As former Director DiSalle wrote October 4, 1951, the Consumer Advisory Committee of OPS had twice discussed the Gillette resolution and at each succeeding monthly meeting of the committee, members have inquired as to the status of the resolution and have expressed the hope that a Senate Select Committee on Consumer Interests might be established and thus give consumers of this country the same recognition already given to small business. The Consumer Advisory Committee of OPS has met monthly since its initial meeting, June 25, 1951. This committee was organized so that the Office of As was stated at the time of the first Price Stabilization might have the benefit of consumer reaction to its program and might better serve the consumer. meeting, "The purpose of the committee will be threefold. We want to make certain that the consumer interests have a definite opportunity to be heard, on an advisory basis, in the formulation of OPS policies and regulations. We want, through their cooperation, to see that the work of OPS is understood by the consumer-minded groups in local communities and by the national offices of the cooperating organizations, and that OPS receives consumer reactions to its program, channeled through the cooperating organizations, to balance the flow of comments and suggestions from industry groups." The Consumer Advisory Committee of OPS now consists of 26 men and women nominated by the following national organizations with consumer interests: American Association of University Women American Council on Education American Federation of Labor American Home Economics Association The American Legion Auxiliary Business and Professional Women's Clubs Congregational Christian Churches Congress of Industrial Organizations Consumers Union of the United States, Inc. Cooperative League of the United States of America Farmers Union General Federation of Women's Clubs League of Women Voters of the United States National Association of Consumers National Congress of Parents and Teachers National Consumers League National Council of Catholic Women National Council of Jewish Women National Council of Negro Women National Education Association of United States National Rural Electric Cooperative Association National Urban League Veterans of Foreign Wars of United States Ladies Auxiliary of Veterans of Foreign Wars of United States This committee has made suggestions of value which have been accepted and put into practice. The members have brought to OPS the grass roots reaction to our program. Their work has involved no expense to the agency as travel costs have been cared for by the cooperating organizations. My experience with this Consumer Advisory Committee of OPS leads me to believe that a Senate Select Committee on Consumer Interests as contemplated in Senate Resolution 169 would perform a needed function. As our Government of necessity becomes more complex with the growth of our country and the intensification of its problems under the present national emergency, it becomes increasingly necessary to develop mechanisms for bringing the lay citizen, the housewife, the consumer, into more direct contact with and participation in government, both the executive and the legislative branches. This is essential if we are to maintain the tenets of the democratic philosophy upon which our country has been built. It is true that several existing committees of the Senate touch one or more phases of consumer interests. Yet there is no one committee and no staff devoted to "study and survey by means of research and investigation all problems affecting consumer interests in the present national emergency." Facts resulting from such study would be of use to several executive agencies, including the Office of Price Stabilization, as well as indicating possibly needed legislation. 99149-52-8 The consumer is unspecialized, unorganized, has few expert spokesmen. While every committee of the Senate keeps in mind the general welfare, few consumers appear at hearings, few are prepared to testify. There is no intention of ignoring the consumer or forgetting consumer interests. There is, however, the question of knowing their problems, of making sure that the consumer interest is fully evaluated in every piece of proposed legislation and in administrative rulings. Consumers are somewhat diffident to appear before legislative committees seemingly in competition with the expert and experienced witnesses speaking for industry, trade, or professional groups. This proposed select committee would provide both legislative committees and executive agencies with needed information on how certain actions would affect the consumer and also would provide an atmosphere in which the consumer would not feel diffident in expressing a layman's opinion. The existence of such a committee would put the consumer in the same status before the Congress as the farmer, the manufacturer and the producer and would afford the consumer the same effective service which the comparable Committee on Small Business has so well supplied to the small-business man. I am in no way suggesting that there is a conflict between the long run interests of the consumer and of business. In fact, the well-being of the consumer is essential for a prosperous economy. But it is necessary to have some special mechanism for the study of their interests. Many legislative committees deal with some phase of consumer interest. The proposed select committee would act to integrate these interests and to study the inter-relationships of factors directly and indirectly affecting the consumer, now dealt with by several committees. Problems touching the consumer handled by my own agency, the Office of Price Stabilization, are dealt with by the Committees on Banking and Currency and on Agriculture, and by the Joint ComImittees on the Economic Report and on the Defense Production Act. A committee to which the consumer could turn with problems affected by all these areas would perform a service in hearing consumers and in research on their problems. Not only does no one congressional committee deal with the over-all problems of consumers but no one Government agency has this function. Each must by necessity of time and staff limitations deal with the specific area falling within its jurisdiction and as a result the over-all coordination is not the specific business of anyone. Much the same was true of small business until the establishment of a select committee dealing with its particular problems. It is with these facts in mind that I speak in favor of Senate Resolution 169 establishing a select committee on consumer interests. (The above-referred letter written on October 4, 1951, by Director DiSalle is as follows:) Senator CARL HAYDEN, OFFICE OF PRICE STABILIZATION, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SENATOR HAYDEN: Thank you for your letter of October 3 enclosing copies of Senator Gillette's resolution (S. Res. 169) and inquiring what this agency might be doing at this time concerning a study of consumer interests. Last