AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

491

Mr. CaverNo. It is not designed that they should make anything
out of the farmer. It is inverse business; 1t is to try to raise the
price and not make any money out of it.

Mr. Fort. Is it the purpose to raise the price and make a profit?

Mr. Caverno. No, it is a check against a loss.

Mr. Fort. He is carrying the surplus and yet you say the profit
does not go to him.

Mr. CaverNo. The profit would go to him in the shape of a de-
creased equalization fee next year.

Mr. Fort. Not all of it?

Mr. CaveErNo. No; but over a term of years you will have that.

Mr. Fort. The cooperatives are going to make some profit or else
they are not going to handle it.

Mr. CaverNo. In this transaction, no.

Mr. Fort. Do you think they are going to handle it for love?

Mr. CaveErnNo. Whoever is going to handle it is going to be pro-
tected from losses, costs, and charges in the transaction.

Mr. Fort. Do you know about the animal side of this bill?

Mr. Caverno. There are men who know more about that than I do.

Mr. Fort. Do you think they are going to make contracts with
the packers and not give them any profit?

Mr. Caverno. I think they will have a normal profit in business
transactions.

Mr. Fort. Is the farmer then going to have to carry these hogs
through his contribution?

Mr. CavernNo. He pays the losses, costs, and charges in this trans-
action, but he does not pay all the packer’s profit.

Mr. Fort. Nobody has ever said it paid all of it. They will make
more, but they will make some out of the equalization fee.

Mr. CaverNo. This veto message says the equalization fee guaran-
tees total profit to the packers.

Mr. Fort. I do not think it does. I have read that veto message
several times.

Mr. Caverno. It guarantees them——

Mr. Fort. It guarantees them an assured price: that is very
different from total profit.

Mr. Caverno. That is not what that says.

Mr. Fort. Read it, will you?

Mr. Caverno. All right; I will look it up afterwards.

Mr. KincaELOE. Did you have anything to do with formulating
this bill?

Mr. CavErNoO. I sat in on the conferences.

Mr. KincuELOE. Under former bills if there is any money left by
reason of the farmers paying too much fee or by reason of profit in
the transaction, then it is provided that that profit is prorated back
19.0 fartaer in proportion. I wondered why that was left out of
this ball.

Mr. Caverno. The difficulty of prorating back——

Mr. KincaeLoe. That is a question of bookkeeping.

Mr. CaverNo. The farmer shifting around trying to make all
these little payments—the idea is to leave it in the fund to reduce
the equalization fee and pay it back that way.

Mr. Jones. In the beginning you would have to make it a little
more than necessary in order to be sure to have enouch?