AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
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House oF REPRESENTATITVES, 
COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, 
Wednesday, February 15, 1928. 
The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10 o’clock a. m., 
Hon. Gilbert N. Haugen (chairman), presiding. 
Present: Representatives Haugen (chairman), Williams, Thomp- 
son, Ketcham, Hall, Fort, Menges, Adresen, Adkins, Clarke, Hope, 
Aswell, Kincheloe, Swank, Fulmer, and Rubey. 
The CHAIRMAN. The committee will kindly come to order. Mr. 
Yoakum. the committee will be glad to hear vou this morning. 
STATEMENT OF B. F. YOCAKUM. NEW YORK CITY 
Mr. Yoakum. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, it 
is a very great pleasure to me and an honor to appear before you 
to discuss with you gentlemen who are endeavoring to solve it the 
most important question of the world, agriculture; and I have some 
figures and facts which, 'f vou will permit me, I will undertake to 
state. 
Every other big business is organized to distribute and market 
its products. Farming is the largest of all, and yet dealers dictate 
prices to both farmers and consumers. . 
The four leading farm commodities are estimated in money value 
annually as follows: 
Corn_______________. 
Cotton____.__. 
Hay and forage____. 
Wheat 
31, 956, 000, 000 
~ 600, 000, 000 
1 320, 000, 000 
950. 000. 000 
These products can be classed in volume with steel, oil, and auto- 
mobiles, all of which are highly organized, with the most efficient 
distribution and selling systems. Yet these farm commodities 
stand unorganized for marketing and unstabilized as to prices. 
Compare steel with wheat. 
From ore beds, coal mines for furnaces, and mills, 82 per cent of 
the country’s total steel production is controlled by 10 organiza- 
tions; 82 per cent of the total steel production is 47,500,000 tons, 
the standard price of which is $38 a ton. or a total money value of 
$1,805,000,000. } 
Mr. CLarkE. You are using pig iron there as a unit at $387 
Mr. Yoakum. I am speaking now of the steel products, rails and 
steel, or manufactured steel. } 
Eighty per cent of our wheat production—640,000,000 bushels 
out of a total crop of 800,000,000 bushels—is produced in 14 States. 
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