goods, out of the ton of peanuts. According to the testimony of the last witness, about 10 percent, or 200 pounds of those, are extra large. About 10 percent or 200 pounds are medium. About 15 percent or 300 pounds are No. 1's. And about 200 pounds, 10 percent, are No. 2's. That is about the breakdown; not being exact, but it is about the breakdown. Mr. FEARING. No, Mr. Pace, I presume you have the figures from some miller. Mr. PACE. No, sir, I have the figures from what I regard as a better source than that. Mr. FEARING. Well, from the Department of Agriculture perhaps, or from the Commodity Credit Corporation, that have been grading these peanuts. I think perhaps you have hit an average. Mr. PACE. Well, these are the figures that are generally used by Mr. Gilliam. Mr. FEARING. Well, that is a miller. Mr. PACE. Then, as I understand it, the things that were in short supply this year, because the season was unfavorable, were this 200 pounds of extra large and the 200 pounds of mediums. That is what was short. That is what went up so high. Mr. FEARING. And also the fancies and Jumbos. Mr. PACE. Well, maybe the Jumbos, too. Now, there was no shortage in No. 1's. Mr. FEARING. There didn't seem to be. Mr. PACE. And there has been no big increase in the price of Jumbos. Mr. FEARING. No, sir. Mr. PACE. They can still be bought today. Mr. FEARING. They were selling along with the ones from the Southwest and Southeast. The competition kept the price down. Mr. PACE. And they can be bought today; the number ones? Mr. FEARING. Yes, sir. Mr. PACE. And, of course, the number twos. Mr. FEARING. Yes. Mr. PACE. Then what we are dealing with here is 200 pounds of extra large, and 200 pounds of mediums, out of a ton of peanuts. Is that right? Mr. FEARING. Fancies and Jumbos, too; the peanuts in the hull. Mr. PACE. The Jumbos I have not tried to ignore, but I have taken them out. They do not have to be hulled, and they bring a fancy price. Mr. HARDY. Where are you going to get them, Steve, if you do not have them in there, in that percentage? Mr. PACE. I am trying to find out whether it is due to the fact that there was an unfavorable season and you did not have so many Jumbos or extra large. Might I interrupt here to say that for 14 years I have worked with you on peanut programs, and I anticipate the privilege of working with you on this proposal. Usually we can get together and find some common ground to do things. Mr. FEARING. Yes, sir. Mr. PACE. But is it not true that you could add 10 or 15 percent to your Virginia acreage, and exactly the same thing could happen any time if you had a bad season? Mr. FEARING. I will make this statement, sir: That peanuts are subject to climatic conditions as to yield and quality as much as any crop that we grow for cash. Mr. PACE. Yes, sir. And it has been testified that only twice in your time, if I can remember, have you had this shortage. One was in 1941, and the other was last year. Is that your recollection? Mr. FEARING. I really could not tell you the years, but we have had peanuts in short supply several years, and we have had them in sufficient supply a good many years. The CHAIRMAN. They were not in short supply in 1941, were they? Mr. POAGE. I want to ask the gentleman what he received for peanuts this last fall. Mr. FEARING. I will have to give you an average price, Mr. Poage. I started selling peanuts at a time when I took whatever the actual grade price was, according to the contents of the peanut and the moisture content. Mr. POAGE. How much was that a hundred? Mr. FEARING. It ran from about 10 cents to 9.75, say, to 12. Now I sold peanuts from 2 months, November and December, and at various times I sold them at different prices. And along toward the last, I could almost get my own price for them up to 12 cents. I didn't sell any at any higher price than that, because I sold out just a little bit too soon. Mr. POAGE. Now, I am just like the rest of these gentlemen. We do not know your method of selling and all of these margins, but, as I see it, you as a farmer got anywhere from 9.75 to 12 for your peanuts? Mr. FEARING. Yes, sir. Mr. POAGE. They cost the consumer, of course, anywhere from 50 to 65 cents a pound? Mr. FEARING. You mean the ultimate consumer? Mr. POAGE. I mean when I buy them in a grocery store, in a can, Planters generally cost me 65, I believe. Mr. PACE. That is 8 ounces, and not 16. Mr. POAGE. Oh, it is twice that, is it? It is twice that. Well, in any event, if it is twice that, if that is $1.30 a pound, that is a little more than 10 times what you got for peanuts, is it not? I understand that they did not sell them all for that. I am just trying to find out what happened. That is on those three best grades. Mr. ENGLISH. May I answer the question, please? It seems to me that it is unfair to ask a farmer to vie you figures about milling operations or about a