AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

615

organization and the producers. My idea is to eliminate a dozen or
more managing heads, have only one with subsidiary organizations
f necessary and eliminate much of the overhead expense and have
unity of action and effort.

Mr. FuLmer. Under the present system they may work in com-
petition to each other instead of working along the same line?

Mr. Hare. Absolutely; for instance, the South Carolina associa-
tion may sell its cotton in competition with the Oklahoma coopera-
five organization under existing arrangements.
~ Mr. Apkins. Your idea is to coordinate them?

Mr. Hare. Exactly.

Mr. CLarkE. And confederate them?

Mr. Hare. That is right. I say that this idea is politically sound,
for the reason that it 1s absolutely in harmony and absolutely in
keeping with the legislative enactments already provided for.

_I say that it is economically sound because it 1s the embodiment
of cooperation. It is cooperation between and among the govern-
mental agencies themselves, coupled with the cooperative and united
affort of the producers themselves, and therefore the embodiment of
cooperation throughout; and to my mind the production problem,
the surplus control problem, will be controlled in no other wav than
by cooperation.

Mr. Fort. Mr. Hare, I notice at the top of page 6 you provide
that the advances to be made would be on the basis of the market
value of such crop. Do you mean thev are to make a 100 per
cent loan?

Mr. Hare. That is right. If you are going to begin to loperate
when vour commodity is down at the cost of production or below
cost of production, to insure the cooperation of the producers them-
selves provision must be made for them to obtain the market value
of the crop at that time. }

Mr. Fort. Mr. Hare, that is just what I was coming to. You
have no limitation, that I have found in looking through this bill, on
the point of marketing value at which the loans could be made.

Mr. Hare. That is true, but I take this position, that if you
would give a man an umbrella, a sensible and intelligent man, he
will know when to put it up and when to take it down. I think if
you put the operation of this bill in the hands of intelligent men
they will not use the Government as an instrumentality to work an
injury to the people they are supposed to represent, nor will they
attempt to work an injury to the Government they are representing.

Mr. Fort. No; but it would be possible under your bill to make
loans at the market value, for instance, we will say last year, of 23 or
24 cents on cotton?

Mr. Hare. That is true, and it is possible for the Federal reserve
bank to-day to go broke in 6 months; it 1s also possible for the inter-
mediate credit banks to lose millions of dollars in the next 12 months;
and some of them have lost money; but in every public undertaking
some one must be trusted to do the right thing. ;

Mr. Fort. But they are now limited by law to a percentage 0
OR Hag. Yes; they have limitations

r. HARE. Yes; they have limi . }

Me Fort. And you are proposing that they should be allow ed fo

loan 100 per cent. 1 am now speaking of the intermediate credit