When any new information of country-wide interest develops, when we receive a cable or radiogram from abroad, we immediately put it in the hands of the associated press to be distributed by their agencies, along with other news agencies. Then we have our general press service in the department, which consists of mimeographed statements which are prepared and released to the newspapers. These go out, depending upon the subject covered in the publication, to the newspapers of the region that is interested.

For instance, cotton matter would go to newspapers in the South. If it is of interest to the wheat men particularly, it will go to the wheat region. If it is particularly interesting to the hog and corn proposition, it will go into the hog and corn belt. These are distributed by mail, usually with release for a definite time, which date is observed in order that it might get the widest publicity and distribution.

Mr. RUBEY. Do these go to the weekly county papers?

Mr. MARQUIS. To the weekly county papers, daily newspapers, and Washington correspondents. As you know there are some hundreds of correspondents of all kinds of papers in Washington who send out information by wire. Information of a kind that interests them is carried to their offices by messenger, and then they send it out by wire. There are usually five or six wires a week, depending on the amount of foreign material received. There has been an increase in wires as the information has increased.

For instance, here is a mimeographed statement on the subject, "Potatoes rank high in world agriculture." It is a review of the world crop of potatoes and refers to Germany and the Netherlands. It gives a general picture of the world portato situation. Here is one under the heading "European market for American farm products unimproved." Another one is headed "Indian cotton crop forecast." That simply reports throughout the United States what other firms received by cable; that is, a few trade organizations interested in the trade.

Here is another one headed "European crops in good condition." Another one is headed "Argentine corn surplus cut," which states that the exportable surplus of corn from the Argentine will be reduced. Another one is entitled "World production of cotton increased." Another one is headed "Peasants eating wheat formerly exported." That was based on a report by Mr. Michael explaining why there would be less wheat exported from those countries. Another one is entitled "German food supply cut," showing reduction of probable production in Germany at the time that was issued. Then matters of local interest. Then here is a short item on "Wind storms damage Italian lemon crop." A good many of the items deal with citrus crops and are immediately put into the hands, by means of our leased wires, of the California lemon people, enabling them to get this information promptly on the situation of the Italian crop, which is a competitor of theirs.

Mr. FULMER. I notice that the bill is for the purpose of getting statistics in conneetion with reports, etc. I find here out of a mass of statistics furnished by the Department of Agriculture some figures with regard to cotton. It shows that the grower gets 20 cents a pound, the manufacturer 41, assembling 2 cents, freight 1.3 cents, jobbers 35 cents. I would like to know if your department at any

time has attempted to work out any plan whereby the unequal distribution between the farmer and the consumer can be overcome. These are your figures?

Mr. MARQUIS. Yes; that is the result of the study of the cost of marketing, and I think there was a report gotten out on the spread between the cost of the cotton and the cost of the cloth.

Mr. FULMER. It shows the farmer gets 20 cents and the consumer pays a dollar.

Mr. MARQUIS. We handle that in this manner: First we must understand why the spread takes place and what is involved, what service each of those performs who handles the product. Our cost of marketing division is interested now in making an analysis of these services all the way from the producer to the consumer. We have to get the facts before we can either recommend legislation or practices which will reduce the spread. That is a part of the work of the cost of marketing division, and it is being pushed rapidly, and this preliminary report is the result of some work of that character, showing what the spread is. We feel that sooner or later there will come from those suggestions better practices, and something that will reduce these margins, but at the same time we have first got to get the facts as to what the margins are, what they consist of. We have a report shortly to be issued that will deal with meats in somewhat the same manner, showing the elements of cost involved in the various methods of retailing all the way from the producer. The same thing with regard to grain and other reports that are in preparation along that line.

Mr. FULMER. I understand that the department have had those figures for years in connection with the wheat farmer and the cotton farmer, and every other farmer, but the main thing is that larger appropriations for the same work are asked for, while at the same time they have not accomplished anything so far as the farmer or producer is concerned.

Mr. RUBEY. Right in that connection I would like to state that when Mr. Wilson was Secretary of Agriculture-that has been a good while ago I was a member of this committee at that time-I remember in his report he called attention to this very thing, what the producer got and what the consumer has to pay, so that this thing has been know by the Department of Agriculture for years and years, and are they just beginning now to find out about these things?

