Agricultural relief: Export debenture plan

Export debenture plan (Pt. 5)

Bibliographic data

Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1831932415

Document type:: Multivolume work

Title:: Agricultural relief

Place of publication:: Washington

Publisher:: Gov. Pr. Off.

Year of publication:: 1928

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1831934671

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-232129

Document type:: Volume

Title:: Export debenture plan

Volume count:: Pt. 5

Place of publication:: Washington

Publisher:: Gov. Pr. Off.

Year of publication:: 1928

Scope:: III S., S. 299 - 427

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Statement of Albert S. Goss, Master Washington State grange and member Executive Committee, national grange, Seattle, Wash.

Collection:: Economics Books

AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 379 Mr. KincaeLoe. Was that the reason the Government during the war told them to plant wheat and more wheat? Mr. Stewart. But there was a larger acreage in 1919 than in 1918 by 16,000,000, which I believe is about 28 per cent. I say that merely to point out that we ought to become rather skeptical about some of the claims as to the danger of acreage expansion. It is not so true of some commodities as it is of other commodities. But, pass- ing that point and granting the worst fears of those who seem to be seeing ghosts in the matter—granting that those worst fears are true, it seems to me it is a logical thing to include in a measure of this kind a definite and drastic basis for withdrawing the debenture in case there is a marked increase in acreage; and I think about three methods could be properly proposed to govern that. I have one with me this morning. Mr. McSweeNEY. In my home town there is a brush factory, and they tried to speed up production by increasing the rates for piece- work in that factory, and they found that those men, whenever they had increased their wages, as soon as they had earned the regular amount they used to earn per week, they would knock off that many days and not produce any more. Is that true in growing crops, that if the price went up there would be a tendency to cut down? Mr. Stewart. I think it is true that, when the price goes down in agricultural commodities, there is not always a tendency to cut off production. In other words, there are stabilizing factors all through our economic life. But, assuming that the worst fears of those who fear the improbable should be the basis for the preventive measures, it has seemed to me that you should in the first place consider two or three ways of getting at the problem. One is the basis of expor- tation. If we should find that exportation of any debenturable com- modity has increased 10 per cent, then there should be an automatic cut in the rate of debenture. The rate should be cut drastically enough that it would cease to enable any one commodity to run away with the benefits that are available under this system. That 's one basis—the exportation basis—the basis of actual export. On the other hand, suppose that you should consider the acreage basis. Of course, you could not apply that to livestock. You would have to use, in lieu of acreage, in the case of livestock, some sort of a production criterion. But if you wanted to use acreage, you would require a different scale by which you would cut down. and I have suggested here a scale. For a computed increase in production of acreage of less than 5 per cent, no reduction in rates of debenture; for an increase of between 5 and 15 per cent, a reduction of one- fourth in the rate of debenture; for a computed increase of 15 per cent to 25 per cent, reduction to one-half; in the case of an increase of from 25 to 50 per cent, reduction by three-fourths; and in case the production was in excess of 50 per cent, the complete withdrawal of the debenture, or at least 99 per cent of it. That is a suggestion. In connection with this point I would emphasize that such a change in acreage should be computed on a sufficiently broad basis that the farmer could see what he was in for if he persisted in increasing acreage. Suppose that you should say that, if during the past two years the farmers had increased their acreage of any one of these debenturable commodities by 20 per cent. then there would be this

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