AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
671 
culture as a whole is prosperous it would perhaps be well to let that 
law work, but when we have conditions which bring about an arti- 
ficial rise in the cost of labor and other farm costs, and then only one 
commodity out of a group begins to pay anything like a profit for 
its production, if we let that law work so it beings about the average 
the average will be so slow that the production of none of those crops 
will be profitable. 
_ Mr. AnDRESEN. You stated before the committee that the dairy 
industry was the best organized industry in agriculture. The 
reason for that is this, as I see it—and I am asking this question: 
Is not the reason for that that there is no surplus of agricultural 
commodities, and that our entire production is not sufficient to 
supply our domestic consumption, by reason of the fact that there 
is no surplus, the cooperative industry is organized and so successful? 
Mr. SeExaukR. 1 do not quite agree with that. I think the pri- 
mary reason why the dairy industry is better organized, perhaps, 
than any other is the fact that the dairy products are more or less 
perishable and have to be marketed more or less every day or every 
month or every year, depending on the particular type of com- 
modity which you are producing, and it is not like wheat or some 
other commodities that can be stored over a period of years. Con- 
sequently, the man who produces milk in fluid form has to provide 
himself with a market for that milk to-day. He has to have that 
market to-day. Unless he is assured of what we term in our slogan 
“A market for every man every day in the vear,” he suffers an 
irreparable loss. Consequently that has brought about conditions 
that forced him to organize quicker than the man that produces 
some of these other commodities, in fact, our organizations were 
formed when we did have an exportable surplus when we were suffer- 
ing some of these conditions. 
Mr. Kercnam. Did you go into the causes that have possibly 
brought about a maladjustment that you refer to? 
Mr. SExAUER. No; I did not. I took the position that this com- 
mittee had been studying that for a period of years and probably 
knew more about it than I did. 
Mr. Kercaam. I wondered if in your own mind you assigned any 
particular things that have been done in a legislative way that you 
think has created this present price disparity? 
Mr. SEXAUER. I am not an economist and perhaps all the infor- 
mation that I have gathered can be taken out of one or two publica- 
tions, or at most three: Business Men’s Reports and Condition of 
Agriculture by the National Conference Report. 
Mr. Kercaam. Of course, you are very familiar with the report of 
Doctors Warren and Pearson? 
Mr. SEXAUER. Yes. 
Mr. Kercaam. Have you followed their discussion as to the causes 
of the present price depression in agriculture? 
Mr. SExauver. To quite an extent. 
Mr. Kercaam. Do you agree with the conclusions as to the causes? 
You recall they mentioned the increase in interest charges, the increase 
in local taxation, and the increase in the costs of distribution; they 
classed those factors as important in the present price maladjustment? 
Do you agree with that? 
[6160—28—SER E. PT 9— 
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