Mr. LEA. We have had a conference with Mr. Jones and these other gentlemen who accompany him in reference to this bill, and it appears that the concern they have had is not in reference to this particular bill but in reference to Senate bill 812. Now, these two bills are not related, and we have no interest in Senate bill 812 concerning this, but our interest is in House Resolution 85, and it is agreeable to all of us that it should be reported in the form offered here to-day. Mr. JONES. The only information I had before was in respect of Senate bill 812, introduced on the same date as this in the Senate by Senator Copeland. The title of that bill appeared to me to give control of the poultry industry along these lines without any knowledge on our part as to the kind and character of the poultry, and, naturally, representing business men I deemed it was only prudent to try to ascertain what the nature of that control would be. That has been straightened out and made plain here in Washington this morning. So that bill, after amendment, is not objectionable. The CHAIRMAN. I have two telegrams here relative to this subject matter which I would like to have read to the committee. [The clerk reading:] Hon. GILBERT N. HAUGEN, BLANCHESTER, OHIO, December 16, 1927. Chairman Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.: As a dealer in live poultry during six years of operation covering States of Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio, believe House Joint Resolution No. 85, by Lea, very necessary and should be immediately enacted into law for the protection of American poultry industry. C. C. SPONSLER. Hon. G. N. HAUGEN, DECEMBER 16, 1927. Chairman Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.: We have been engaged in handling poultry in less-than-car load quantities in southern Kentucky for the past 20 years. From the standpoint of dealers I see no objection to Joint Resolution No. 85, introduced by Mr. Lea, of California. I believe it would be helpful and hope your committee will act favorably. NORMAN I. TAYLOR. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will now stand adjourned, subject to call. (Thereupon, at 10.20 o'clock a. m., the committee adjourned, to meet at the call of the chairman.) COLLECTION AND PUBLICATION OF STATISTICS ON TOBACCO BY THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, The committee met at 10.20 o'clock a. m., Hon. Gilbert N. Haugen (chairman) presiding. (The committee thereupon proceeded to the consideration of H. R. 53, which is as follows:) [H. R. 53, Seventieth Congress, first session] A BILL To provide for the collection and publication of statistics of tobacco by the Department of Agriculture Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of Agriculture be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to collect and publish statistics of the quantity of leaf tobacco in all forms in the United States, in the possession of dealers, manufacturers, growers' cooperative associations, warehousemen, brokers, holders, or owners, other than the original growers of tobacco. The statistics shall show the quantity of tobacco in such detail as to types and groups of grades as the Secretary of Agriculture shall deem to be practical and necessary for the purposes of this act, and said statistics shall show the stocks of tobacco of the last four crop years, including therein the production of the year of the report, which shall be known as new crops, separately from the stocks of previous years, which shall be known as old crops, and shall be summarized as of January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 of each year: Provided, That the Secretary of Agriculture shall not be required to collect statistics of leaf tobacco from any manufacturer of tobacco who in the preceding calendar year, according to the returns of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, manufactured less than fifty thousand pounds of tobacco, or from any manufacturer of cigars who during the preceding calendar year manufactured less than two hundred and fifty thousand cigars, or from any manufacturer of cigarettes who, during the preceding calendar year, manufactured less than one million cigarettes, or from any dealer in leaf tobacco who, on the average, had less than fifty thousand pounds in stock at the ends of the four quarters of the preceding calendar year. SEC. 2. The Secretary of Agriculture shall establish standards for the classification of tobacco. He shall specify the types and groups of grades which shall be included in the returns required by this act. Such returns shall show the quantity of tobacco by such types and groups of grades for new and old crops separately. The Secretary of Agriculture shall prepare appropriate blanks upon which the returns shall be made, and shall, upon request, furnish copies to persons who are required by this act to make returns. SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of every dealer, manufacturer, growers' cooperative association, warehouseman, broker, holder, or owner, other than the original grower, except such persons as are excluded by the proviso to section 1 of this act, to furnish within ten days after January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 