AGRICULTURAL RELIEF
215
Mr. Mences. When you sell tobacco to foreign countries, you
guarantee that the grade you sell shall be as claimed?
Mr. Moran. We certainly do; yes, sir.
Mr. MEeNGEs. You are not adulterating or mixing it up with
other stuff, are you?
Mr. Morcan. I did not catch that last question.
Mr. MEeNGEs. You are not adulterating the tobacco or mixing it
with other stuff?
Mr. Morean. No. We have these 405 grades, and we guarantee
every hogshead to stand up to that grade. For instance, we sold
the Portuguese Government three-quarters of a million pounds. We
guaranteed every hogshead to come up to standard on the dock at
Lisbon, and every hogshead did.
Mr. MexGEs. Did you ever have any trouble about having tobacco
thrown back on your hands because it was not up to the grade you
had sold?
Mr. Morgan. Very, very little. We have had a few hardsweated
hogsheads, or some similar trouble. But we have a report from the
inspectors that the tobacco from the Dark Tobacco Cooperative
Association was the best graded and the best-handled tobacco that
they have ever had in London.
Mr. Kercaam. A little while ago when you were explaining how
the equalization fee would work out with tobacco, you stated, as I
recall it, that you thought 1 cent a pound would be sufficient.
Mr. MorcaN. Yes, sir.
Mr. KercHaM. I asked you to explain in detail how that money
would naturally be collected, and how paid into the Treasury. Did
I understand you advanced to the committee the theory that that
would not be reflected back to the producer himself?
Mr. Morcan. Oh, no; the producer will pay it.
Mr. KercHaM. You frankly state that the producer pays it but
the machinery does not require thrt he shall pay it. You state that
very frankly?
Mr. Morgan. That 1s my 1dea avout iu.
Ir. Kercaam. I did not think that point was made sufficiently
clear.
Mr. Morgan. If he increases his crop, then the equalization fee
might have to be 2 cents on next year’s crop. But he would know
what it was, and he would understand.
Mr. KErcaaM. And he pays it?
Mr. MorcaN. Yes; the producer pays it. I think he should. I
do not think we should load the Treasury down with that. We are
not asking that. We want to manage our own business, and let the
farmers bear the burden of it all.
The CrairMaN. Frequently reference is made to bringing about
crop reduction. Everybody seems to have abandoned the idea that
it 1s not possible to bring about curtailed production.
Another contention is that an equalization fee or stabilizing of the
price might increase a year’s production. That is quite generally
hinted at around this table. I believe that the characterization 1s
that the producers possess enough intelligence to know that the
larger the crop the larger the surplus and the larger the equalization
fee, and the less the profit, and advancing a convincing argument
to restrict production rather than to increase it.