COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. GILBERT N. HAUGEN, Iowa, Chairman.

L. G. HAUGEN, Clerk.

The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Gilbert N. Haugen (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. Several bills have been referred to this committee having for their object the regulation of the price and the control of the distribution of sugar. I have called the committee together this morning for the purpose of considering the various bills, more especially Senate 3284. The others are House resolution 192, by Mr. Hulings; H. R. 11059, introduced by Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania; House joint resolution No. 259, by Mr. Crisp; and H. R. 11114, introduced by Mr. O'Connell. I lay before the committee S. 3284, and also a telegram received from the chairman of the United States. Sugar Equalization Board:

[S. 3284, Sixty-sixth Congress, second session.]

AN ACT To provide for the national welfare by continuing the United States Sugar Equalization Board until December 31, 1920, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President is authorized to continue during the year ending December 31, 1920, the United States Sugar Equilization Board (Incorporated), a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Delaware, and to vote or use the stock of such corporation held by him for the benefit of the United States, or otherwise exercise his control over the corporation and its directors, in such a manner as to authorize and require them to adopt and carry out until December 31, 1920, plans and methods of securing, if found necessary for the public good, an adequate supply at a reasonable price and an equitable distribution of sugar at a fair and reasonable price to the people of the United States: Provided, That after the passage of this act neither the President nor the corporation shall have or exercise, either directly or indirectly, with respect to raw or refined sugar, sirups, or molasses, any of the powers conferred upon the President by section 5 of an act entitled "An act to provide further for the national security and defense by encouraging the production, conserving the supply, and controlling the distribution of food products and fuel," approved August 10, 1917: And provided further, That the provisions of this act shall expire as to the domestic product September 30, 1920: Provided, That the zone system of sale and distribution of sugars heretofore established by the said United States Sugar Equalization Board shall be abolished and shall not be reestablished or maintained, and that sugars shall be permitted to be sold and to circulate freely in every portion of the United States.

Hon. G. N. HAUGEN,

NEW YORK, N. Y., December 14, 1919.

Chairman House Committee on Agriculture, Washington, D. C.:

Replying your wire 13th, the United States Sugar Equalization Board is unanimously of the opinion that without the powers of licensing, embargo, and distribution control its continuation could not serve any useful purpose, and these powers the McNary bill fail to provide. Furthermore, the time has gone by when a considerable portion of the 1920 Cuban crop can be purchased at a reasonable price. The Equal

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ization Board was a war measure dealing only with last year's crop, and this has all been distributed. It has no control over domestic sugars, now available in fair volume, nor new Cuban sugars, which are now beginning to move.

GEO. A. ZABRISKIE.

We have with us this morning a number of Members of Congress who wish to be heard on the bill. We will be glad to hear you first, Mr. Dallinger.

STATEMENT OF HON. FREDERICK WILLIAM DALLINGER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Mr. DALLINGER. I understand that Senate bill 3284, the McNary bill, so called, which has passed the Senate, is before your committee, and I assume that that bill has an excellent chance of being passed before the recess. That is the reason I asked the privilege of appearing before you this morning, to ask you to consider the expediency of making some amendment to it, if possible, to which the Senate might agree, so that the bill will accomplish the purpose we all have in mind better than it will in its present form.

I understand that this Senate bill continues the Sugar Equalization Board for another year but very much limits its powers. On page 2 there is a proviso that this board shall not exercise any of the powers granted by section 5 of the act of August 10, 1917, which contains the licensing feature.

As you gentlemen probably know, I have been very much interested in this sugar question, it having been brought to my attention when I went home in September. I had been busy with other matters and was not familiar with what the people were thinking about, and I found a very serious shortage of sugar all through New England, the ordinary man having no sugar for his sugar bowl, and the thing has been steadily growing worse. The people, I think, are very much exasperated at not being able to get any sugar at all, not even for the baby's milk, and at the same time seeing steamers leaving port loaded with sugar for foreign countries. And in connection with this subject I desire to state that the soldiers and sailors who have been coming back, and the people who have been coming back from Europe, report that sugar is very much more plentiful in France and Belgium than it is here. And I believe that our people are getting to the point where they feel, while it is all right to do for others and to have regard for the people of Europe, that our own people should be treated at least as well as the people across the

water.

Now, I introduced a bill which was referred to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, which committee, as you know, was so busy with the railroad bill that nothing was done. My bill was introduced on October 26, and the hearing on it does not come until to-morrow. It is H. R. 9976, which puts an embargo by law upon the export of sugar from the United States for a period of six months. Of course, every day and every week that has gone by has made any remedy that may be given to the people by Congress less and less efficacious, because the harm is being done all the time. Of course my bill is a very drastic bill. It prohibits the export of sugar absolutely from the United States or any place subject to its