Mr. PACE. Mr. Chairman, I am about done. There is a peculiar thing in the Southwest bill. It is difficult to understand. They come in the first section and amend normal supply, amend total supply, to increase the support price of peanuts up to 90 percent. As you all know-I am about done-as I have said, they raised the support up in the first paragraph and about the last one, as all of you know, you have got two flexible price-support schedules. You have got cotton and peanuts. Then you have another one for wheat, corn, tobacco, and what else. The supply percentage on wheat has been down to 102 percent to get 90 percent support. This percentage on cotton and peanuts can be as high as 108 percent and you still get 90 percent support. For some reason I don't understand, and it wasn't explained this morning, they have taken peanuts out of the 108 percent with cotton and they are putting it over with wheat which will have exactly the opposite effect. It will reduce this support price on peanuts.

Now, there may be some justification, but if there is, I can't think of it.

Now, the last section, Mr. Chairman, is a section that would have the effect of telling the Commodity Credit Corporation who should or should not administer the price support schedule. That may be a subject that this committee wants to go into, but I have very serious doubts about it.

Mr. Chairman, I am very grateful to you, sir. I am sorry I consumed so much of your time.

The CHAIRMAN. We certainly appreciate your taking time to give us your opinion of this pending legislation.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Mr. Turner, will you give a further statement?

Mr. TURNER. Mr. Chairman, I would appreciate the opportunity, please, sir, to help my good friend, Congressman Poage, as Mr. Abbitt, if I may, sir, to try to understand the things that you and certainly I am very deeply concerned about, Congressman Poage. I believe some of the best friends I have in the peanut industry are your constituents. We have fought this battle up one road and down the other.

The same thing goes with a lot of your constituents, Congressman Abbitt, and you have seen me at these peanut meetings over a period of 20 years, I suppose. Times and conditions change most everything, and it certainly has changed the peanut-growing habits, productionwise, tonnage per acre. Types of peanuts have been improved considerably by our esteemed gentlemen, some of Congressman Matthews' constituents, who have added to the peanut industry a type of peanut, if you please, Mr. Poage, that has brought about this thing that you and I are talking about, maybe an inequity in differentials, if you please.

The Dixie runner peanut has replaced what used to be, Mr. Abbitt and Mr. Rawling, a hog peanut. It isn't so any more. It is now an outstanding competitive product. We don't deny that, not in one degree. We are proud of it. We are glad of it, sir.

Now, getting back to these differentials-and Mr. Moake I believe is not here on the same grade, if you please, and this is going in the record, we pay within 50 cents a ton for Runner peanuts of what the

sheller in the Southwest pays for a Spanish peanut. That is a matter of record.

Now, if you just look at the grade table that is provided by Commodity Credit, you will find that the base percentage of sound mature kernels is listed down under the base price of sound mature kernels of Spanish, Runners, and Spanish. Then you will find another section for Virginia. So you think, historically, they have used these figures over a period of years and adjusted for trends and higher percentage of sound mature kernels gradewise in the various types of peanuts like it happened to our friend in the Virginia-Carolina area. They have researched themselves into an awful predicament by producing a greater percentage of extra large peanuts that there isn't a market for, and today the Commodity Credit Corporation is outlawing it.

Now, back to your statement, sir. I feel sure that the people on the Southeast, No. 1, would not object to you growing all Runners in your area if you like. They don't want to. Then, neither will we object to you putting us or we putting you-and the shoe may fit the other way, Congressman--the same way we are with Spanish and Runners. I am sure that will be entirely satisfactory. I agreed with Mr. Moake. He called me a few weeks ago on the telephone from Texas. He said, would you object to our putting our grades on Spanish peanuts up to 12 percent? I said, not 1 minute. There isn't anybody in the industry that would object to it.

Now, if Mr. Smith of the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Branch will agree to it, certainly we will agree to it, and I will go out from house to house and plead your cause for you. So, sir, I still say that on this matter of differentials, between Southeast and Southwest Spanish, Southeast Runners and Southwest Spanish, I am sure that we can still sell that for you if that is what you want. Now, that is all I have to say about that.

Just one word, Mr. Chairman, and I will retire. There isn't a man in the world that would rather see a farmer make more money than I. I wonder if you can help the farmer make more money by eliminating his markets or pricing him out of the market. And I submit to you, gentlemen, and I want each of you to listen to this, the records in the Department of Agriculture today are that the biggest increase in consumption of peanuts is the Spanish, is for peanut butter. The next is for candy, and actually this is where the Spanish peanut and the Virginia peanut were hit the hardest. There is a consumption of salty peanuts this yaer where we have an 8 to 9 percent increase overall. In the salted trade that is a reduction in the consumption of peanuts. Now, gentlemen, there can be only two reasons for that. One of them is you have either priced yourselves out of the market or some cheaper thing has come in and taken your place. There is no other reason. So I submit to you, gentlemen, to let you all kiss us out of here and you all throw this thing in the wastebasket until we can get together and work out something that will do us all good. This is going to hurt all of us.

