AGRICULTURAL RELIEF Ec 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. 01