manufacturer's operations. I think the questions should be directed to the segments of the industry that cover the various production for each product. Mr. POAGE. Mr. English, I have just gone through the unhappy experience of trying to ask questions of one of these processors, and he told me he did not know anything about that, and I had better ask a farmer about what he was getting. Mr. ENGLISH. I beg pardon. You asked what he received for his peanuts. It is not a published fact, whatever any farmer gets for his peanuts. It is his own business. And you must ask the farmer what he got for his peanuts. Mr. POAGE. If you take the position that this committee has no right to know what farmers get for their peanuts or no right to know what processors are paying for their peanuts, I think we do not need that kind of testimony up here. We need some information. We are trying to do a job here of learning something about this industry. I do not know all of the ramifications, and I am trying to find out. The minute I begin asking any questions, you begin taking the position that I am mistreating you or misrepresenting something. I am not misrepresenting anything. I am trying to find out what the facts are. I did not find that out from you, and I did not find it out from the other gentleman representing the processors. I find farmers are pretty generally well informed, and if this farmer can tell me what he got, we can add the common knowledge as to what the consumer had to pay, and then it seems to me perfectly easy to find what the costs in between are. I do not know how much of it is expense and how much of it is profit. I do not know how much is profit when this gentleman gets 12 cents for his peanuts. There may be no profit in it. It may all be cost. When you sell those same peanuts for $1.30, there may not be any profit in it. It may all be cost. But it still leaves the fact remaining that the farmer who grew those peanuts got less than one-tenth of what the man who ate them paid. And I am wanting to find out what is so expensive in between that man who grows those peanuts and the man who ate those peanuts; and I just wonder if some of this solicitude about this consumer might not be directed to that nine-tenths of that cost rather than all being directed to that one-tenth that the farmer gets. Now I just believe that some of you gentlemen who have been coming here year after year seeking to get the price of peanuts reduced to the farmer might do the farmer and the consumer a great deal better service if you directed your inquiry to that nine-tenths of that consumer's cost, instead of trying to break the market on that one-tenth that that fellow got for selling his peanuts. The CHAIRMAN. Now, Mr. English, you have stood up and asked permission to answer the question which Mr. Poage propounded to Mr. Fearing. Do you know what the question is? Mr. ENGLISH. I am prepared to answer his questions to the best of my knowledge from the time that the peanuts are grown until they are consumed, and I have a pretty good idea of the operations all along the whole line of peanut manufacturing, because we are in that business. If he will ask the questions one after the other, Mr. Chairman, I will answer them to the best of my ability. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Fearing has testified that he sold his peanuts at anywhere from 9.75 up to 12 a pound. Mr. Poage observed that in buying peanuts salted and in a can in a store in Washington, he pays $1.30 a pound. Mr. ENGLISH. May I correct that statement, Mr. Chairman? That is not true. The CHAIRMAN. What is the fact? Mr. ENGLISH. The price of the 8-ounce can ranges anywhere from 33 to 37 cents for a half-pound vacuum can. And if you want to know about the mechanics of packing and the expenses and overhead, I can tell you that. The CHAIRMAN. The fact is, then, that he was right in the first place when he said he paid about 65 cents a pound for them. It was somebody else who corrected him. Mr. ENGLISH. They don't come in 1-pound cans. 71779-50-ser. Mr. ENGLISH. All right. We will stand on that. The CHAIRMAN. The difference involved is the difference between 9.75 and 12, on the one hand, and 60 and 65 on the other. Mr. ENGLISH. Will you permit me to go through all the steps of the manufacture? The CHAIRMAN. Did you want to make any further statement, Mr. Fearing? Mr. FEARING. No, sir. It looks like I have about run out. Thank you. The CHAIRMAN. I do not want you to feel that you have run out or been run out. You have filed your prepared statement? Mr. FEARING. