600 AGRICULTURAL RELIEF
the wheat growers’ organization would stabilize the price and that
would be the fixed price.

Every dollar of profit in this operation would go to the farmers,
except the small amount necessary for organization expenses and
operation. It would add hundreds of millions of dollars annually
to the value of the wheat crop.

The dollars-and-cents argument would tount for more than all the
talk and enforcement regulations that could be passed. Financial
inducement; backed up by educational persuasion, would accomplish
more than any forcible control measure ever could.

Once the farmers realized that their organization was working
solely for them and in their interest; that it was obtaining for them
better and more uniform prices, practically every farmer would take
advantage of this, his own agency. With all required to submit their
interstate shipments to the farmers’ board, the few who would remain
outside would hardly be worth considering.

This has got to be made an interstate proposition—80 per cent of
the agricultural products, as shown by the investigation before the
Interstate Commerce Commission, passes from one State to another.
Now, I hold that if a farmer or organization of any kind wants to sell
at home or give their stuff away, they can do it; that is their business.
But they ought not to be permitted to ship that stuff into any other
State and break down the prices of the farmers throughout the
country. Therefore, the interstate feature of it is very important,
in fact, it is essential.

Overproduction, as we all realize, is the greatest menace to
stabilization. It is the surplus that sends down prices. That was
the cause of the trouble with wheat in recent vears, as it has been on
surplus.

Membership in a wheat-marketing association should, in my
opinion, be based on “acreage planted.” By estimating in advance
the acreage required to produce enough wheat for normal require-
ments, the board of control could then allot fairly to the different
wheat-growing States the acreage to be planted. They could not
control that, understand, but farmers are beginning to realize that
they have got to get together, that they have got to work under some
combination. By allotting acreage fairly through boards of control,
impressing upon the farmers the necessity of keeping within this
limit if they expect to get a fair price for their wheat, production as
well as marketing would be systematized.

The first essential in any business, of course, is the production; the
next is the marketing. Now one under control and the other un-
controlled makes a proposition that is impossible to carry out. You
have got to control both, but not a necessity production, because the
marketing under a control of this character would control production.

As to membership fees, just a little information based on acreage.
Take wheat as an example. An average of 58,000,000 acres a year

are planted.

Mr. KincHELOE. What do you mean, in the world or in this
country?

Mr. Apkins. Acres, you mean?

Mr. Yoakum. Did I not say acres? Oh, yes; acres

Mr. KiNncHELOE. In this country 58,000,000 acres?