Thank you.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Thank you very much.

Mr. D. H. Hardin, manager, Georgia-Florida Peanut Association. Mr. Hardin.

Mr. PACE. Mr. Hardin is right here.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Do you care to make a statement?

STATEMENT OF D. H. HARDIN, MANAGER, GEORGIA-FLORIDA PEANUT ASSOCIATION

Mr. HARDIN. I am D. H. Hardin, manager of the GFPA in Georgia. I think we have been very fortunate here today. We have had some excellent people on the program. They have made some very good testimony and I doubt whether I would be able to add anything to it if I stayed here and talked for a while. So we have some more fellows here that would like to make a statement, and I would like to pass and let them make their statement.

Mr. MCMILLAN. If you care to file a statement later, if you will send it in to the committee, it will be included in the record.

Mr. HARDIN. Thank you, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Mr. Leon Houston, of Sylvester, Ga.

Mr. PACE. He didn't come, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Mr. Cyril Boyd, Newbery, Fla.

Mr. PACE. He was unable to get here.

Mr. MATTHEWs. Mr. Chairman, may I say this about Mr. Boyd. He is one of my dear friends, one of my constituents and as I said earlier today, he said he wanted to be associated with the statements of Mr. Pace and these gentlemen from Georgia who have represented his views.

Mr. MCMILLAN. If he would like to file a statement, he may.

Mr. MATTHEWS. Thank you.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Mr. Davis, of Graceville, Fla.

Mr. PACE. He did not come either, Mr. Chairman. The notice was a little too short.

Mr. Dunn and Mr. Knowles are here, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Mr. Grady Dunn, Samson, Ala. Would you care to make a statement?

STATEMENT OF GRADY DUNN, SAMSON, ALA.

Mr. DUNN. I will make mine very brief and short, Mr. Chairman. I am Grady Dunn, Samson, Ala., a peanut grower, a member of the board of the Alabama Peanut Producers Association.

One thing I would like to clear up. A little reference this morning was made pertaining to a meeting in Atlanta, Ga., and principally the thing I want to refer to was the substantial agreement reached by all. I think I am not sure of this, but I think the minutes will show that the Alabama delegation present at that meeting made it perfectly clear that they had to take this back to their growers and get their reaction. I want to clear that.

Now, I represent the Alabama Peanut Producers Association here today, which I am very honored to do. The growers at the meeting Saturday afternoon of last week, the directors representing all of the major producing counties in Alabama, they gave me instructions to resist with all force possible any change in the present law at this moment. I believe that is a resolution they passed almost verbatim. That is all I have to say, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Has your organization seen copies of these two bills here?

Mr. DUNN. No. They do not have that information. They have it now, but they did not have it at that time. But they were informed that there was something of this kind up. They didn't know all the particulars of it.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Suppose you take these two bills back with you and let them go over them and send in another statement.

Mr. DUNN. We will be happy to do that at the next director's meeting.

ILLAN

Mr. MCMILLAN. Mr. R. H. Knowles.

STATEMENT OF H. H. KNOWLES, HEADLAND, ALA.

Mr. KNOWLES. I am H. H. Knowles, of Alabama, president of the Alabama Peanut Producers Association, president of GSPA. I did not see a copy of this bill, but just a few minutes ago Mr. Sugg gave me a copy of the bill. I do not have a copy of the bill for the Southwest. Consequently I am not in a position to discuss it at all: We would be happy to get a copy of the Southwest bill and go back and go over it with our directors and register some statement later on. Until today the producers of Alabama are opposed to any legislation at this time.

Thank you, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. The committee will furnish you with copies of these bills, and if you would like to send us a statement for the record, we will be glad to incorporate it in the record.

Does anyone else here care to make a statement?

Mr. RAWLINGS. Mr. Chairman, could I add just a remark or two in view of some of the testimony?

I am William D. Rawlings. I am not going to take the time of the committee in too much detail here, but in view of some of the statements made this afternoon, I feel I should clarify the record a little bit.

First, with reference to the numerous meetings that have been held, I would like to have permission of the Chair to file for the record complete minutes of a number of meetings which have been held on this legislation which I think will be clarifying in view of a lot of the misinterpretations that apparently have been made.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Without objection, that will be done. (The material referred to is as follows:)

MINUTES OF THE PEANUT PRODUCERS MEETING RELATIVE TO DRAFTING PROPOSED PEANUT LEGISLATION, HENRY GRADY HOTEL, ATLANTA, GA., NOVEMBER 18-19, 1957

Those in attendance assembled in room 306 at 9 a. m., November 18, 1957, and H. L. Wingate was elected to act as chairman of the meeting. Joe S. Sugg was elected to act as secretary. A pad was passed for the purpose of determining those present. They were as follows:

R. L. Griffin, Alabama Farm Bureau, Post Office Box 1631, Montgomery, Ala. H. H. Knowles, president, Alabama Peanut Producers Association, Headland, Ala.

