AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

477
Mr. KincHELOE. You go on the theory that they would put on a
prohibitive price. That is not what they want, but a reasonable
price. If the American farmer could get even a reasonable price he
could afford to sell and would not need any legislation to help him,
but you can’t do it without Federal assistance.

Mr. Caverno. He may not be able to get a reasonable price.
It depends on whether he was able to sell his product at a reasonable

rice.

P Mr. KincHELOE. If the Yoakum plan was carried out it would be
Just exactly the same plan as the United States Steel Corporation’s
plan and the railroad’s plan and the same as any other big business’
plan, because the whole commodity is in one concern, controlled by
one concern, and they feed the market gradually, and they get con-
trol of production and control of the.market, and therefore control
the price.

Mr. Fort. I want to follow out Mr. Adkins’s question and your
answer to it. He assumes that the organization under Doctor
Aswell’s bill is going to buy from the necessitous producer when he
has to sell and buy at a low price and make a profit out of his cotton,
for example.

Mr. CaveErvo. ™

Mr. Fort. Ne
agree with that?

Mr. Caverno. No, Doctor Aswell’s bill, as he is stating it now,
would fix an arbitrary price. Then he is in danger of doing one or
two things. He is in danger of fixing a price which would cause an
accumulated surplus, or, on the other hand, he is in danger of fixing
a price which is not as high as he might have.

Mr. Fort. Does not that same danger exist under the Haugen bill?

Mr. Caverno. Mr. Fort, I am trying to get to your question and
I am trying to show how I could make an experiment that would
show what that maximum law-of-supply-and-demand price was.

Mr. Fort. Is there not a danger that you may miss it?

Mr. Caverno. No, because you have trial and error. You carry
science to the limit; and then by trial and error you check for error,
but on the top side of the price instead of the bottom, you collect too
much and pay it back again, but you have found out the maximum
price under the law of supply and demand.

Mr. Fort. But you do not pay back the equalization fee to the
farmers?

Mr. Caverno. I can not pay it back. You give him the equaliza-
tion fee to hold the surplus.

Mr. Fort. But he does not get back the profit, if you make a profit

-not, the man who has put it in.

Mr. Caverno. He puts in his pocket a profit that is measured
by the maximum supply and demand price—a profit that the maxi-
mum price would bring without the accumulated surplus. He has
got it in his pocket.

Mr. Fort. Less the equalization fee?

Mr. Caverno. Yes; he has got to take out a little of that to carry
the surplus. He has made an experiment te find out what the
maximum supply-and-demand price was.

Mr. Fort. In a way your theory would operate like this gentle-
man who was here from Illinois, except that he would require the