AGRICULTURAL KELIEF

639
pressure has been put on him; will he feel that it is not a square deal
and that you are trying to force him to do something he does not
want to do and therefore say “I will not join.” He will pay the fee
under protest, I fear, and even through the bill works well, will it not
be more or less unpopular and hard on the cooperative associations?

Then, there is another objection I have to the McNary-Haugen
bill, which I hope this committee will remedy, if possible before they
vote the bill out, either with the equalization fee or without it I am
concerned about the individual American farmer. I am concerned
about the farmer who carries his cotton to market, as my father did,
and sells one bale or two bales.

Now, the McNary-Haugen bill would provide for taking a certain
amount of the commodity off the market. The organization would
buy that commodity from the poor fellow who has to sell. That
commodity passes out of his hands; it passes into the control of the
cooperative association. They may hold it off the market; they may
dispose of it as they please. Prices may he boosted by operations,
but the poor fellow has already sold out. He has lost. And he has
lost because his cotton was sold too low. Cotton may go up. People
may say, ‘‘Oh, well, the South is getting a good price for its cotton.
Cotton is bringing a better price,” but the poor man who sold it lost.
He is out. That is the objection I have to the export plan. That,
is the objection I have to the plan of my good friend from Georgia
Mr. Crisp. That is the objection I have to nearly all these plans
that do not take care of the poor fellow who planted and made the
cotton where you boost the price after it is too late for him.

Now, if you can work out some plan in the McNary-Haugen
bill through the drafting service or through members of the committee,
providing that when cotton is bought from a fellow who does not
belong to the cooperatives, and later on the cotton goes up that in
some way you will take care of him so he will not lose, you will thereby
improve the bill very much. It will be a wonderful help to the bill
if you can work that out and put it in the bill. I am for the plan I
suggest here in my bill because I have drawn that plan in the interest
of the individual. He holds his own cotton. He may borrow
money on it, and manipulate any way he pleases. But he does not
sell it at a sacrifice; he holds it and when cotton goes up he gets the
benefit of the increase. }

I have another suggestion which I wish to make to the committee.
[ took the McNary-Haugen bill and performed a simple, painless,
bloodless operation by trimming out of that bill the equalization-fee
provisions and inserting in lieu thereof the debenture plan in a modi-
fied form. I provided that the debentures be issued not to the ex-
porters but that the proceeds go into the stabilization fund of the
McNary-Haugen bill so as to make unnecessary the equalization fee
and yet give the farmers the benefit of the other provisions of the
McNary-Haugen bill. I believe this plan is preferable to the present
plan of an equalization fee. I know that I like the idea much better.

I also took my contract, production and marketing, control plan
and grafted it into the McNary-Haugen bill and reintroduced it as
an independent bill as a suggestion, but I am free to confess that I
think my original plan is much better for many reasons, which 1
shall be glad to explain to this committee should the committee ever
wish to take up the idea of comparison of the two plans.