AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

559

Mr. Jones. Mr. Anderson, right there. If it really provides for
price fixing and becomes effective there would not be any special
need for the exchanges, because you suggest that the board would
have that function.

Mr. ANpERrsON. No; on the basis of course, of a fixed price there
is no apparent need of exchanges.

Mr. Jones. Then if the bill works, you would not need any boards
of trade. If they perform any of these useful functions at all—a
ereat many people hold they do not, though some folks think they
do—the only function that is claimed by those who favor the activ-
ities of the boards of trade, is that they help furnish a stabilized
market; that is the claim?

Mr. ANDERSON. Yes.

Mr. Jones. If that is a legitimate objection by the President, there
would be no need for the boards of trade, would there; that is, if
the bill really operates effectively.?

Mr. ANDERSON. You simply state what I have stated before in
another way: If you have a stable price, there obviously is no need
for the boards of trade.

Mr. Jones. Then, if the bill does not work it would not interfere
with the boards of trade, wo’

Mr. AxpERrsoN. Oh, yes; ..
everybody.

Mr. Jones. If the machinery breaks down and the bill is wholly
unworkable, as you seem to think—and that is the theory that has
been expressed by more than one person—why should it materially
interfere with the boards of trade?

Mr. AxpeERsoN. Of course, the boards of trade could be reset up,
and I suppose the regular channels of distribution could be reestahb-
lished. The difficulty of doing that, however, would depend upon
the length of time which the board had been in operation and the
Sten to which your existing agencies had been destroyed or demor-
alized.

Mr. Jones. I am not talking about the ordinary commercial chan-
nels of trade in the handling of actual commodities.

Mr. ANpersoN. I think we agree, Mr. Jones, that if the bill works
on the basis of a fixed price—and there is nothing in the bill that
says it must work that way—I can see no basis upon which the
exchange could operate. Therefore, I say the exchanges would go
out of business. To that extent I agree with you.

Mr. Jones. They went out of business during the war, did they
not, for a little while?

Mr. AxpErsoN. They did.

Mr. Jones. And they came right back as soon as they got a chance.
There would not be any trouble about getting them back, if there
was any occasion for it. So far as the destroying of the boards of
trade is concerned, that would not give me one moment's concern,
because they would spring up over night if you gave them the right.
You recognize, Mr. Anderson, that there is a disparity between farm
prices and industrial prices, do you not?

Mr. AxpERsoN. There has been.

Mr. Jones. Generally, there has been for a number of years.

Mr. AxpERrsoN. I should savy since 1921 or the latter part of 1920.

.»25 not work 1t interferes with