Mr. MARQUIS. No. We have been working on the question of the existing margins, but those studies are to get down to a still finer point, to determine the amount involved in them, the question of labor, materials and service rendered, and taking the whole marketing question into consideration. The spread between the producer and consumer has certainly been increased since Mr. Wilson's time. All of our improvements in marketing practices, standardization, better grading, etc., have had a tendency to hold down the margins. The margins themselves may have grown in the meantime, but without any of these improvements in practices, we can not say what the margins might have been.

Mr. FULMER. I would like to say in connection with the sweet potatoes in South Carolina, one of the best foods in the world, that

the farmers can raise three to four hundred bushels an acre, and they are getting to-day about 75 cents a bushel, and the consumer here in Washington to-day has to pay $4 a bushel for them. We hear a great deal about wages and salaries of the laboring man. The large interests and manufacturing concerns claim that a lot of the trouble is because of the salary of the laboring man. If you can remedy the situation so that a man can manage to live and build up something perhaps get his own home to live in. I think you will solve the problem, but I do not believe you will ever do it by spending more money in getting additional statistics.

Mr. JOHNSON. I want the distribution by the agricultural department to be to the practical and real farmer, not to the swivel chair farmers. Now, I come from the fourth district of West Virginia, composed of the counties of Tyler, Pleasants, Wood, Wirt, Roane, Jackson, Mason, Putnam, and Cabell. I would like for you to put in the record here what of these statistics you are sending into that district, and to whom.

Mr. MARQUIS. I will be glad to do that. I will have to prepare that statement and submit it for the record, showing the information that is going there, and that it is going through the press.

Mr. JOHNSON. Showing through what instrumentalities it is going, how it is being sent.

Mr. MARQUIS. Yes, sir.

STATEMENT OF DISTRIBUTION OF STATISTICAL INFORMATION ON AGRICULTURE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TO THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES COMPRISING THE FOURTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA-CABELL, JACKSON, MASON. PLEASANTS, PUTNAM, ROANE, TYLER, WIRT, AND WOOD.

Crops and Markets, a publication issued by the Department of Agriculture, has been going weekly to the following Crop Reporters in the counties mentioned. These crop reporters are leading farmers in the various districts who are well acquainted with conditions in their neighborhood and who have resided in that locality for a considerable period: Cabell, 25; Jackson, 55; Mason, 49; Pleasants, 13: Putnam, 33; Roane, 42; Tyler, 18; Wirt, 20; Wood, 40; total, 295.

Through county newspapers the Department of Agriculture issues reports daily and weekly having to do with domestic and foreign agricultural conditions. The newspapers on the lists receiving such material in the district mentioned are as follows:

Wirt County: Kanawha News, Wirt County Journal, Wirt County Republican.
Cabell County: Advertiser, Herald-Dispatch, Cabell Record.
Putnam County: Breeze, Putnam Democrat, Putnam Leader.

Wood County: News, Sentinel.

Mason County: Mason Republican, Register.

Jackson County: Jackson Herald, Mountaineer.

Tyler County: Tyler County Journal, Tyler Star-News, Review.
Roane County: Roane County Reporter, Times-Record.

Farm papers circulating in agricultural sections receive articles specially prepared for them from the Department of Agriculture each week which are used to a large extent thereby coming to the attention of farm readers in all districts. It is impossible to state the number of subscribers to farm papers in the counties above mentioned without examining the lists of the various publications. Surveys have shown that nearly every farmer reads either a newspaper or farm paper regularly, usually both. Many farmers subscribe to sev eral farm journals.

Radio broadcasting is also used to distribute market news, both domestic and foreign. The station at Pittsburgh (KDKA) can be heard by any farmer having a radio set in the counties mentioned. We have no statistics concerning the number of radio sets owned by farmers in these counties, but judging from surveys that have been made in other counties these sets aver

age about 50 per county, and are rapidly increasing in numbers as the advantage of radio for receiving farm information becomes generally appreciated. Special market reports on livestock and fruits and vegetables are distributed by mail from Washington and Pittsburgh, reaching many farmers in the counties mentioned. The exact number of these can not be determined at this date since copies of all these mail lists are not available in Washington, some of the reports being mailed from branch offices.

Numerous special reports are sent to county agents and through them the information is distributed to farmers at farmers' meetings. We have no way of determining exactly the number of farmers reached in this manner.

The CHAIRMAN. There is a general knowledge as to the spread between the producer and the consumer.

