Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

chairman of the Flood Control Advisory Committee. It is only fair to Mr. Eisenhower to have it generally known that the Secretary and I have persuaded him to undertake this task, even though he is extremely reluctant to cut himself loose entirely from the work he has handled heretofore. We have therefore agreed to his request that he undertake these new duties, for the time being at least, on a temporary basis, with the privilege of returning full time to his previous duties after the methods and procedures of coordination have been established and systematized.

Each of the following agencies should confer as soon as possible with Mr. Eisenhower, arrange for the detail of such staff members as may be necessary, and designate a liaison representative: Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Resettlement Administration, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Extension Service, Soil Conservation Service, Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, Forest Service, Bureau of Biological Survey, and the Bureau of Public Roads.

I want to express to the more than 30 officials who participated in the conferences on this matter the deep appreciation of the Secretary and myself for their constructive, cooperative attitude and valuable suggestions, and to thank H. R. Tolley, A. G. Black, Ernest Wiecking, E. H. Clapp, and Dillon S. Myer for dafting the final report which now is given effect in the functions of the Coordinator of Land Use Planning.

M. L. WILSON, Acting Secretary.

Mr. CANNON. This will be discussed in detail by Mr. Perkins?

Mr. WILSON. By Dr. Gray.

Mr. CANNON. By Dr. Gray?

Mr. WILSON. Yes.

Mr. CANNON. All right; thank you, Mr. Secretary.

Mr. WILSON. Mr. Perkins will take up title I.

Mr. CANNON. You may outline briefly, Mr. Perkins, your plan of procedure under this proposal.

LOANS TO TENANT FARMERS FOR PURCHASE OF FARMS

(See p. 669)

Mr. PERKINS. Well, in the first place, title I provides for loans to worthy tenant farmers, so that they can become farm owners. The bill also provides that county committees shall be set up composed of three outstanding farmers in each county where the program is in operation who will determine the eligibility of the individual applicants for a farm, and then make an appraisal of the farm itself. Of course, this is wholly a new program, and I would like to point out that anything which I say this morning is tentative in the sense that once we get into actual operation of the program we shall probably discover that the original plans may have to be modified or changed. I should now like to make a brief statement of what is likely to happen in a given county after this plan gets into operation, and then if there are any questions which the committee desires to ask me, I shall try to answer them.

PLAN OF OPERATION

One of our problems is this: In any average, good-sized agricultural county there are apt to be 700 or 800 tenant farmers each of whom will want this opportunity for ownership. Now, as a matter of fact, there is not enough money provided in the bill to enable us to operate in every rural county, even if we were to reconcile ourselves to making only one loan to each county. Even if we operate in selected counties where we have enough money to buy six or seven farms, we are still going to be confronted with the problem of having hundreds of applications for loans for farms, of examining those applications, and of passing on them. We hope to have those applications so worded,

however, as to make it possible to cull out readily those tenants who are least eligible for ownership. We plan to do this in order to save the time of county committee members who must be paid from the total administrative money which is furnished by the Congress under title I of this bill. Among the questions which we may ask are these: "Is the farm upon which you live for sale?" "What is the price which the landlord wants for the property?" Perhaps one-half of the farms in any county will not be for sale at a reasonable price and that will cut out office work by about 50 percent. Other questions which follow in the preliminary application will be of a somewhat similar nature, so that, by the time the county committee meets, we hope we can present the names of some 25 or 30 tenant farmers most likely to benefit under the provisions of this act. Then it will be the job of the committee to narrow that number down to the point where it will be able to decide upon the six or seven tenants best qualified to receive these loans.

Mr. WOODRUM. Did I understand you to say that under the present program you will, perhaps, be able to buy only one farm in a county? Mr. PERKINS. Well, that was a generalization. I do not believe now it would be possible to make loans for more than 2,500 or 3,000 farms the first year.

Mr. WOODRUM. How many counties are there in the country?
Mr. PERKINS. There are about 3,000 counties.

Mr. WOODRUM. So, the program means about one farm in a county? Mr. PERKINS. Yes, it would mean one farm in a county, were we to attempt to operate in every county, but that would be most unsatisfactory. We are apt to have several hundred applications in every rural county and the expense of reviewing and investigating these, and then getting down to some one tenant in that county would be so great that we would not be justified in doing it.

