AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

479
MecNary-Haugen bill they have a fund to correct any mistake that
they made by setting the price too high.

Mr. Fort. Let us assume that under either bill the board’s opera-
tions begin at 17 cents and run up to 20 cents.

Mr. CaverNo. Mr. Fort, there are other people who are more
familiar with the details of marketing than I am. I come before you
simply to make a statement in reagrd to the general plan which
could be worked with the equalization fee, in order to obtain the
maximum law of supply-and-demand price.

Mr. Fort. We do not seem to be able to get anybody here that
can talk the practical side. I thought you were a practical cotton
man.

Mr. Cavervo. I think I am talking the most practical thing in
the world when I'lav the framework on which the board might work.

Mr. Fort. Let me ass vou just one question: We will assume that
the maximum law of suppiy-and-demand price is 20 cents on cotton, as
a maximum?

Mr. Caverxo. Yes, sir; that is the most that the crop would have
been disposed of without accumulating any surplus.

Mr. Fort. Now, then, your farmer who sells at 20 cents is there-
fore getting, under present conditions, if h» sets 20 cents, the maxi-
mun: price?

Mr. CaveErRNO. You mean buying at that

Mr. Fort. Without any legislation?

Mr. Caver~o. Yes; the crop just disposed of without any surplus
or a small enough surplus to show that the price was as hich as it
would go. You have accumulated some surplus.

Mr. Fort. I am not talking of a buying organization; I am talking
about existing conditions where we have no machinery at all. The
man who to-day gets 20 cents—assuming that to be the maximum
supply-and-demand price—he is getting all he can get under this
legislation, is he not?

Mr. Caverno. If we know what the maximum law-of-supply-
and-demand price was.

Mr. Fort. Just answer a question or two, please. There is a
maximum supply-and-demand price, and I am assuming that some
men get it. We know some do get it; somebody sells at the top.
There has to be a seller there as well as a buyer. Under an equaliza-
tion fee bill, the man who now sells at the top will have to contribute
his equalization fee, and will therefore get less net than he now ets.
will he not?

Mr. Caver~o. That is, assuming that you have been able arbi-
trarily to peg the price at the maximum supply-and-demand price.

Mr. Fort. Not to peg it. I am speaking of the occasional seller.

Mr. Caverno. Oh, yes; occasional seller.

Mr. Fort. Who to-day gets the maximum price without the
equalization fee bill? Would he get net less under that bill than he
now gets?

Mr. Caverno. Yes.

Mr. Fort. For whose benefit does he contribute that less net?

Mr. Caverno. Mr. Fort, I stated the other day when you were
not here that I was basing my whole argument on the fact of the
unity of the crop, and the fact that every man now practically was a
stockholder in the crop.

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