of each year, completely and correctly, to the best of his knowledge, a report of the quantity of leaf tobacco on hand, segregated in accordance with the blanks furnished by the Secretary of Agriculture. Any person, firm, association, or corporation required by this act to furnish a report, and any officer, agent, or employee thereof who shall refuse or willfully neglect to furnish 5 any of the information required by this act, or shall willfully give answers that are false or misleading, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than $300 or more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. SEC. 4. The word "person as used in this act shall be held to embrace also any partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity. SEO. 5. The Secretary of Agriculture shall have access to the tobacco records of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and of the several collectors of internal revenue for the purpose of obtaining lists of the persons subject to this act and for the purpose of aiding the collection of the information herein required, and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the several collectors of internal revenue shall cooperate with the Secretary of Agriculture in effectuating the provisions of this act. SEC. 6. The returns herein provided for shall be made under oath before a collector or deputy collector of internal revenue, a postmaster, assistant postmaster, or anyone authorized to administer oaths by State or Federal law. SEC. 7. That the information furnished under the provisions of this act shall be used only for the statistical purposes for which it is supplied. No publication shall be made by the Secretary of Agriculture whereby the data furnished by any particular establishment can be identified, nor shall the Secretary of Agriculture permit anyone other than the sworn employees of the Department of Agriculture to examine the individual reports. SEC. 8. The act approved April 30, 1912, providing for the collection of tobacco statistics by the Bureau of the Census is hereby repealed. SEC. 9. If any provision of this act is declared unconstitutional or the applicability thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of the act and the applicability of such provisions to other persons and circumstances shall not be affected thereby. The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, as it meets with the wish of the committee, we will now consider H. R. 53, the bill introduced by Mr. Gilbert, of Kentucky, to provide for the collection and publication of statistics on tobacco by the Department of Agriculture. Mr. Gilbert is present, and I am sure the committee will be glad to hear him. STATEMENT OF HON. RALPH GILBERT, REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF KENTUCKY Mr. GILBERT. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I wish to speak to you concerning H. R. 53. I come from the biggest tobacco-growing section in the world. This bill is to amend the tobacco statistics. We had the matter up before, and when I originally introduced the bill there was a great deal of opposition to it. This committee held. hearings attended by men from Kentucky representing the tobacco growers, and men from New York and elsewhere representing the so-called tobacco trade. We seemed to be in such conflict that we could not get together. The Department of Agriculture, however, interested itself in our behalf and worked out a proposition that was satisfactory to both sides. That bill as presented by the Department of Agriculture, or, at least, as suggested by them, was unanimously adopted by this committee at the last session. Mr. Fort, of this committee, who had been very helpful in correcting some of the things in it that he did. not like, agreed to the bill. Mr. Kincheloe, who was sponsor of the bill on the part of the growers, agreed; and this committee unanimously reported it to the House and the House unanimously passed it. Mr. ASWELL. In the same form as it is now? AMEND CERTAIN ACTS TO INCLUDE POULTRY 7 Mr. GILBERT. This bill as introduced now is identical word for word with the bill as amended by this committee, not the bill as introduced by me at the last session. Mr. Fort approves the bill now. I have a letter from the tobacco trade admitting that he bill is proper and that they would make no further objection to it. The Bureau of the Census admits that the present law on the collection of these statistics is absolutely worthless to everybody; and as the bill was unanimously passed by the House last session I was in hopes if we got it over to the Senate early enough we might get it through. That is all I have to say on it. Mr. ASWELL. Have you talked to Mr. Fort about it this session? Mr. GILBERT. Yes, sir; I talked to Mr. Fort about it Friday on the floor, and he said that if he could be here he would join in my request that action be taken on it, but that he hardly thought he could be here. As I do not see him present, I presume he is not able to be here. Mr. ANDRESEN. Did you have a letter from the Secretary of Agriculture on this particular bill this year? Mr. GILBERT. No, sir; it has not been referred to them. Mr. ASWELL. You had one last