SELECTION OF COUNTIES IN WHICH TO OPERATE

Mr. WOODRUM. But how are you going to select the counties and sections in which you will operate?

Mr. PERKINS. That is a problem which the Secretary has not yet passed upon himself, but our thinking at the moment is along these lines: First of all, the bill provides for an equitable allocation of the loan money among the States, based upon farm population and the prevalence of tenancy.

Mr. WOODRUM. By States?

Mr. PERKINS. Yes, sir; by States, and we know now, approximately, the amount of money which we will have for these loans in any given State, because of that provision in the law. Then, there are various ways in which we might apply some mathematical factor to determine the selection of counties within a State in somewhat the same fashion. One method might be to give preference to counties with the heaviest tenant population in any given State. At the present time we hope to operate in approximately 500 rural counties throughout the country; during the first year that would mean somewhere between five and six farms in each county in which we propose to operate. With the 5-percent limit on administrative funds under title I, we cannot possibly justify an operation in more than 500 counties the first year.

148745-37-40

EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTER OF PROGRAM

Mr. WOODRUM. All this is supposed to be is just an experiment, is it not?

Mr. PERKINS. Yes, Mr. Chairman, it is an experiment in the sense that a small amount of money may be made available in proportion to the recognized need.

Mr. WOODRUM. If you are only going to operate in 500 or 600 counties, and 5 or 6 farms in each county, it is not going a long way toward relieving the farm-tenancy problem. It is fair to say it is an experiment, is it not?

Mr. PERKINS. Yes, I think it is.

Mr. WOODRUM. If the program is ever to be enlarged, or made sufficiently comprehensive to reach this group of people, how much would it cost?

Mr. PERKINS. The figure would look a little bit astronomical.
Mr. WOODRUM. Looks astronomical?

Mr. PERKINS. I think at the present time, there are about 2,800,000 tenants on farms in this country, and approximately 40,000 tenants a year have recently been slipping from the owner class into the tenant class, so that, it would take a considerable amount of money simply to arrest that trend.

Mr. WOODRUM. It is staggering to estimate financially.

Mr. PERKINS. Yes, it is staggering to estimate financially. On the other hand, this bill provides for a beginning; provides for some aid to tenants through loans for farm purchases.

Mr. WOODRUM. Go ahead; I did not mean to interrupt your statement.

Mr. PERKINS. I think it is very fair to say it is an experiment. We cannot, therefore, possibly justify operating in over 500 counties. We are going to have to find some factor which each county will accept as a reasonable basis for the selection of counties in which to start this work.

Mr. TABER. Would it not be better if you just tried one county in each State?

Mr. PERKINS. Mr. Taber, as a matter of fact, there is something to be said for that point of view.

Mr. TABER. You could start on a much smaller scale.

Mr. PERKINS. If we were going to begin work in one county in each State, in order to show what could be done by converting a considerable number of tenants into owners, $10,000,000 would still be a wholly inadequate amount.

Mr. TABER. You would not want to go into too many of them. If you tried one county in each State, and had eight or nine farms in each of those counties that would be all you could cover intelligently.

Mr. PERKINS. No; I would say that in any rural county there would be many more than eight or nine tenant farmers who could successfully become owner-operators.

INADEQUACY OF PROGRAM TO REACH ALL FARMERS DESIRING AID

Mr. WOODRUM. What kind of a letter would you suggest that I write to Farmer Jones, who is one of my constituents in Bedford County, who is a worthy citizen, and deserving of consideration by the Government in helping him to become a farm owner? He wants

to become a farm owner, but we cannot reach him with this program, and yet his neighbor, across the line in Botetourt County, Farmer Smith, is a ward of the Government on this farm. What would be your suggestion as to the kind of a letter that his Congressman could write to him explaining why it is the Government can help his neighbor, Farmer Smith, in Botetourt County but cannot reach him in Bedford County?

Mr. PERKINS. That would frankly be difficult to answer. But I think the best thing to do would be to answer such a letter in a forthright manner, telling the farmer that there are about three million. tenant farmers in the United States, and that with $10,000,000 available we can only help 2,500 or 3,000 farmers the first year. Of course, if we attempted to operate in every agricultural county we would pay out all of our 5 percent allowance for administrative expenses before we even got started.