spring I appointed an OPS Consumer Advisory Committee which has as its purpose liaison with the consumer public, letting OPS know how the public feels about the various control regulations and helping consumers to understand and cooperate with the program. The committee is composed of 24 members, nominated by large national organizations which have consumer programs. These include diverse farm, labor, women's, religious, educational, consumer, veteran, and minority group organizations. Committee members act as individuals, however, and not as formal representatives of their organizations. They serve without compensation or travel expense. Sessions of the committee are held in Washington monthly with interim meetings of four subcommittees. At the meetings of the full committee, OPS officials discuss the agency's program and operations, and hear an expression of the committee's thinking and a report on consumer attitudes. After each meeting I receive a report of the recommendations of the committee. The subcommittees and their functions are: 1. The Washington subcommittee which plans the agenda for the next meeting of the full committee. 2. Subcommittee on Information which prepares suggestions for the committee to discuss and pass on to the OPS, and keeps in touch with the editors and program chairmen of the cooperating national organizations. 3. Subcommittee on Voluntary Committees which follows the work, needs, and potentialities of local OPS volunteer committees, and keeps the membership of the cooperating organizations alert to their activities. 4. Subcommittee on Policies and Regulations which studies OPS regulations and policies to place before the committee facts and findings on a basis for advisory recommendation to OPS. Specific recommendations of the committee to date have included the posting of beef ceiling prices by grade as well as by cut, and general dollar and cents ceilings as soon as possible. You will be interested to know that the committee has displayed keen interest in Senator Gillette's resolution. At a meeting on July 25 and again on September 11 the resolution was discussed favorably. Very truly yours, MICHAEL V. DISALLE, Director of Price Stabilization. HON. CARL HAYDEN, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Chairman, Committee on Rules and Administration, United States Senate. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you for inviting this Department to testify or submit a statement concerning Senate Resolution 169, creating a Select Committee on Consumer Interests. As my office informed your office by telephone, we chose to respond by a written statement and I am transmitting it herewith. Thank you again for giving us this opportunity. Sincerely yours, CHARLES F. BRANNAN, Secretary. STATEMENT BY SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE CHARLES F. BRANNAN ON SENATE RESOLUTION 169, CREATING A SELECT COMMITTEE ON CONSUMER INTERESTS The sponsors of Senate Resolution 169 and the Department of Agriculture share a common field of concern with respect to consumer interests in the present national emergency. This statement is to help clarify the Department's responsibilities and activities in that field. The Department of Agriculture is charged with two major responsibilities. One is a broad public responsibility for promoting the general welfare. The other is a specific responsibility for promoting the welfare of our rural population. The realm of fulfillment for both responsibilities lies in the maintenance of a sound, strong, agricultural economy within the framework of the American system of private enterprise. Departmental policies and programs for two decades have been based on the knowledge that our national economy is highly interdependent and that no lasting good can come to one sector of our economy that is not also of benefit to the other sectors. This is illustrated by the Department's two major objectives with respect to agricultural commodities: abundant production and reasonable prices. Abundant production assures consumers of reasonable prices in the marketplace. Reasonable prices, on the other hand, assure farmers of the ability to maintain abundant production on the farm. The two objectives supplement each other, just as the interests of consumers and the interests of farmers supplement each other. Many of the research projects, educational programs, and action programs of the Department are directly related to the interests of consumers. Likewise, other activities of the Department, both research and program in nature, are designed to increase the strength and productivity of our agricultural plant and contribute importantly to the welfare of the total population. For example, research activities yield a vast amount of new information each year on methods of improving production and conservation techniques, and controlling disease and insects. All of these activities tend to increase the abundance and improve the quality of food on the Nation's dinner tables. It would be impossible in this statement to detail all of the Department's operations in this field. However, it is appropriate that brief mention be made of some of the projects most directly concerned with the interests of consumers. The Department today is carrying on a number of studies for the purpose of improving marketing practices. These studies deal, among other things, with methods of packaging, transportation, and storage of foods, and improving marketing facilities. Other studies measure costs at different levels of the marketing system. Such research on the distribution system has contributed to the welfare of consumers in several ways. Some projects have resulted in improved quality of fresh and processed food available to purchasers. In other projects, the objective has been to improve the marketing service by adding new processing or packaging features. In many cases, the results of research have been to lower the spread between the costs of production and the ultimate cost to the consumer by eliminating waste in distribution. A third group of research projects is perhaps more directly associated in the minds of most people with consumer needs. This group of projects comprises studies of urban and rural family life. Subjects involved include: Economy and nutritional adequacy of diets; studies of food quality; preparation and preservation methods for household and institutions; composition and nutritive value of foods; human nutritional requirements; studies of levels of living and budgeting problems of rural families; design sizing, construction and buying of clothing and household textiles; consumer proference studies; and studies of farm and home equipment and structures. Based on these projects, publications that present practical application of research findings are widely circulated among consumers. During the past year about five and a half million copies have been distributed. These include more than 150 popular and technical bulletins which are now available. The control of certain animal diseases