Dak., stopped at Norfolk, Neb., where we had a large meeting with the cattle producers of that area, and at Freemont, Neb., and here on to Des Moines, today. From Des Moines the committee will proceed to Quincy, Ill., and Bloomington, Ill., the committee dividing at this point to keep those engagements on tomorrow, following which a hearing will be held at Indianapolis, Ind., and concluding the Midwest series at Columbus, Ohio, on next Tuesday.

Then on November 2 we will start our last tour with a meeting at Cheyenne, Wyo., on November 2 with the cattle producers of the mountain area and the range country and then go to Pendleton, Oreg., and hold two meetings at Pendleton, Oreg., and Santa Rosa and Whittier, Calif., concluding the hearings on November 12.

When Congress convenes in January we will start writing farm legislation. It is my privilege to present to you the members of the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives who are present in Des Moines today. There are 30 members on the House Committee on Agriculture, of which we have 13 present today from all sections of the country. I am advised that our colleague from Oklahoma just came in-Mr. Albert-and that is most gratifying.

First I want to present, to my immediate right, August H. Andresen, of Minnesota; next, Ralph Harvey, of Indiana; Page Belcher, of Oklahoma; Harold Lovre, of South Dakota; and Cliff McIntire, of Maine. To the left of our chairman, Congressman Bob Poage, of Texas; Tom Abernethy, of Mississippi; Paul Jones, of Missouri; Bill Williams, of New York; Karl King, of Pennsylvania; Bob Harrison, of Nebraska; and Carl Albert, of Oklahoma.

We are also deeply pleased and gratified to have with us today four of our colleagues from the House of Representatives, Representatives from the State of Iowa. I would like to present them at this time. First, Congressman Martin, of the First District of Iowa; H. R. Gross, of the Third District of Iowa; James I. Dolliver, of the Sixth District of Iowa. I think Congressman LeComte expects to be present before these hearings are concluded. Also Paul Cunningham. He was present at the dinner last evening and will be here as soon as he completes another engagement in this hotel.

I think the audience would like to know that a great deal of interest has been displayed throughout the country as a result of these committee hearings, widely covered by the press and radio. I would like to present the members of our staff and the press and others:

George L. Reid, cur committee clerk; Francis LeMay, committee consultant; Dr. Walter W. Wilcox, committee agricultural economist; George A. Monick, our official shorthand reporter; Donald C. Horton, of the Bureau of the Budget; Dave Pettus, of the Department of Agriculture; Vincent J. Burke, of the United Press; Ovid Martin, of the Associated Press; Bill Blair, of the New York Times; Grant Salisbury, of Capper Publications; Robert Lewis, editor of the Farmers Union News Letter; Dick Braun, of the Farm Journal; Mr. Wright, our radio coordinator; Charles Chapin, of Time, Life, and Fortune; Carl A. Waski, of Time and Life, photographer.

Now I have a very important assignment, which I would like to accomplish at this time. I would like to have Congressman Lovre of South Dakota and Congressman Harrison of Nebraska please come to the center of the platform.

My friends of Iowa and the Midwest, to my right is Congressman Lovre, of South Dakota; to my left Congressman Bob Harrison, of Nebraska. I have traveled through South Dakota and traveled through Nebraska and all that I heard was boasting about the corn that they were raising in those two States. I told them that when they came to the great State of Iowa, the tall-corn State, where corn really grows, that I was going to make them a presentation, so at this time I present to Congressman Lovre and to Congressman Harrison of Nebraska a mere sample of Iowa corn.

Mr. LOVRE. Thank you very kindly. This was-grown in the State of South Dakota. We picked it up there about 3 days ago and I gave it to your Congressman, Mr. Hoeven, at that time.

Mr. HARRISON. This was grown in the State of Nebraska, but we had to put three of them together in order to get one like this.

Mr. HOEVEN. It is now a distinct honor and a real pleasure to present to this audience the chairman of our Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives. Clifford R. Hope of Kansas needs no introduction to a farm audience. He has been a member of the Committee on Agriculture for some 27 years. He is well versed in the problems of agriculture. He is a man who is highly regarded in the Congress, and certainly in his position as chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, he has no equal.

