STATEMENT OF HON. WALTER ROGERS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS OF THE 18TH DISTRICT OF THE STATE OF TEXAS

Mr. ROGERS. I just wanted to make one observation, Mr. Chairman. I have not prepared a statement but I want to compliment all of those who introduced bills on this subject and, especially, the bill that has been introduced by Mr. Jones of Missouri.

I could outline to you numerous situations in my district and, of course, in that entire section of the country out there. But knowing the research that this committee has done on the subject, I think it would be wasting time to do it.

I do think this, I think we have a problem that is affecting our entire economy. Although as Mr. Jones pointed out this has to do with a temporary situation, it has developed from this disaster. I think we should take a long look at this type of legislation with some degree of permanency, because most of the people that have come out of my district were affected by the drought disaster and could not borrow money and had no choice but to go into the towns and look for a job, cannot go back to the farm. You can keep those people on the farms now with this type of legislation, where they can borrow some money, in order to meet their needs. You not only can keep them on the farm but you can help to solve this recession that is taking hold in this country because the little merchants in these small towns are depending upon their collections from these farmers to stay in business themselves. In one particular instance in Hereford, Tex., they called me and told me that business had picked up about 50 percent after Mr. Benson had announced his price supports on grain sorghums, which show you how sensitive those small towns are to what the Department of Agriculture does. And I think that this sort of legislation and the permanent legislation along these lines is a good investment for this country because you can keep those people on those farms for just about one-hundredth of what it will cost to put them back on there some day after they get into the cities and cause a lot of trouble.

I know that the Farmers Home Administration has tried to do an excellent job but I know that they are not going to stick their necks out and subject themselves to criticism for making bad loans. I think it is up to the Congress to move in and provide them with the authority to take care of the situation. I think it would be a great contribution to what this country needs in the farm areas.

It

Mr. HARRISON. You would not consider these bad loans, would you? Mr. ROGERS. The question of a bad loan, of course, is something that varies with the different districts. If a man does not have adequate security, some fellows will say that is a bad loan. He just won't make a character loan. He does not like to make that kind of loan. creates a very bad situation where a fellow has strained his credit as far as he can go; he wants to stay on the farm but he does not have any place to go to get any money to stay in business with. If you ever let him get off he will not be able to borrow money to get back on.

Mr. HARRISON. What percentage of these people who have been struck by this disaster would you say were in a position that they could not go to the bank or the Farmers Home Administration or some other lending organization to get money to continue their operations?

Mr. Jones said $200 million for the whole thing.
Mr. JONES. That is for the whole United States.

Mr. ROGERS. You mean the amount of money that would be re-
quired?

Mr. HARRISON. Yes; what percentage of the farmers would you
think in your area, or some other area, would be in the position that
they would need this kind of loan?

Mr. ROGERS. I would hestitate to make a guess at that as to the per-
centage. I think that your estimates will probably be based upon
what you generally see in these farming communities. To give you
an example of what has happened in one community in my district,
that has long been a well-known farm community producing some
wonderful citizens for this country as well as wonderful crops. I
was out there not long ago and for every house that was occupied
there were three vacant there, standing there rotting.

Mr. HARRISON. Was that due to the disaster?

Mr. ROGERS. Due to this entire farm situation, to be perfectly honest
about it, and the disaster was the final chip.

Mr. McINTIRE. Could I ask you, Is there any land abandoned that
was formerly in the commercial territory of that community?
Mr. ROGERS. You mean in the commercial farms?

Mr. McINTIRE. That was in the trading center. Has there been
any land abandoned?

Mr. ROGERS. That is the land. The houses I am talking about are
the ones on the farms.

Mr. McINTIRE. I realize that.
land idle?

The house can be vacant, but is the

Mr. ROGERS. The land isn't idle. No; the land isn't idle. The land
simply has been bought in. It isn't being farmed like it was before,
but these people that came off the farms went into the cities to get
jobs. That is where a lot of your recession is developing right now.
And these little merchants in these towns not only lose the money that
those people owe them in many instances but they lose them as cus-
tomers who some day might get enough cash to pay them off and start
trading with them again.

Mr. McINTIRE. Yes. Some of these changes are inevitable.
Mr. ROGERS. I do not think there is any question about that.

Mr. McINTIRE. My little community had a sawmill. When the logs
were gone nobody was there.

Mr. ROGERS. When we got automobiles the buggy manufacturer
went out of business. You cannot help that sort of thing.

Mr. MCINTYRE. When the automobile came it changed-the com-
munity 15 miles away drew the trade from the one that was a mile
away. And so the one that was nearby has taken a reduction in the
volume of business that it was doing.

Some of those changes you cannot help.

