AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

557
are going to do, not the commercial risk that is involved now. In
the judgment of the supply and demand——

Mr. FuLMer. Right there, Mr. Anderson, would you not have the
same privilege of hedging when you buy?

Mr. ANpERsoN. I do not think so, because, as I said the other day,
[ can not conceive of the grain exchanges operating under this bill,
particularly under a fixed price.

Mr. FuLmEer. I gathered from your remarks that the board might
determine to place on the market a part of their holdings, and there-
fore put the price down after you have bought at a certain price.

Mr. ANpERsON. That might happen.

Mr. Fuumer. Do they not do the same thing on the exchange
to-day—put the price down or up 5 cents a bushel at will?

Mr. AxpErsoN. The point I would like to make is that one of
them is a commercial risk which business is organized to take and
which it expects, whereas the risk of the action of a board or agencies
of the sort created by it, functioning on the basis of creating losses—
is an entirely different situation; for instance, if I buy grain now with
the expectation of making flour at a profit out of it, I take the com-
mercial risks that are involved; I measure my own judgment of what
the market is going to do against the judgment of other people who
may have entirely different ideas; and the measure of the judgment
of all of these people makes the general level of prices.

But, as I say, here now enters a new agency, which may operate
on the basis of a fixed price or may operate on the basis of stimulation
of the price. Now, my risk involves not merely the normal opera-
tion of the law of supply and demand. but also is the risk of what
this board may do.

Mr. FuLMmer. Right there, now. Suppose they have the price
fixed, as you state, at $1.50, with certain losses on what they export.
Why would that $1.50 interfere with you any more than when perhaps
you go into the market when wheat ii ~ or $1.50 under present
system?

Mr. ANDERSON. I do not see that it would interfere with me, pro-
viding the board was successful in making the price, which I doubt.
What I do say is that it would change the channels of distribution
and the movement of wheat which now goes in response to the
normal supply and demand situation with respect to particular
qualities and kinds, by injecting into the situation an entirely new
element which does not operate on the basis of actual use of the wheat
or on the basis of profit which they could make in it. That is the
only point I make.

Mr. FuLMmer. I think you have the same thing to contend with.
It is not a matter of supply and demand now, but it is a matter of
what the speculator and manipulator proposes to do about it.

Mr. AnpErsoN. That is a matter of opinion. I do not want to
get into an argument on that proposition.

I come now, Mr. Chairman, to further discussion of the objections
raised by the President. He objects to the bill on the ground that it
provides for price fixing. It is true that there is nothing in the
pending bill which directly authorizes the board to fix the price of
any commodity. However, the board is directed to make contracts
with the cooperative agencies or with corporations created by them;