578 AGRICULTURAL RELIEF Mr. Menges Those products go in export? Mr. SExaviRr. In export, yes; absolutely. Mr. MENGES. You are not in the business very strong, are you? Mr. SExAUER. We have been forced out of the business? Mr. CLARkE. Is there anything more you want to say? Mr. Sexavuer. Nothing more. : Mr. CLarkE. Mr. Chairman, he has the right to revise and extend his remarks? The CuairMAN. Oh, yes; they all have that. oo STATEMENT OF WILLIAM H., SETTLE, PRESIDENT INDIANA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION Mr. SETTLE. In a crisis that has continued for seven years, such as has been the case with the present crisis in the farming industry, surely there has been plenty of time to study the cause of this con- dition, and to reach some conclusion as to the remedy that is needed. You can analyze the trouble for seven years more, and you can only come to one conclusion—that is, that everything the farmer must buy including labor, is too high in comparison to what he receives for that he sells. There is a reason for manufactured articles and labor prices con- tinuing on a high level; and there is also a reason for agricultural products remaining on a lower price level. Artificial means such as the tariff laws and immigration laws are stimulating and maintaining these prices. That has always been the argument in favor of such laws, otherwise, there would have been no demand for them in the first place. Such artificial means of protection as the tariff do not apply to our surplus farm crops and never can apply to them under our present system of distribution. If they could be applied under the present system, it would have been done long ago. As I see it there are two forms of the problem that we are trying to solve. One is best illustrated in the case of cotton, where our exports are sufficiently large to become a dominant factor in the market of the world and in world price. For such a crop, the need is to provide a means whereby we can supply the world markets and world needs in an orderly way, without forcing such markets to take what they do not need or want at a particular time unless they can buy it at a bargain price, as is the case now—and of course, these bargain prices determine all prices. The bill we are now considering and supporting provides a means to overcome this difficulty. The second form of the problem is presented by such crops as wheat corn, hogs, and cattle where our surplus can not become a dominant factor in world markets and world prices. With such commodities the need is to provide a means whereby the smaller surpluses as sold abroad shall not determine the price of the whole commodity as is the case now. The Haugen bill provides the means of overcoming this difficulty. Legislation aimed at farm relief that does not undertake to cope with these two problems, is of no value to the farmers. Any legis- lation that does not provide a fund for paying losses incurred in dealing with these surpluses is of no value because if crop surpluses are handled intelligently and for the best interests of the producers losses are sure to occur.