R. L. Donaldson, Alabama Peanut Producers Association.

Grady W. Dunn, Alabama Peanut Producers Association, Samson, Ala.
H. L. Wingate, Georgia Farm Bureau, Pelham, Ga.

H. B. Wilson, Georgia Farm Bureau, Peanut Committee Chairman, Abbeyville, Ga.

Bobby J. Locke, Georgia Farm Bureau, Dawson, Ga.

W. E. McDowell, Georgia Farm Bureau, Blakely, Ga.
Charles Shirley, Georgia Farm Bureau, Blakely, Ga.

D. H. Harden, manager, Georgia Farm Bureau, Camilla, Ga.

J. D. Gardner, Georgia Farm Bureau, Camilla, Ga.

R. L. Mauldin, Georgia Farm Bureau, Slyvester, Ga.
Elmer R. Faulk, Georgia Farm Bureau, Ocilla, Ga.
B. B. Saunders, Georgia Farm Bureau, O'Brien, Fla.

W. V. Rawlings, Association of Virginia Peanut & Hog Growers, Capron, Va.
C. R. Barlow, Association of Virginia Peanut & Hog Growers, Smithfield, Va.
A. L. Glasscock, Association of Virginia Peanut & Hog Growers, Chuckatuck, Va.
J. L. White, president, Association of Virginia Peanut & Hog Growers, Elberon,
Va.

H. H. Hudson, Southwestern Peanut Growers Association, Box 489, Holdenville,
Okla.

Ross Wilson, Southwestern Peanut Growers Association, Gorman, Tex.

Marcus B. Braswell, president, North Carolina Peanut Growers Association, Whitakers, N. C.

Joe S. Sugg, North Carolina Peanut Growers Association, Rocky Mount, N. C. R. Hunter Pope, North Carolina Peanut Growers Association, Enfield, N. C. George P. Kittrell, North Carolina Peanut Growers Association, Corapeake, N. C.

W. B. Anderson, Greenwood, Fla.

J. E. Thigpen, USDA, Washington, D. C.
C. T. Mace, USDA, Washington, D. C.

Following the listings of those in attendance, Chairman Wingate called on W. V. Rawlings, executive secretary of the Association of Virginia Peanut and Hog Growers of Virginia to relate the background leading up to this meeting. Mr. Rawlings gave a general outline, setting forth the developments which led up to this meeting, and in so doing pointed out the activities which had been carried out by Joe S. Sugg, executive secretary of the North Carolina Peanut Growers Association, and himself, working with the full cooperation of personnel in the Oils and Peanut Division of the United States Department of Agriculture and attorneys in the United States Department of Agriculture. He specifically pointed out that there was no intention on the part of the VirginiaCarolina area representatives to draft proposed legislation for any other area, but that this activity had been done in the interest of laying down some basic principles as a framework on which this group in the meeting here today could work toward arriving at legislation suitable to the three peanut-producing areas of the United States. He further pointed out that in order to have something with which to work that these principles had been drafted in bill form, along with laymen's explanations of each section, and statistical analysis that this material had been sent to all the people who had been designated as representatives to this meeting in each producing area prior to this meeting, in order that they might become familiar with the material. Mr. Rawlings stated further that he had additional copies for distribution to those present who had not previously received copies.

Mr. Wingate then called on Joe S. Sugg for any comments relative to the background for this meeting, and Mr. Sugg emphasized the necessity for the producers of peanuts in the United States designing and drafting a program of their own liking without outside influence. The need for a new program which would be equally beneficial to the growers and more acceptable to the public has been greatly demonstrated in the past by the continuous attack on the peanut program in the Congress. He further stated that it was the feeling of the designers of the guide material to be used in the meeting today that basically this draft would go a long way toward meeting these requirements. Mr. Sugg further pointed out the existence of and the activities of the Conference of Commodity Organizations which would lend strength to the peanut grower organizations in trying to get peanut legislation enacted through the Congress.

Mr. Ross Wilson, representing the Southwestern Peanut Growers Association, was called on and he concurred generally with the expressions of Mr. Rawlings and Mr. Sugg.

Following these general statements, Chairman Wingate suggested that we first have Mr. Rawlings go over in a general way enclosure No. 2 of the material, which is the laymen's description of the draft of the bill and that following this