Mr. WOODRUM. Do you think that would satisfy him?

Mr. PERKINS. Then, I would answer that in the given county in which he lived there were other farmers equally disappointed, and equally as worthy as himself. You might say, also, that the law authorizes the Congress to increase the amount of money each year if the experiment works out successfully and that the Government could perhaps expand its program. I believe that if these tenants are carefully selected the Government has a very good chance to recover over 90 percent of the amount of the money loaned to these tenant farmers and that with such a record the program would be expanded.

Mr. WOODRUM. The publicity given to this act which has been passed by Congress has raised in the minds of millions of unfortunate farm tenants in America the hope that as soon as Congress makes this appropriation they are going to be given the facilities with which to own a farm. That is very unfortunate, because it is not anything like the truth.

Mr. PERKINS. We have seen thousands of letters so far, many of which have been sent to Members of the Congress, asking just such questions as those which you mention. That is one of the acute administrative problems which faces us at the moment. Once this appropriation is made, I think it is very conservative to estimate that at least three-fourths of the tenants in every county of the United States are going to start scrambling to get a loan for one of these farms. That will necessitate the setting up of administrative machinery which will weed out the applicants, and it will occupy a very considerable portion of our time; it is going to be a very difficult job.

Mr. WOODRUM. You are going to have to buy an extra quantity of aspirin, are you not?

Mr. PERKINS. We will probably burn a little midnight oil.

INCAPACITY OF LARGE NUMBER OF TENANT FARMERS TO BECOME AND REMAIN FARM OWNERS

[ocr errors]

Mr. CANNON. I am very much disappointed to hear you say that you do not expect to carry on this experiment in every county in which it is possible to do so. The thing is going to be the source of enough strife and discord as it is, but how are you going to explain to one county in a State why you are selecting a neighboring county and not selecting that county? The only reasonable, feasible, practical method is to provide at least one experiment in every county in

the United States in which it is possible, and any other plan would not only be inequitable and indefensible, but in the end it would fail to give you a fair result throughout the entire United States. Now, at best, this whole thing is merely a gesture. The greatest part of those tenants to whom you refer could never be made landowners with any amount of money. If you gave them a farm and stocked it today, in 2 years from today they would be back as tenant farmers. It takes more than money to make a successful farmer. You have to be a successful farmer to be a farm-land owner.

In my section of the country, which is a typical section of the country, any man who has the ability and the character and the interest in farming to make a good farmer becomes a landowner. All of our landowners are boys who started out as a rule, or a great proportion of them, without land, as tenants, and in the course of time bought their own farms. Of course, you could help that situation by helping such farmers, but the great majority of them are tenants because they will never be anything else. They are not qualified to be anything else, and they do not want to be anything else, and no amount of money that the United States Government can spend is going to make them anything else. So the whole thing is an iridescent dream. It is a gesture which, at best, is merely an experiment, and while we are on that experiment it ought to be conducted in a way that would be subjected to the least criticism, and productive of the best results.

NEED OF ACTIVITY IN EVERY FARMING COUNTY

To do that you have got to have at least one experiment in every county, every farming county. How are you going to explain to one county why you are selecting a neighboring county and not selecting them? You cannot do it. Of course, if you went into a county and selected one man or two men you would have approximately 3,000, and if you carried this out in every county in the United States you would have approximately $3,000 to a county.

Mr. PERKINS. Yes.

Mr. MCMILLAN. And you would have about 3,000 tenant farmers. to the county, too, would you not?

Mr. PERKINS. No; not quite that many.

UNSUITABILITY OF SUBMARGINAL LAND

Mr. CANNON. There is one mistake that the Resettlement Administration made that I hope you will not make. The Resettlement Administration took a man, and I saw it myself time and time again, took a man who had made a desperate struggle, and had been unable to hold his farm, they subsidized him for the time being on the same farm where nobody could made a success of farming, submarginal land. No man on earth could make a success of farming on that sort of land. Still they kept him on that sort of land where he had already made a failure, and where he would always make a failure because of the land. If you are going to buy these farms, do not go out and buy some submarginal farm where nobody can make anything out of it, but go out and buy at least a farm that is fertile land where if a fellow is really a farmer, and if he has a chance, he can become the owner eventually of that farm. If you are going to buy a farm of the quality

« AnteriorContinuar »