Mr. ROGERS. In the economic picture I can appreciate it. But
what I am afraid of, I mean in the overall picture, if we are going to
project our thinking that far, we will get this economy out of balance
and get all of these people into the metropolitan areas and when we
do we will have social problems that will cost us a lot more than what-

Mr. JONES. I might say for the record that Congressman Everett is comparatively new. He was elected to succeed our late friend, Hon. Jere Cooper, and he comes just from across the river from me in Tennessee, and he represents an area which is very much like that which I represent and has been hit by about the same type of disaster. Mr. Everett is not new to Washington. He has been in Washington in various capacities, and he is a well-qualified man and I know he is going to render a high type of service to the people in that area of west Tennessee. I am personally glad that he is here this morning to appear for this bill.

Mr. POAGE. We are delighted to have you and delighted to hear from you.

Please proceed, sir.

STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT A. EVERETT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS OF THE EIGHTH DISTRICT OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE

Mr. EVERETT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and you, Mr. Jones. My district is east of Congressmen Gathings' and Jones' district. The only thing that separates us is the Mississippi River.

Mr. POAGE. That is a pretty good sized thing to separate you.

Mr. EVERETT. From approximately December 22 until the night of January 31, when I was elected on February 1, I had an opportunity to observe these conditions at first hand. I made every country store and every hamlet and every town in nine countries of northwest Tennessee.

Frankly, I have never seen the economic situation, since the great depression of 1930, what it is today. When you go into town and you see empty store buildings and you see the people that you have known for many years and talk to them and see their outlook on life for making a new crop, it is certainly appalling. I contacted several wholesale grocers, several insurance agencies, and others, and asked them about the economic conditions there. They tell me that their accounts are delinquent this year anywhere from 65 to 75 percent. As the Chairman stated a while ago it is not so much that they realize the disaster is there, something has got to be done in a very short time, in which time is of the essence in this matter. I would say for the next 4 to 6 weeks we either have to pass some kind of legislation or there will be a world of these people that will not be able to make a crop there.

I think the $200 million that has been suggested, I would like to recommend that and I would like to recommend that these farmers be given a clean bill of credit and that it be amortized over a period of, say, 4 to 6 years, and I want to say that, as Dr. Long did, that over in northwest Tennessee in the district that I represent, several farmers had to replant 2 or 3 times.

Of course, that incurred additional expense, and also that after they got the crop in, why I have seen hundreds of acres of soybeans as they stated, I have also seen hundreds of acres of crops that they planted late after it was too late to plant cotton or corn to try to make a corn crop there, and water would be, or, say half way up to the head and of course rains came and then the head dropped down in the water, and they completely lost the crop.

This is simply as a leadoff statement.

This is the rice situation and outlook.

Between 1945 and 1953, world supplies of rice were scarce and prices rose steadily. Shortages were caused by wartime and postwar disruptions which had reduced output in important rice producing countries. Although United States rice production before World War II was less than 25 million hundredweight of rough rice, during and after the war it increased rapidly up to 1954, when it reached a peak 64 million hundredweight.

The world rice shortage began to ease in 1953 as supplies from exporting countries became more abundant. Unusually favorable growing conditions and expanding acreage planted to rice, both in importing and exporting countries, improved the supply situation. By the fall of 1953, prices of rice in world trade began to move downward from record peaks.

In view of heavy accumulations of rice in the United States beginning in 1954-55, acreage allotments and marketing quotas were proclaimed for the 1955 crop. Although this action resulted in about 28 percent less acreage harvested in 1955, an increase of about 22 percent in yield per harvested acre boosted the production to the second largest crop on record. The increase of 4 percent in domestic disappearance and about 31 percent in exports during the 1955-56 marketing year was not sufficient to offset the continuing accumulation of rice, and carryout stocks on August 1, 1956, reached the record high peak of 34.6 million hundredweight.

The rice carryover on August 1, 1957, of 20.1 million hundredweight, in terms of rough rice, was 42 percent less than the record of 34.6 million hundredweight, a year earlier.

This sharp cut in rice stocks during 1956-57 reflected record exports of 37.7 million hundredweight, largely CCC stocks moved under Government foreign aid programs.

These exports were 50 percent larger than the previous record of 25.1 million hundredweight in 1952-53. The reduction in carryover also reflected a 12 percent smaller crop in 1956 resulting from acreage reductions due to the allotment and quota programs. Some further reduction in carryover is expected during the 1957-58 marketing

year.

The supply of rice in 1957-58 is estimated at 63.5 million hundredweight, the smallest in the past 3 years. This total consists of the carryover on August 1 of 20.1 million hundredweight, the reduced 1957 crop of 43.2 million hundredweight and imports of about 0.2 million hundredweight, mostly of broken rice.

Use of rice in the United States during 1957-58 is estimated at about 27.2 million hundredweight and exports are expected to total about 19 million hundredweight, again largely from CCC stocks under Government financing. This disappearance would leave about 17.3 million hundredweight, in terms of rough rice, as the carryover on August 1, 1958.

Statistical data on the supply and disposition of United States rice (rough) for the period 1953-54 through 1957-58 are shown in table 1. Data on United States rice production and exports (milled rice) including cash sales and exports under Government programs are

shown in table 2.