AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

475

Mr. CaveErNo. We are working with cotton on an entirely different
basis from what we would in the northern crops. In cotton we are
not trying to get under the tariff. We have got to influence the world
price with our manipulation. In wheat you are working with two
definite and distinct things; you have got the Liverpool price and the
tariff of 42 cents.

Mr. KincHELOE. Has not wheat got a world price as well as cotton?

Mr. Caverno. Mr. Kincheloe, we have a 42-cent duty on wheat.

Mr. KincEELOE. Do not the American wheat growers sell at the
same price you get in Liverpool?

Mr. Caverno. Well, that is exactly what I was trying to explain
as a foundation, but Doctor Aswell would not let me.

Mr. AswerLL. I am willing for you to have all day. But, Doctor,
you are a kind of philosopher. You are talking about agricultural
economics and all that bunk. We have heard that for five years before
this committee, and we are tired of it. What I want to do is to be
able to meet the situation in a way that will help the little cotton
farmer. Suppose, now, the price 1s too low. The board will say,
“We will buy the cotton at this price, and when it goes up to a certain
price we will sell; and we will never have a surplus and we will not
lose on it.”” I am facing the facts, not any agricultural economics
or any theoretical philosophy on any world conditions. This is a
fact we must face now or not at all.

Mr. CaverNo. You will never have a suplus; and if you never
have a surplus you will never know that you are getting the maximum
price, under the law of supply and demand.

Mr. AsweLL. As long as we get the price we are not concerned
about that.

Mr. CavernNo. You have sold your cotton and you do not know
whether you might have got a cent more.

Mr. AsweLL. I do not want a cent more if I fix the price at a fair
price for cotton when it is 17 cents, and this board pays 20 cents.
If we get that we do not want any more; we are not speculating; we
are not gambling.

Mr. CavERrNO. You are working under a different theory than I am.

Mr. AsweLL. Evidently.

Mr. Caverno. I am working to let you get as high a price for the
product as you can’ get under the law of supply and demand.

Mr. AswerLL. That will settle it.

Mr. CaviErnNo. You do not know what the highest price is.

Mr. AsweLL. We are not going to wait and gamble on the high
price. We will say cotton at 20 cents is a fair price. and we will buy
it at 20. :

Mr. CavernNo. Why do you say that is a fair price?

Mr. AsweLL. Because we know it is a fair price from our knowledge
of the cotton market, and we know about world conditions and the
supply and demand. Say this is 17 cents, and we will give these
little fellows 20 cents a pound, and if it goes higher than that we will
sell and we will keep it stabilized, and if we find there is a world
shortage we will raise the price 24 cents or 30 cents, as the case may be.

Mr. CaverNo. The doctor is going to make guesswork of something
[ am going to demonstrate by absolute proven facts; in other words,
I am going to do the very thing in advance which I would have done
if I had known how the crop was going to come out.