AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

Mr. Jones. At least it would keep you from dictating terms to
the board, would it not?

Mr. ANDERSON. I think so, very definitely.

Mr. Jones. It undoubtedly would do that. Now, we have been
able for certain industries to secure increased prices—and I have no
specific reference to this bill, as I have always had some rather
serious doubts about its practicability in certain phases, but I do
think that a plan could be worked out—whether a modification of
this or whether this does it I am not capable of passing on—that
would give the farmer the same advantage in the situation by chang-
ing the conditions that the manufactured article had, it would be
desirable.

Mr. AnpErsoN. I am right in accord with the idea that a plan
could be worked out, providing you can get necessary cooperation
from the farmer himself, which would result in giving the farmer a
larger degree of benefit from the tariff that he now enjoys, and I
would be very glad personally to see him get it.

Mr. Jones. Then, you agree with the purposes of this bill, but do
not agree that it will reach the desired results; that is your position,
is 1t not? :

Mr. AnpeErsoN. That is it exactly. I went into it, as I said at
the beginning, so thoroughly last year, that I was attempting to
avoid going into the general economic phases of the proposition and
to confine myself as strictly as I could to a discussion of the validity
of the objections which were raised by the President and the extent
to which those objections were met in this particuar bill now under
consideration.

Mr. Jones. I appreciate your desire in that regard, and I was only
undertaking to clear up in my own mind your exact position in a
general way, and not go into specific reasons therefor. That is all.

Mr. Fuumer. Mr. Anderson, we had a good many good men
objecting to the passage of the Federal reserve bank law, had we
not, stating that they did not think it would work; and we have in
all most important pieces of legislation good men making the state-
ment that they did not think it would work. But you think it so
strong that you are not even willing to have the Congress try out
this legislation so as to see whether or not it will work?

Mr. Axperson. Well, I think the trying out of legislation of this
kind involves so many possibilities of disaster that at least it is well
to consider what those possibilities are and whether there is any other
method of doing the job which perhaps involves less possibilities.

The CHAIRMAN. It is now 12 o’clock. Will you go on the day after
to-morrow?

Mr. AnpersoN. I will be glad to do that, with the committee’s
permission.

(Thereupon, at 12 m. .0’clock the committee adjourned to meet
Thursday. February 23, 1928, at 10 o’clock a. m.)

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