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And you have stated that you are in favor of the Abbitt bill? Mr. FEARING. I am; absolutely. The CHAIRMAN. And you feel that it can be justified on the separate types of peanuts? Mr. FEARING. Yes, sir. Mr. ABBITT. Let me ask the gentleman a question, if I may. The CHAIRMAN. Just make it brief. Of whom did you want to ask the question? Mr. ABBITT. Mr. Fearing. The CHAIRMAN. Very well. Mr. ABBITT. Mr. Fearing, as I understand, there was some question about a gentleman here mentioning a meeting in Memphis. Can you shed some light as to that meeting? Mr. FEARING. Yes. I attended that meeting, and, of course, you people have seen the results of it. Mr. PACE. This is the Memphis meeting? Mr. FEARING. Yes, sir. And we couldnt't come to any agreement. We passed a resolution at the last of the meeting. And when we left, we told the gentlemen present that what we were doing was subject to confirmation by our farmers back home; that this was just trying to do something, and we were, in other words, having a feeling-out generally to see what the attitude of those boys was toward the Abbitt bill. We stated to them in the beginning of the meeting that we were in favor of the Abbitt bill, and they told us positively that they were opposed to it. The CHAIRMAN. Told you what? Mr. FEARING. Told us they were opposed to it. The CHAIRMAN. Who told you they were opposed to the Abbitt bill? Mr. FEARING. The gentlemen from the other States besides Virginia and North Carolina. Mr. PACE. What was the resolution? Mr. FEARING. Let me read the minutes of the meeting. I am not much of a reader or an elocutionist, so you people just bear with a humble farmer. The meeting convened at 9 a. m. Mr. Walter L. Randolph, president of the Alabama Farm Bureau, was designated chairman by the unanimous vote of the other delegates present. Persons who participated in the meeting are as follows: R. Flake Shaw, Greensboro, N. C.; Bill Rawlings, Capron, Va.; Ed Finlayson, Greenville, Fla.; A. J. Singletary, Blakely, Ga.; A. D. Richardson, Floresville, Tex.; Charles L. Roff, Durant, Okla.; J. B. Fearing, Windsor, N. C.; S. N. Clark, Tarboro, N. C.; Walter L. Randolph, Montgomery, Ala.; Tom J. Hitch, Columbia, Tenn. Action No. 1: A motion was made and seconded that we favor a 5-acre minimum allotment for peanuts. Motion lost. Action No. 2: It was moved, seconded, and carried that we recommend the enactment of a provision authorizing the surrender and reallocation of peanut acreage with a further provision that the farmer surrendering acreage shall not lose history unless he surrenders acreage for 3 years. That was to use up the acres not used this year and let somebody else have them. Now, here is a very important resolution: Action No. 3: It was moved, seconded, and carried that we go on record as opposing the two-price program for peanuts. And that is what you have got if we don't get the Abbitt bill. The CHAIRMAN. You went on record as opposing the amendment? Mr. FEARING. We went on record as opposing a two-price program for peanuts. Mr. PACE. That referred to the excess production. That does not have anything to do with this bill. Mr. FEARING. Not a thing in the world. The CHAIRMAN. Did you take any action on the Abbitt bill at all? Mr. FEARING. Except that they were opposed to it, we didn't even get a vote on it. The CHAIRMAN. They were opposed? Mr. FEARING. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Who was it you elected chairman? Mr. FEARING. Mr. Walter Randolph. Mr. PACE. Did you pass a resolution about the Abbitt bill? Mr. FEARING. I will read you the last resolution we passed: It was moved, seconded, and carried that we recommend (1) that 1950 peanut allotments, including adjustments made under H. J. Res. 398, be the base for distribution of the 1951 allotment to the States; (2) that the acreage for each succeeding year be brought into the allotment base until a 5-year base is established; (3) that the base move forward 1 year each year thereafter; and (4) that no State be cut below 90 percent of its 1941 allotment in 1951. Now this was a recommendation to the board of directors of the Farm Bureau. At the bottom down here it says: Until officially acted on, the actions of the Memphis meeting have the status of recommendations to the A. F. B. F. the American Farm Bureau Federation. Mr. POAGE. May I ask you one question, just as to your own opinion? Mr. FEARING. Yes, sir. Mr. POAGE. These gentlemen have all indicated that the objective they had in mind in this bill was to lower the price to the farmer in order that the consumer may enjoy a lower price-now, let me finish my statement. These gentlemen have repeatedly stated that the price of peanuts today, of the Jumbos, the higher grades of Virginia peanuts, was too high; that it was pricing Virginia peanuts out of the market; and that they felt an obligation to the consumer to see that the consumer was not mulcted, and that therefore they wanted legislation that would result in lower prices, to the consumers. Presumably they have not said that those lower prices must come through the farmer, but they have indicated there was no other way to get |