Mr. MARQUIS. Yes; very general.

The CHAIRMAN. And the cause of that spread is generally known? Mr. MARQUIS. No; that is a matter that has to be studied-as to how it is distributed.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you have to study the matter of rents, increase in rents, increase in the wage scale and all those things that enter into it?

Mr. MARQUIS. They do enter into.

The CHAIRMAN. And that is common knowledge, isn't it?
Mr. MARQUIS. Yes, sir; in a general way.

The CHAIRMAN. We know to-day that the spread must necessarily be much greater than it was a few years ago. Rents have doubled, light bills have increased, and improvements have been going on, all of which have led up to increased costs. Labor is much higher. A few years ago a clerk who was getting $25 to $50 a month is now paid twice that amount, freight has increased, cost of delivering products, and all those things. That is common knowledge. Now, what have you to suggest? The suggestion has been, heretofore, that they adopt cooperative marketing, but the farmers of North Dakota have come before the committee and said that that has absolutely failed-failed 100 per cent. What have you to suggest about decreasing the spread?

Mr. TENNY. Mr. Chairman, please let me answer that by one illustration. We are cooperating with the port authorities in New York City, studying costs. There may be some question as to whether the farmer is interested in costs at New York City. We think he is very vitally interested. One of the most astonishing things that we have unearthed is this-that you pay freight on perishables from the middle part of the country to Jersey City, it is ferried across, and a car of produce is brought to the dock on the New York side. We hear a great deal about freight costs, and we have just discovered, from our cooperative work in New York City, that it costs as much to unload that car and get the stuff a hundred feet into the middle of West Street as the whole freight charge costs. Now, what is the result? I do not know whether I can ask that something be left out of the record, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Certainly.

(A statement was made off the record.)

Mr. TENNY. Now, Mr. Chairman, I want to call attention to one other fact, and that is that less than 10 years ago you made the first appropriation for the Federal Government to do any work in marketing, specifically in marketing. Now, it is a big problem, and it is going to take a long while to solve it. If you will come and spend

some time with us we will show you new instances of just the same kind of thing we are confronted with over in New York. We are never satisfied until we have pointed out to a certain extent, at least the solution, just as we are trying to do over in New York City.

The CHAIRMAN. The spread has been getting larger and larger every year, and it is difficult to explain to our constituents just why we should continue to appropriate these large sums of money with the spread widening every year.

Mr. FULMER. And about a million farmers are leaving the farms and going to the cities.

The CHAIRMAN. If you can point to any cases where you have accomplished anything along the lines you have spoken of, the committee would be pleased to have that. You have cited one instance. There may be a good many others.

Mr. VOIGT. Do you attempt to make any forecast as to condition with respect to a crop before it is planted?

Mr. MARQUIS. Not from a world-wide standpoint.

Mr. VOIGT. What I want to know is this. Here is a new farmer who would like to know whether it would be more advantageous for him to raise potatoes or wheat. Do you try to give him information as to what would be the best thing to do?

Mr. TENNY. We give him information, as rapidly as it is available, as to what these other countries propose to do; we forecast crops at the time they are putting them in. As we get early estimates of the crops in various parts of the world we try to get that information to him promptly, and he is able to make up his mind as to what the world situation is apt to be.

Mr. VOIGT. In other words, you compel him to draw. his own conclusions from the facts you furnish him?

Mr. MARQUIS. In a general way; yes. We give him our ideas of the value of those various estimates, and what the possibilities are, based on previous experience.

Mr. VOIGT. It would seem to me that the average farmer would find a good deal of difficulty in interpreting your facts for practical application.

Mr. MARQUIS. We point out, for instance, with respect to this potato crop, what it means when a certain country increases production. If it is an important country and a large producer, of course it means a great deal. If it is a small producer, even though it has a large increase, it is of relatively small importance. We try to interpret it that far, so that he gets a general idea, as well as we can give it to him, of the probable situation.

Mr. VOIGT. You do not attempt to offer any advice in advance as to what the prospects may be for a given crop?

Mr. MARQUIS. Only based on those facts. May I refer you to Dr. Stine on that.

Mr. STINE. We summarize the information, in addition to the reports of the season up to date, and indicate as far as we are justified in doing what the probable outturn of the world market may be. Mr. TENNY. For illustration, wheat has just begun to move into the markets from the southern hemisphere, hasn't it?

Mr. STINE. Yes, sir.