AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
025 
determine the constitutionality of the equalization fee. If you pass 
the bill with the equalization fee in it and the President should for 
any reason change his mind and approve it, you are going to have 
litigation then for two years, and what good is it going to be to the 
country during the two years? If they go off the farms at the same 
rate they have gone off the last two years, there will not be anybody 
out there to work. 
I thank you, gentlemen. That is just my sincere idea about it, 
and I am just as sincere in my endeavor to get some farm legislation 
as any representative of any farm bureau or any farmers in this 
country. 
Mr. WiLLiams. I take it you are aware of what every farm Mem- 
ber of Congress is aware, that there are powerful influences operating 
here in Washington that would prefer a veto to the passage of a 
farm relief measure. They are looking for a veto; they want it. 
Mr. McKeown. Mr. Willisms, as sincere as I am about the legis- 
lation, I can not comprehend that viewpoint. I can not agree with 
that viewpoint at all. 
Mr. WiLLiams. I know we do not agree. But I say we have those 
influences here; they are obvious. 
Mr. AswieLL. The committee has been told that a dozen times. 
Mr. McKeown. I am just giving you the viewpoint of a man who 
wants to do just the best he can, and just can not understand why 
they prefer none at all. If it were a surrender of principle, I can see 
why men would contend and stand out for the principle. But we 
are confronted here with the proposition of either doing something 
or nothing, and I would not be willing, as earnestly as I am for legis- 
lation, to stand up and vote for legislation when I know it would be a 
mere mockery. That is just the situation as I see it. 
Mr. AsweLL. I will say further that I think at least a hundred 
Members of Congress who voted for the McNary-Haugen bill with 
the equalization fee, on both sides of the House, who have talked to 
me and other members of this committee, and expressed their views 
that the committee at this time should report out the bill without the 
equalization fee, and that is the position of a large number of Members 
of Congress who have sincerely and earnestly supported this legisla- 
tion. But it is not going to be done. 
Mr. McKeowx. I have no criticism for those who honestly differ 
with me. I have no criticism of these representatives of the Farm 
Bureau who are honestly and sincerely standing up for the interests 
they represent. But I am talking to you now as a practical proposi- 
tion of a man who wants to do something for the farmers of this 
country, and I am just as sure as the chairman of this committee, 
and the chairman of this committee is just as conscientious in this 
matter as the rest of us. But you have a condition confronting you 
now and not a theory, and who can sav which of these methods 1s 
the best for agriculture? 
The CrAIRMAN. The committee for four years worked as we have 
on this bill in an effort to pass the oleomargarine bill. We were told 
then it was unconstitutional. We said, “Never mind, we will pass 
it and try it out.” The courts held the oleomargarine bill con- 
itutional. . 
hon we took up the packers and stockyards act, our hearings 
ran through two sessions, and the hearing in one session covere