Agricultural Department Appropriation Bill for 1934

you create over here the same situation you have corrected in the South. I do not think that is a government function.

Secretary HYDE. Now, Mr. Hart, you get down to the question of who ought to control these extension services. The Federal Government controls in that we assist in the payment of salaries. Actually, the control of the extension services is vested in the States. I do not know any way in the world to keep Alabama from wanting to live at home.

Mr. HART. They can if they want to, but I do not think it's a function of the Federal Government to go out and start a procedure over here which will make this condition occur over here, or vice versa?

Secretary HYDE. Would not the answer to your difficulty, Mr. Hart, come in this way, either give the Federal Government complete control of these agencies, so that they can have a harmonized, unified policy, or giving the States complete control? In one case we could have a unified policy and in the other case each State would work on its own policy.

Mr. HART. I believe in disseminating information for the production of crops, for the control of pests, Weather Bureau, and all that sort of thing, and then let the individual absorb it, if he has a mind to, and use it, but I do not believe it is a function of the Federal Government, or was ever intended under the Constitution, that we should go out and sweep every farmer's doorstep for him, nor that we should furnish market service for the traders or that we should go out and tell anybody how to buy and sell their stuff.

Secretary HYDE. Of course, we do not furnish market service for traders alone. The initial reason for the creation of market service was that the price service then existing in most markets was unreliable from the standpoint of the producers or farmers themselves and there was a dire need to protect him from going up against the gun of some unscrupulous individuals, and for providing an unbiased, fair market report as to what prices were.

Mr. HART. The price is what you can actually buy and sell for and that has always been disseminated in the newspapers. As a trader for 30 years, I have never used the market news service and I have a reputation up in my State of being about as keen a trader as they have up there.

Secretary HYDE. It may be of some help to the dealers in watermelons in New Orleans.

Mr. HART. Well, we have handled those, too, and I have never used them or paid any attention to them.

Secretary HYDE. The reason for it--I am making no defense-but the reason for it was the fact that they did

us.

Mr. HART (interposing). For instance, you have an office at Lansing, Mich., now disseminating information on beans. It sends out a bulletin every week, all of which is ancient by the time it reaches It also maintains an inspection service. It has inspected from 57 cars a year up to 250, something like that in this year. That office must cost $10,000 a year. We have the inspection service up there. We do not need bean information, because we have it every day. It is broadcast through the newspapers and over the radio, and this bulletin comes out once a week, which is a rehash of what took place, and is absolutely valueless to anybody, and yet that office, I will bet you, is costing the Government $10,000 a year.

Secretary HYDE. I confess I do not have the intimate detail on that office, but I will be glad to get it for you if you want it.

Mr. HART. I have the facts on it. I got them from the chief of the bureau.

Mr. JUMP. He testified, though, that all the bulletins sent out in the case you speak of were on request of people in the territory. Mr. HART. They wanted to see what he is doing.

Mr. JUMP. They apparently want to keep on seeing what he is doing, because they do not revoke their requests.

Mr. HART. If you will give me a list of the requests, I will give you a copy of my letter to them and I will ask them what they use them for, and I will produce for you letters from 9 out of 10 of them where they will say they are no good.

Mr. BUCHANAN. That inspection service is about 55 per cent selfsustaining. It has been from 55 per cent to 75 per cent self-sustaining, because they make a charge for each car they inspect. I would like to see it a little more self-sustaining. That is up to the Secretary, I guess, to fix the rates.

Mr. HART. If you get them too high, they are like the postage rates, they will not produce. That is the trouble.

Secretary HYDE. Well, is there anything more, Mr. Buchanan?

COLLATERALIZING FOR LOANS

Mr. BUCHANAN. No; I believe not. I wonder if you could give the committee as near a statement as you can, approximately, as to the amount of these loans that have been collateralized.

Mr. HALL. We will have to prepare that for you.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Well, prepare it and put it in your statement when your testimony comes to you. Just add it to your testimony, as near as you can the amount that has been collateralized, and as near as you can the products collateralized, cotton, generally, and what in different sections, and so forth.

Mr. HALL. It will be all right if we substitute for this November 15 statement, the November 30 statement?