38 AGRICULTURAL MARKETING REVOLVING FUND 
to establish confidence. I Lelieve thoroughly that lack of confidence 
has caused at least 2 cents of the decline in the price of cotton. 
. Mr. Dickinson. I imagine from your statement, that in connec- 
Jon with the farm-relief legislation that was before Congress here 
continually for 10 years, you people did not express yourselves at all. 
Mr. Hoan. Yes, sir; we expressed ourselves, but we did not 
express ourselves just exactly as I am trying to express myself 
now. 
The Cuarman. You have seen the publicity that has been given 
to the propaganda against the board that is being financed by some 
organization—I do not know but what it is some cotton organiza- 
tion—that is trying to secure the repeal of the Federal Farm Board 
act, have you not? I think it was said that $100,000 was raised in 
New Orleans. 
Mr. Wirrtams. That was not true. 
The Crairman. That statement appeared in the papers. 
Mr. Parker. The cotton people have an economic committee that 
is studying that whole matter.” They are trying to bring order out 
of chaos, and they have raised a little money for that purpose. 
However, it was not anything like the sum you have mentioned. 
Mr. Bucranan. That ‘statement appeared in the papers. - 
Mr. Parker. It does not amount to anything like that. The only 
thing that this committee has done is on the line of the statement 
that we have made before you gentlemen, that we desire to help 
untangle a bad situation and revitalize the purchasing power of 
this marketing machinery. To that end we suggest that a study 
be made of the whole situation from the economic point of view, 
not just from hearsay, but from the economic point of view, with 
the hope of finding some way to utilize this great marketing 
machinery. 
The Cramyan. I agree with you that if there is any way in the 
world to stabilize cotton or anything else for the benefit of the 
farmer, for the benefit of the manufacturer, the spinner, or anybody 
else, it should be done. I can not conceive of any situation that 
would cause the Farm Board, or those acting for the Farm Board, 
to fail to take into consideration any advice along those lines that 
might be given. 
Mr. Parker. Our experience, I believe, has suggested this thought, 
that when we got the Federal Government to adopt prohibition. we 
thought that was the end of drinking. 
The Cuairmax. There is no drinking now, is there? 
Mr. Parker. Of course there is. 
Now, it is perfectly natural that when the great power of the 
Federal Government is brought to bear suddenly, without any 
thorough economic study to determine the effect of what was done 
under that law, further consideration should be given to it. It was 
a thing that was intended to help, but there has never been a 
thorough economic study of the questions that are involved in it. 
There have been partisans, but, as you know, partisan opinion is 
not always soundly predicated. We have never yet had able men, 
or men who were able to determine the effect of this act or the effect 
of that act on the established order of things—that is, the effect of 
bringing into that established order an experiment and an entirely