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AGRICULTURAL RELIEF
time. - I do not see that the passing of the debenture plan would
prevent the passage of the McNary-Haugen bill. I think you could
pass the McNary-Haugen bill with the equalization fee or without it,
and also pass the debenture plan, if you wished.

I like the debenture plan; I think the debenture plan would help
the American farmer. I believe it would cause him to get more for
his products. = I do believe that the debenture plan falls down on one
proposition. I do not believe the debenture plan solves sufficiently
the question of overproduction, and I think that is the greatest
problem of all.. The one problem which must be solved eventually
is the control of production and marketing in behalf of the farmer.

Mr. KiNcHELOE. Do you think the McNarv-Haugen bill would
do it with the equalization fee eliminated? That is the question
which has been bothering my mind a long time.

Mr. Lankrorp. Of course, it would enable the board to take cotton
off the market, as has been explained here. I have never been very
strong for the McNary-Haugen bill. © I voted for it, however, as the
best bill in sight.

Mr. KincHELOE. I mean overproduction. You take the Curtis-
Crisp bill and these other bills—and I am not saying that in a criticiz-
ing way. I know it is as fundamentally sound as anything in the
world that whenever you increase the price of agricultural products
in this country—that is, if the seasons are favorable—you are going
to increase production.

Mr. Lankrorp. You are going to increase production.

Mr. KincHELOE. Absolutely.

Mr. Lankrorp. And you wreck the very machinery by which you
propose helping the American farmer. So the greatest problem is
the control of overproduction or the problem of marketing what has
been produced. It would be all right for the American farmer to
produce an abundance if he was able to keep it off the market.
If he is able to look the world in the face and say, “It does not make
any difference what I produce, I am not offering it for sale at all,
and you can not get it.” |

Mr. PurNELL. What, in substance, is your plan?

Mr. Lankrorp. I intend to get to that.

Mr. PurNELL. I want you to present a skeleton at least of your
plan you have in mind.

Mr. Lankrorp. I would be very glad to do that, as fully as possible
before time of adjournment this morning.

Mr. PurneLL. I think you had better go right to it.

Mr. Lankrorp. The bill I introduced is H. R. 77, patterned along
the line of the war finance corporation act. I used the war finance
corporation act as a basis for my bill. I used the first six or seven
sections of that act, simply changing the name of the agency to the
farmers finance corporation.

Mr. PurnNELL. How much of an appropriation would be involved
in your bill?

Mr. Laxkrorp. I think I mentioned $500,000,000. That would
be ‘a matter for the committee to figure out, provided my plan is
worthy of acceptance. That is a mere matter of detail. I provide
in section 8—if I may have the attention of the gentleman from New
Jersey, Mr. Fort and others——

Mr. Fort. I was just asking what had been going on before I
arrived, Mr. Lankford?