I will say that this Committee on Agriculture is composed of Democrats and Republicans, but we are one committee of the Congress where party lines are not very significant. We try to legislate for the welfare of the farmer.

Chairman Hope has conducted his committee in a very fair way, most generous at all times, most kind, most cooperative, and a grand chairman. And so it is with a great deal of pleasure and pride that I now present to you the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives, the Honorable Clifford R. Hope of Kansas.

STATEMENT OF HON. CLIFFORD R. HOPE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF KANSAS

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Charlie Hoeven. I am delighted to be back in my native State of Iowa today and here in Des Moines which, while it may not be unanimously agreed upon by all the members of this committee, each and every one of whom represent an agricultural State, I think when we get on neutral ground it is generally conceded that this is the agricultural capital of the United States, right in the heart of the agricultural State of Iowa.

It is a fine place for us to conduct a farm hearing. That is why we are here because we do want to get the ideas and views of the farmers here in Iowa and to get their suggestions which we know will be helpful to us when we get on the job of improving and strengthening our farm program, which is the job that this committee has before us.

I am going to turn the meeting over to Charlie Hoeven to preside today. I am happy to do that because I depend on him a lot on that committee. When we have a hard job, we always know that Charlie Hoeven can do it. He has made a distinguished record in the Congress, not only as a member of the Committee on Agriculture, but

along all of the lines in which the people of Iowa and the Nation are interested.

I am going to turn the meeting back over to him in a moment. Before I do so, however, I do want to say to you that we regret that the limitations on time will compel us to impose some restrictions upon the length of time that each witness can take. I will let Mr. Hoeven go into detail on that.

We do want to hear everyone and we will hear everyone, no matter how long it takes to do it. We do appreciate your coming out. We appreciate the interest that all of you in the audience have shown by being here, and we are grateful for the contribution which we know all of those who speak will make to our hearings and to us in working out a sound farm program when we get at that problem in the next session of Congress.

So with that I am going to turn the meeting back to you, Charlie, and I know we are all anticipating a splendid meeting here and a very helpful one.

Mr. HOEVEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before we call the first witness, may I have the privilege to make an announcement? As has been previously indicated, the committee will have to leave comparatively early in the afternoon-part of the committee at least-for Quincy, Ill. The balance of the committee will remain here throughout the hearings today.

In view of the large number of witnesses that are present, there will have to be some limitation on time. We regret that very much, but as the chairman has said, everyone present who wants to be heard is going to be heard. We are going to stay here until everyone has been heard. This is an open meeting, without any qualification whatsoever. So we shall have to limit the representatives of organizations to 6 minutes and individuals to 3 minutes.

You will be notified when the time has expired and we will try to give the witnesses notice as they are to appear. Further, we will recess at 12 o'clock noon, sharp, in order to attend a luncheon being given in this hotel in honor of the Committee on Agriculture, and at which Mr. Hope is to make a statement.

We will convene promptly at 1:30 p. m. in this same room and will then proceed throughout the afternoon until all witnesses have been heard. Those who do not care to present testimony in person have the privilege and the right to file written statements. If they are not prepared to file written statements today, they may feel free to write to the committee in Washington, D. C., giving us their views on farm legislation and anything that they may have on their mind.

We wish to assure each and every one of the people that filed statements, or those who write to the committee at the conclusion of this hearing, that those statements and letters will be made a part of the permanent record of these hearings.

I hope that we can proceed expeditiously. We will try to move along with dispatch and we will notify the witnesses in advance so that they may be ready. May I kindly ask you not to applaud or to demonstrate in any way as these witnesses take the stand, or as they express their views, because the time taken out for applause and demonstration of any kind simply means that we will have to stay here longer to hear all the people who want to be heard at this meeting.

It is only fitting and proper that in this great State of Iowa-and I am so happy that we have the privilege of entertaining and having these Members of Congress here with us today-I daresay that 14 Members of Congress, members of the Committee on Agriculture, in addition to my colleagues from the State of lowa, constitute a very large group of Congressmen out of Washington, perhaps the largest group of Members of Congress that has ever assembled at one time in the State of Iowa.

So I say it is only fitting and proper to this great agricultural State we should ask the chief executive of Iowa to extend a word of greeting. I am going to call on the Honorable William Beardsley, Governor of Iowa, to extend a word of greeting. After that he will proceed as the first witness at this hearing.

