AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

House oF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE,
Friday, January 27, 1928.
The committee met in the committee room, House Office Building,
Hon. Gilbert N. Haugen (chairman) presiding.
The CaAlrMAN. Mr. Anderson, we will hear vou this morning.
STATEMENT OF SYDNEY ANDERSON, PRESIDENT MILLERS’
NATIONAL FEDERATION. MILLS BUILDING, WASHINGTON,
D. C.

Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. Chairman, I am not going to make a speech
this morning. I should like to preface a somewhat intimate and
detailed discussion of the bill which is before you with some general
observations which will furnish a background for that discussion.

I think I should say, first of all, that I appear as president of the
Millers’ National Federation, and that in that capacity I speak
officially, but I am permitted to, and do express my personal opinions
and convictions with respect to this bill and with respect to farm-
relief legislation in general,

The organization which I represent is composed entirely of wheat
millers. Its membership produces about 73,000,000 barrels of flour
a year, representing about 65 per cent of the total production for
domestic consumption and export.

We are not concerned at all with the political phases that are in-
volved in farm relief. We are concerned only in the economic and
commercial workability of any measure of relief which may be
adopted by Congress.

The wheat-milling industry represents the market in the United
States for between 70 and 85 per cent of the total wheat crop. From
one-fourth to one-third of the total exports of wheat are made in
terms of wheat flour and in a very real sense the wheat-milling
industry is a part of the wheat-producing agricultural industry,
because no commodity is really marketed until 1t is marketed to the
final consumer and, therefore, the wheat-milling industry, with
others, represents an integral part of the wheat-marketing machin-
ery, and we think that its cooperation would be essential to any
workable plan of agricultural relief.

We consider that any problem which directly affects the farmer
is not only a farmers’ problem but is also our problem, and that we
would necessarily, as I have said, be a part of any sound plan of
marketing the wheat in this country; and perhaps I should say that
what I have to say this morning, while it affects the general opera-

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