is important not only from an economic point of view but also from a public health standpoint. The work carried out by the Department and cooperating agencies is of value in decreasing economic losses, and it is also of material benefit in protecting the health of the consumer public. The Department's administration of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the protection it affords users of economic poisons from faulty products and in avoiding injury to persons and beneficial plants and animals is yet another indication of activity in the consumers' interests. The same is true of the Department's red meat, poultry, and processed fruit and vegetable inspection service. Entomological research is responsible for many of the insect-control measures used today. The work of the Department on flowers, shrubs, and trees has enhanced the landscaping of private and public areas. The Department has a responsibility to assist our agriculture in achieving the increased food production required in the present emergency. Through the production goals program we are working for an over-all increase of 6 percent in farm output this year. If attained, this would represent a level of production half again as large as the prewar 1935-39 average. At the same time, we are continuing to work for reasonable prices through the price-support program. It is perhaps appropriate at this point to nail down the fallacy that farmers are riding the crest of a price boom. The great majority of farm prices are not even at the parity level. Moreover, prices of many farm commodities have very little relationship, to consumer prices. For example, the wheat in a loaf of bread that sells for 20 cents, brings the farmer only about 2 cents on delivery to his local elevator. An average grapefruit that sells for 5 to 10 cents in the store, depending on its size, brings the grower one-half cent or less. The cotton in a shirt that sells for about $4 brings the farmer about 40 cents on delivery at the local gin. It is important to note that last year farm operators produced at close to the all-time high-yet the purchasing power of their net farm income was lower than in any year from 1942 through 1948. The Department conducts periodic reviews of the supply-demand situation for all major commodities as a means of determining the level of production required to meet the expanded needs of the Military Establishment and the civilian population. It also has responsibilities for protecting the interests of civilian consumers in the allocation of available food supplies. Under its plentiful foods program the Department works directly with the distributive food trades and large-scale food buyers to encourage the increased purchase and use of foods in plentiful supply. A plentiful foods list is issued monthly pointing out those foods which are expected to be most plentiful in different areas of the country. This list is used as a guide by the food trades and the public feeders to bring to the attention of consumers those foods which are generally most reasonable in price at any given time. One of the less spectacular but important services of the Department to consumer interests is standardization and inspection of agricultural commodities. These activities which originated from a desire of producers, distributors, and consumers of food products for a uniform yardstick with which to measure variations in quality, are becoming increasingly important as consumers become more and more informed of the meaning and importance of grades and standards. From this brief description of selected agricultural programs, it may be seen that consumer interests are woven into the pattern of all of the Department's activities. It is the Department's intent and desire to continue in its service to the public welfare and the welfare of our rural population. The help and guidance of the Congress toward this end has always been fully acknowledged and deeply appreciated. THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE, Hon CARL HAYDEN, Chairman, Committee on Rules and Administration, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This letter is in further reply to your request of October 3, 1951, for the views of this Department concerning Senate Resolution 169, a resolution "That there is hereby created a select committee to be known as the Committee on Consumer Interests and to consist of thirteen Senators to be appointed by the President of the Senate as soon as practicable after the date of adoption of this resolution." and for information concerning any similar study of consumer interests which this Department may be conducting at the present time. The resolution would provide for a Senate committee to conduct a study of consumer interests with particular attention to prices and costs of consumer goods. The establishment of a committee such as is here proposed would result in the duplication of the efforts of this Department and other agencies of the Government to serve the interests of consumers in this general field. The National Production Authority of this Department for example, has established an Office of Civilian Requirements headed by an Assistant Administrator. That Office is responsible for planning and coordinating those actions of the National Production Authority designed to provide goods and services adequate to the needs of the civilian economy of the Nation. That Office investigates the impact of production controls upon the supply of civilian goods and services, estimates essential civilian requirements for consumer goods, acts as claimant for consumer goods and services, and is represented on the Committee for Priorities Administration of the National Production Authority. It also maintains liaison with the Office of Price Stabilization and advises that Office on matters relating to the effect of pricing controls on the production of consumer goods. In addition, the Office of Small Business, National Production Authority, conducts special investigations concerning the impact of production controls and materials allocations on small manufacturers and each quarter analyzes the allotments made for that quarter to determine the degree of curtailment in civilian production which will probably result from the amounts of materials made available. One use of this material is to advise all agencies exercising procurement authority under the defense program of the names of the firms which received the low allotments and, therefore, have production facilities available for the defense program, but another use of the material relates to a study of consumer goods production on the basis of materials allotted. Even if Senate Resolution 169 were adopted, it would be necessary for the Department to continue these activities so that in our allocations of materials to civilian and defense programs, we could continue to give every possible attention to the interests of the consumer. Since the adoption of Senate Resolution 169 would result in the duplication of the work outlined above, we recommend that |