause an accumu-
lating surplus and a loss in the operation.
Mr. AsweLL. Would not that happen probably if you had the
fee just the same?
Mr. Caverno. Under your bill you want to peg the price up as high
as you can get it without causing an accumulating surplus, which
would show that you had pegged it too high, and the accumulated
surplus is the only evidence that you have got the price as high as it
will go. Suppose you peg the price and sell all of your cotton. Do
you know whether you could get a cent more or not? No, you do
not; and you do not know until you have an accumulated surplus.
Under the equalization fee you can peg the price as high as you
think it will go and a little higher, and then out of every pound you
take a little deposit and create a fund to hold the surplus if you peg
the price above the law of supply and demand price and accumulate a
surplus. Have I made that clear?
Mr. AsweLL. No; you have not touched my question at all.
The little fellow is still left in a hole.
Mr. Caverno. Mr. Kincheloe, could you understand that?
Mr. AsweLL. You do not explain skinning the little fellow.
Mr. KiNcHELOE. There are two things in your statement which
I do not understand. If this bill would help cotton I do not see why
it would not help everybody. I have not seen where you have defi-
nitely explained where the little fellow would be skinned under the
doctor’s bill.

Mr. Caverno. Just exactly this——

Mr. Apkins. I am interested in the little feliow, too.
sod Bpwarios Let the witness finish his answer, if he can