AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

025

determine the constitutionality of the equalization fee. If you pass
the bill with the equalization fee in it and the President should for
any reason change his mind and approve it, you are going to have
litigation then for two years, and what good is it going to be to the
country during the two years? If they go off the farms at the same
rate they have gone off the last two years, there will not be anybody
out there to work.

I thank you, gentlemen. That is just my sincere idea about it,
and I am just as sincere in my endeavor to get some farm legislation
as any representative of any farm bureau or any farmers in this
country.

Mr. WiLLiams. I take it you are aware of what every farm Mem-
ber of Congress is aware, that there are powerful influences operating
here in Washington that would prefer a veto to the passage of a
farm relief measure. They are looking for a veto; they want it.

Mr. McKeown. Mr. Willisms, as sincere as I am about the legis-
lation, I can not comprehend that viewpoint. I can not agree with
that viewpoint at all.

Mr. WiLLiams. I know we do not agree. But I say we have those
influences here; they are obvious.

Mr. AswieLL. The committee has been told that a dozen times.

Mr. McKeown. I am just giving you the viewpoint of a man who
wants to do just the best he can, and just can not understand why
they prefer none at all. If it were a surrender of principle, I can see
why men would contend and stand out for the principle. But we
are confronted here with the proposition of either doing something
or nothing, and I would not be willing, as earnestly as I am for legis-
lation, to stand up and vote for legislation when I know it would be a
mere mockery. That is just the situation as I see it.

Mr. AsweLL. I will say further that I think at least a hundred
Members of Congress who voted for the McNary-Haugen bill with
the equalization fee, on both sides of the House, who have talked to
me and other members of this committee, and expressed their views
that the committee at this time should report out the bill without the
equalization fee, and that is the position of a large number of Members
of Congress who have sincerely and earnestly supported this legisla-
tion. But it is not going to be done.

Mr. McKeowx. I have no criticism for those who honestly differ
with me. I have no criticism of these representatives of the Farm
Bureau who are honestly and sincerely standing up for the interests
they represent. But I am talking to you now as a practical proposi-
tion of a man who wants to do something for the farmers of this
country, and I am just as sure as the chairman of this committee,
and the chairman of this committee is just as conscientious in this
matter as the rest of us. But you have a condition confronting you
now and not a theory, and who can sav which of these methods 1s
the best for agriculture?

The CrAIRMAN. The committee for four years worked as we have
on this bill in an effort to pass the oleomargarine bill. We were told
then it was unconstitutional. We said, “Never mind, we will pass
it and try it out.” The courts held the oleomargarine bill con-

itutional. .
hon we took up the packers and stockyards act, our hearings
ran through two sessions, and the hearing in one session covere