year? Mr. GILBERT. There was some little dispute between the Bureau of the Census and the Department of Agriculture about which department should handle it. The Department of Agriculture did not like to presume to suggest that it be turned over to them, which this bill does. Mr. Fort, however, consulted the Bureau of the Census, and informed me verbally that the Census Bureau was willing for the Department of Agriculture to take it up. The bill as presented is the bill of the Department of Agriculture. The assistants there and experts on tobacco wrote the bill. Mr. ANDRESEN. Which is really the proper department to handle it so as to avoid duplication of work. Mr. GILBERT. There would not be any duplication. The Bureau of the Census would simply transfer its activity to the Department of Agriculture. The Department of Agriculture handles the crop from the beginning; it reports on it all the way through the cropraising season, and as it is the "home of the farmers" and this bill is for their benefit, they feel more comfortable in that department. So we were very anxious to get it transferred to the Department of Agriculture. The Bureau of the Census is now obtaining these statistics. Mr. ANDRESEN. The bill presupposes that it is an annual check of figures given out on the tobacco crop. Mr. GILBERT. Four times a year. The present law does the same. The only difference is that this bill transfers the activities from the Census Bureau to the Department of Agriculture and requires a more detailed report. There is as much difference between different kinds of tobacco as there is between corn and wheat, even more so. and wheat both make bread; some tobacco is suitable for smoking, others for chewing, etc. Corn Mr. ADKINS. You went into that pretty exhaustively last session? Mr. GILBERT. Yes; and the statistics simply show how much tobacco is raised in a year, whether cigarette or smoking tobacco, and that is no information whatever to the tobacco growers; and this bill directs the Department of Agriculture to prepare certain divisions, requiring a report to be made according to the provisions and specifications required by the Department of Agriculture. Mr. ASWELL. Mr. Chairman, if everybody is agreed on it, why not have the bill read and reported out? Mr. KETCHAM. Before we do that, Mr. Gilbert, would you be kind enough to refer to the section about which there is some difference of opinion? Mr. GILBERT. Section 7. I am very much in favor of publicity in some terms, statistics of everything else that the Government has anything to do with; and we were very anxious to be able to see what each manufacturer had on hand, and I introduced the bill and that naturally caused quite a fight before the committee; and that was the biggest bone of contention. So the Department of Agriculture thought it was unfair, and most everybody excepting myself thought so. Therefore, they insisted upon including section 7, which reads as follows [reading]: That the information furnished under the provisions of this act shall be used only for the statistical purposes for which it is supplied. No publication shall be made by the Secretary of Agriculture whereby the data furnished by any particular establishment can be identified, nor shall the Secretary of Agriculture permit anyone other than the sworn employees of the Department of Agriculture to examine the individual reports. That amendment was referred by Mr. Fort, and he would not consent to the bill until that was inserted. It was not in my bill, but it was put in by the committee; and in this new bill I have included all the amendments that the committee made and it is identically as it passed the House. Mr. MENGES. Can you tell what that bill will do with that section. in it? Mr. GILBERT. Why, it enables the grower to know how much smoking tobacco is on hand, and therefore whether or not he ought to plant tobacco that is to be exported or tobacco for home consumption. Take the dark tobacco, for instance, and practically all of that is exported. The tobacco raised in my particular section is practically all used in the United States in the manufacture of cigarettes. The present statistics just show there are so many pounds of tobacco on hand; they do not show what kind of tobacco it is. And, another thing, Mr. Menges, if you will permit me, another thing for the benefit of the growers in this bill is this: A few years ago there was a worthless crop of tobacco, or perhaps two. The dealers bought this tobacco for as low as a half cent a pound, some of them. They have great quantities of it on hand; and the growers claim, and I maintain, that they bought that and used it just for the purpose of beating down the market when it has no real tobacco. They go to a grower and say, "We do not need your tobacco. We have got so many millions of pounds of tobacco on hand," and they produce the Government reports showing that they have a number of pounds of tobacco on hand. We claim that a large part of that tobacco is just carried for that purpose and is worthless. This bill divides it up so that this old tobacco carried from year to year some of which I know has been carried seven years-will be shown up as tobacco produced more than four years ago. |