AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

535

about 20,000,000 bushels, in public warehouses and mills December 31, 1926,
depressing the price, as the proponents of this bill contend. They can afford to
pay Sydney Anderson any price he may ask to come here and prohibit this board
from taking off the market this surplus that they hope to reap the benefit from.

The gentleman from Kansas knows that the millers bear the same relationship
to this board that the packers do. But there is this difference between them:
The packers know that we can not take the live hog and store it. He has to be
processed. The millers know that they can hold the wheat in storage without
processing. They would rather have control of it than have the farmers con-
trol it. That is why Mr. Anderson is so valuable to the milling interests. I do
not care what his price is. . If he can defeat this bill, he is well worth it to the
milling interests. }

The CrairMaN. The time of the gentleman from Illinois has again expired.

Mr. Apkins. Will the gentleman from Iowa give me a couple of minutes. so
chat I can finish this?

Mr. Haugen. I yield the gentleman two minutes.

The CrairMAN. The gentleman from Illinois is recognized for two minutes
more.

Mr. Apkins. I do not accept what appears to me the gentlemen’s ‘‘comprehen-
sion’’ of the farmer. I think his ‘‘comprehension’ of the farmer is that the
farmer is a fellow going around with a long chin beard and a slouch hat and a
red bandana handerchief around his neck and smoking a cob pipe. 1 can imagine
his ‘comprehension’ working when he saw Bill Settle wearing a pair of 75-cent
spats. He ridiculed the men representing agriculture here, and praised the man
representing the millers here, saving what a smart fellow Mr. Anderson was.
[ think he is smart. He is serving the millers well, because if the millers defeat
this bill they can lay in their stocks of wheat sometimes too cheap for the farmer,
and they are not interested in the price being profitable to the farmer and do not
want to be interfered with by this organization we are trying to provide for, that
will try to function, when wheat is too cheap, so the farmer can get a fair price,

Now, the thought I had in mind—the further from my thought
was you—I was bullyragging my friend Tincher. So that whatever
question I am asking here with regard to this matter, I may have
occasion to refer to on the floor of the House your statement.

Mr. AnpErsoN. That is perfectly legitimate.

Mr. Apkins. But as for attacking you personally, just get it out
of your mind, if you think I have anything in for you, personally,
because I recognize your high standing, not only in Congress but
in other walks of life, and the questions I am going to ask are only
for the matter of getting into the record vour reaction to some
questions I may ask. oo

There has been considerable questioning, and you made some
statements about the Federal Reserve Board and its functions, and
if I got you right you said that your idea was that the powers of
the Federal Reserve Board should not be used to either put prices
up or to put them down. That is the impression I got.

Mr. AnxpErson. Well, that is substantially accurate, though I
would state it in this'way, that I do not think that the board should
operate with the primary idea of affecting prices one way or the
other. That is not their business. Their business is to regulate
the velume of credit. }

Mr. Apkins. I also made some reference to the action of the
Federal Reserve Board and its probable effect on the market when
it functioned in 1920. Do you not know that that was the whole
intent of raising the rediscount rate to put down the vrice of farm
commodities, and especially wheat?

Mr. Anperson. No, Mr. Adkins, I do not know that. It so hap-
pens that as chairman of the joint commission, I had the privilege of
examining the records of the Federal Reserve Board at that time and