416: 
AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
the President until such an investigation has been made by the board and a 
report thereof submitted by the board to the President. In the conduct of any 
such investigation the board shall give reasonable public notice of its hearings 
and reasonable opportunity to parties interested to be present and to be heard. 
Mr. Kercaam. Have you finished your statement ? 
Mr. Taser. I have finished my statement as far as I care to go. 
Mr. Kercaam. There are just two or three things by way of sum- 
marizing your argument that I would lke to put to you in the 
form of questions. Im the first place, just to get the picture of the 
situation that agriculture is in, I presume you have made a study 
of the indexes that are furnished by the Department of Labor as 
indicating the trend of prices in agriculture and all other commodi- 
ties, and several other groups? 
Mr. Taser. Yes. 
Mr. Kercaam. You are familiar, for instance, with the fact that 
the labor index is at present 228, that the transportation index 
is 157, and that the all-commodity index is 152, while the index 
of farm commodities at the farm 1s 138. Do you subscribe in that 
connection to the general opinion that that variation is attributable 
to a degree—quite a large degree—to legislative procedure—are 
there certain specific acts of Congress that, in other words, may have 
contributed to the making of the labor index what it is instead of 
what it would be had the laws previous to these particular enactments 
been enforced ? 
Mr. Taser. We fully subscribe to the notion that the commodity 
and labor price index, as given by the Department of Labor reflects 
a true picture of our difficulty, and reflects also that that difficulty has 
been contributed to in no small part by the actions of Congress itself. 
and by legislative enactment. 
Mr. Kercaam. Do you share in the opinion that there was any 
malice or any intention on the part of Congress or in the thought 
of anyone that the results as indicated in these indexes would fol- 
low as a result of that action? Do you think it was injuriously 
directed toward the farmer? 
Mr. Taser. We have never felt that Congress, business, or labor 
acted with a desire to injure agriculture. We have felt that their 
superior organization, their superior mobility, made it possible for 
them to secure benefits that did not accrue to other groups. 
Mr. Kercuam. Do you subscribe to the idea that as a result of 
these indexes which, of course, indicate higher purchasing power 
that in general that contributes to national prosperity; in other 
words, the fact is you have no desire to see these men particularly 
crippled in the advantages that they enjoy? 
Mr. Taser. Our policy has always been to build up agriculture 
and not to seek to interfere with wages or standards of other groups. 
_ Mr. Kercaam. Then, if I understand the purpose of your appear- 
Ing here in the advocacy of this bill it is that you believe that this 
bill will best take care of agriculture and place it, as reflected in the 
indexes, on a parallel with the other groups with which reference 
has been made 
Ir. Taser. Our whole purpose and our only purpose in appearin 
here and in advocating this legislation is the honest belief. founded 
on our best judgment and our experience, both in America and else- 
where, that this legislation more certainly, with less expense and less