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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