Governor Beardsley.

STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM BEARDSLEY, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF IOWA

Governor BEARDSLEY. Thank you, Congressman Hoeven, Chairman Hope and members of the committee. May I say it is with extreme delight that I have the privilege of welcoming you to the State of Iowa. This large attendance at this meeting today I rather think indicates the interest of the people of Iowa in the subject matter which you are dealing with at this time.

We have in our State a full appreciation of the importance of agriculture in this American economy of ours. We are happy indeed that you are here and we have a full appreciation of the fact that it will be largely the responsibility of your committee to hammer out the farm program of 1954.

May I say that we have confidence that you are capable of dealing with this problem, and we are looking to you with expectation and confidence, both.

We have, I think, a sincere appreciation of the importance of agriculture. May I say that the farmers do not want to ride up ahead. They just want to ride along in the seat with the rest of the folks. We have the problem of maintaining farm purchasing power and stopping the constant shrinkage in farm purchasing power.

This process has been going on for more than 30 months and unless it is corrected, it can soften our entire economy. We have a very intricate, or maybe I should say we have a pronounced interdependency in our economy today. When one segment of our economy is adversely affected, very soon it is reflected in other segments of our economy. For that reason in my judgment it is of major importance that we firm up the position of agriculture in our economy.

How important is agriculture in a sound and dynamic economy? You are convened today in the city of Des Moines, Iowa, and within a radius of 400 miles of Des Moines if the crop in that area should be destroyed and the livestock destroyed, it would shake our economy to its very foundation and we would probably lose the peace.

That demonstrates, I believe, how important a sound farm economy is to a sound America and a free world. So again I want to commend you on your presence here and on your intensive study of the farm situation. We have the responsibility of maintaining a sound economic balance, and we have long since learned that when farm

purchasing power slips, it very raipdly is reflected in related lines of business.

I am of the notion, and I would recommend to the committee, that you should take the present farm program as a basis for building a better farm program, maintaining the 90 percent of parity feature. I would suggest that you very seriously consider the development of a food stamp plan so that we could get succulent, nutritious foods into the hands of lower-income groups in our country.

We have the problem of removing the effect of a temporary surplus in a market of abundance, and it is the responsibility of the farmer to provide an abundance, but just when a little surplus appears in the market, it softens the price structure. I would further recommend that we develop a complete program of using our surplus foods to crack the wall of the Kremlin.

I would suggest further that we develop a method of distributing surplus foods to the unfortunate and needy people of our allied lands, and let it bear a legend, let it carry the message that this is from free and generous America. These things are not insurmountable. In my judgment we need to use the business acumen, the good, sound, business ability which has always distinguished our people, and we cannot be a sound nation or continue successfully on a boom-or-bust basis and I am confident that you gentlement are just as aware of that as I am.

Any farm program must pay particular attention and place special emphasis, in my judgment, on soil conservation work. I would suggest that you increase the amount of appropriated funds now for soil conservation work.

The Soil Conservation Service does a tremendous job. They work closely with out State committees and our soil conservation districts. Here in the State of Iowa we have increased, at the State level, the support money for this program 450 percent in recent years.

This should be a national program. In my judgment it demonstrates the permanent value and the true essentials of agricultural work.

It is of importance not only to those of us of our generation, but to generations to follow, and it is a related problem to the ever-present problem in many areas of flood control.

So I say to you that in my judgment the time has come for all of us, wherever we are, or whatever we do, to reaffirm our faith in America, to reassert our belief in the American system and in its future, and when we look at these problems, difficult as they may seem and difficult as they are, when we can compare them to the tragedies of war and the loss of live and destruction which follows in war, they are minor indeed. I think we have the capabilities of doing all these things and providing for a sound economy and an abundant agriculture. May I say to you gentlemen in conclusion, in reaffirming and reasserting our belief in the American way of doing things: Action on the farm front is a part of that. Thank you very kindly.

Mr. HOEVEN. Thank you, Governor Beardsley.

The next witness will be the Honorable Clyde Spry, secretary of agriculture for the State of Iowa. May I say that Mr. Spry has been most cooperative in helping make arrangements for this meeting and I am deepely grateful to him.

Mr. Spry.