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MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS

HEARING

BEFORE THE

ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF COMMERCE

RELATIVE TO

THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,

September 5 (calendar day, September 12), 1914. Resolved, That the manuscript entitled "Marketing of farm products," by David Lubin, United States delegate to the International Institute of Agriculture, be printed as a Senate document.

Attest:

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MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1914.

Present: Hon. Edwin F. Sweet, Assistant Secretary of Commerce; Hon. Albertus H. Baldwin, Chief Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce; Hon. William J. Harris, Director of the Census; Mr. David Lubin, of California, delegate of the United States to the International Institute of Agriculture, Rome, Italy; Mr. George P. Hampton, of New York, representing certain State granges; Mr. Joseph D. Lewis, chief of division, Bureau of the Census; Mr. H. J. Zimmerman, in charge cotton statistics, Bureau of the Census; Mr. Arthur J. Hirsch, chief of division, Department of Agriculture; Mr. C. T. More, Office of Markets, Department of Agriculture; and Mr. G. C. White, Office of Markets, Department of Agriculture.

STATEMENT OF MR. DAVID LUBIN, DELEGATE OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE, ROME, ITALY.

The ASSISTANT SECRETARY. I believe we are going to listen to some suggestions by Mr. Lubin on the subject of marketing farm products in continental Europe, to see what we can learn from their example.

Mr. LUBIN. We see in the papers this morning and last night the statement and wishes of the President in the matter of the undue rise in the price of food products, and the evil influences on the economic condition of the people resulting therefrom, and that he has asked the Department of Commerce to take this subject up in an investigation, with the end in view of finding an effective remedy. Believing that I had a tentative proposal in that direction to offer, I asked for this hearing.

This inquiry, as it appears to me, offers the department the choice of one of three different modes of procedure

First. To merely make an investigation, and let the report go to the people;

Second. To advocate the penalization of those supposedly responsible for the evil complained of; or,

Third. The adoption of a working plan calculated to diminish the possibility of the cause which generates the evil.

It was in the belief that this department is to be actuated by the third of these motives, that I asked for this hearing. I will now proceed to submit my suggestion. Briefly, it is the adaptation and adop tion in the United States of the European system of marketing farm products.

I offer this as a remedy not merely to meet the temporary phase of economic disturbance said to be caused by the war, but also as a means of permanent economic betterment which it would afford long

after the war will have been forgotten; for the betterment I have in mind is of a permanent nature. And the question now remains, which of the three motives just enumerated is to actuate the department in this inquiry?

The ASSISTANT SECRETARY. I think you can fairly assume that the latter one of the three is the purpose, Mr. Lubin. We want to do what we can for the betterment of the general conditions.

Mr. LUBIN. Well, then, it is in order for me to proceed, but before doing so I desire to state that Mr. Hampton, a coworker, is here with me, and that he represents some State granges. What granges do you represent, Mr. Hampton?

Mr. HAMPTON. Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Nebraska, South Dakota, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

Mr. LUBIN. I have been working in conjunction with Mr. Hampton and with Mr. Creasy. Mr. Creasy is the master of Pennsylvania State Grange, and when I leave Washington I am to present this subject before the executive committee of the Pennsylvania State Grange, but the presentation then will be modified in some essentials from that made here, the reason for which I will explain further on. The basic feature in the German system of marketing farm products is its "Landwirtschaftsrat" (its national council of agriculture). This Landwirtschaftsrat is a semiofficial body, which, beginning in the township, the county, thence upward to the Province, culminates in the national organization of its 72 members, with its seat in Berlin. Its revenue for expenses is met by Government taxation of each farmer having a vote. It has the power (in a consultative and in an advisory manner) under Federal law of exercising the initiative and referendum on all laws that are being enacted, or that are up for discussion in the Reichstag, which have a direct or an indirect bearing on the industry of agriculture, and it has the right to submit amendments or ask the repeal of existing laws bearing on the subject of that industry. Of course, this is only an advisory body, but it is quite clear to be seen from its operation that it is one of the most powerful political and economic bodies in Germany. Incidentally it also looks out for the thousand and one things that come under the head of promoting agriculture, such as buying, selling, production, distribution, cooperative work, rural credits, etc.

Now, the proposal that I will submit to this department does not embrace the taking up at this time of the Landwirtschftsrat; that will be done at some future time by the farmers themselves, but what I will offer right now is intended to serve as a substitute, and is of a temporary character, in order that the success which is to follow from the start may serve as a means to hasten on the adaptation and adoption of the European marketing system in its most approved and complete form.

The ASSISTANT SECRETARY. Would you object, Mr. Lubin, to our asking you a question once in a while as you go along?

Mr. LUBIN. Not at all.

The ASSISTANT SECRETARY. I would like to ask you if the advisory power of this body is restricted to laws affecting farmers or landowners?

Mr. LUBIN. I think that it is confined to the things that appertain to agriculture, either directly or indirectly. The Landwirtschaftsrat probably would not be consulted on matters foreign to

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