under date of July 15, 1947, which I think it would be well to have inserted in the record, but this paragraph is significant: The Commission believes that the exemption referred to is not necessary and urges that the bill be amended by striking out the words "with the exception of experts" beginning in line 4 on page 8. Mr. DODD. I would like to speak to that point just a minute, if I can. For instance, in all of these commodities, you have men trained in certain fields that do not want to work for the Government very long. They will come in to help you, a flax man, for instance, or a soybean man, or a special cotton man, or something of that kind. If you had to depend on going to the civil-service rolls to get your experts in those fields, you would not have an expert in time to operate the corporation. Senator WILSON. Then you would have to keep them on continually. Mr. DODD. That is right, from there on. Right today, you have going on in Bangkok a rice conference, to go over this whole field of production of rice. The production, as you know, in the Far East, has gone down. Our production in this country has gone up. In the last 2 years, we have exceeded anything we have produced in this country in the way of rice. There is going to be a conflict one of these days. You need a rice expert to go into that conference. Senator AIKEN. Are you familiar with this letter? Mr. DODD. Yes, sir; he wants you to strike out the part "with the exception of experts." Senator AIKEN. The letter is short. It might be well to read it. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Commission's attention has been directed to the bill S. 1322, which provides a Federal charter for the Commodity Credit Corporation, and especially to section 10, which reads in part as follows: "With the exception of experts, appointments shall be made pursuant to the civil-service laws and the Classification Act of 1923, as amended (5 U. S. C., 1940 edition, 661).” The Civil Service Act, as you know, contains authority for the President to make any necessary exceptions so that if this bill is amended to provide simply for the employment of personnel, the regular provisions of the civil-service laws will apply. The present rules and regulations permit the employment of highly qualified specialists on a consultant basis, and the President has authority to broaden this authority to cover full-time employment. The Commission believes that the exemption referred to is not necessary and urges that the bill be amended by striking out the words "with the exception of experts" beginning in line 4 on page 8. The Bureau of the Budget advises there is no objection to the submission of this report. By direction of the Commission: Very sincerely yours, HARRY B. MITCHELL, President. Senator LUCAS. Does that mean that every time these men want an expert they would have to go to the President? Mr. DODD. It might. That is what we have been faced with in the past. That is one reason the bill is written as it is. Senator LUCAS. Certainly the President has enough to do without appointing all the experts in the country. Mr. DODD. Of course, we will try to point out to you gentlemen what we think is the best arrangement for smooth operating procedure. Senator LUCAS. It could be abused pretty easily, could it not? Mr. DODD. That is right. But it never has been, Senator Lucas. When the Commodity Credit personnel and anyone else in the Department of Agriculture were not under civil service up until 1942, I do not believe anybody can point to any abuses of the appointment of personnel in the Commodity Credit Corporation during that time. Senator LUCAS. I am for the act the way you have written it here. I think you ought to have that right. The idea of having to have everybody under civil service does not always make for the most efficient service. Senator AIKEN. Does the act give you broader authority than you now have under the Delaware charter? Mr. DODD. It is actually narrower. Mr. Solicitor, will you tell them in what way it differs? Mr. HUNTER. This would add, I think, to the existing situation in respect to employment of experts. Recent legislation has contained similar exceptions. Whether we could get along without it or not, I am not prepared to say. This is a personnel problem, and I do not feel qualified on it. Mr. DODD. But Senator Ellender's question, and I think Senator Aiken's, were: In what way does this change the powers we now have under the Delaware corporation, not in this field but in all fields? Mr. HUNTER. You mean generally? Mr. DODD. Yes. Mr. HUNTER. The charter as it is presented here is narrower in many respects than the Delaware charter, which was extremely broad. The Federal charter, however, is broad enough to authorize all programs. we have been carrying out. Senator ELLENDER. In other words, the undertakings, as you will be able to do them under the Federal charter, will be virtually along the same line as those you have taken in the past. Mr. HUNTER. That is right. Senator ELLENDER. In that connection, I would like to ask another question about section 6, on page 6. Since the bill provides for the creation of a Federal charter, why is it necessary that the Federal statutes applicable to the Delaware corporation shall be applicable to this corporation? In fact, why is section 6 necessary? Mr. HUNTER. Well, it is extremely necessary, Senator, for the reason that the Congress has passed many statutes applicable to the existing corporation, such as the matter of disposing of commodities at not less than parity, with exceptions, and things of that sort. We want to preserve all of those limitations. Senator ELLENDER. But there are no statutes that would apply to the charter itself. Mr. HUNTER. Oh, no, not to charter itself; to the corporation. Senator ELLENDER. And all of these statutes referred to in section 6 deal with Mr. HUNTER. With the present corporation and will be carried over to the new one. It simply tries to preserve the present set-up insofar as possible. Mr. DODD. I might also add that the old charter under the Delaware corporation was very broad. You could do anything outside of agriculture as well as inside. This new bill would provide that our activities are pretty largely limited to the activities in agriculture which we have been carrying out. 74439-48 The other charter was very broad, as you know. It could take in the whole field. You could buy or sell gold. Senator ELLENDER. Evidently, you have not used all the powers you had under the charter, is that right? Mr. DODD. That is right. Senator AIKEN. When do you get outside of agriculture? Mr. DODD. We don't. Senator AIKEN. This charter will keep you within agriculture. The old charter would let you get outside of agriculture. Mr. DODD. That is right. Senator AIKEN. When you get outside of agriculture or in the processing of agricultural products, you follow them right through under this charter. Mr. DODD. That is right. Senator AIKEN. So long as the law permits it? Mr. DODD. That is right. We could not buy and sell gold. For instance, we could not buy a manufacturing establishment to manufacture textiles. You could have under the old charter. Senator AIKEN. But you did not. Mr. DODD. Never did, but it was that broad. You could handle about anything. Senator AIKEN. You could continue to buy packaged raisins? Senator LUDCAS. It is unusual for an agency of Government to come in and ask for a limitation of powers. Mr. DODD. I would not say it was a limitation as much as it was to define more clearly the objectives of the Corporation. Seantor LUCAS. You could do anything under the old charter, is that correct? Mr. DODD. But we never did use all those powers in Commodity Credit, and why should they be in the charter? That was the thinking of the Board when they suggested this type of an arrangement be set up. Senator LUCAS. I have had no opportunity to examine this bill. Is there anything in this measure which is really controversial or might create some controversy when we get it on the floor? Mr. DODD. I do not know of a single thing. Do you, Mr. Gilmer? Mr. GILMER. No, sir. Mr. DODD. There is nothing in the bill but what the Commodity Credit has been doing from day to day. Senator LUCAS. About the only thing would be the incorporation of these activities. Mr. DODD. That is right. We have had to come before the Congress in the past after different intervals, depending upon when the expiration date was, and certain authority to continue as an agency of the United States under the Delaware charter. The Corporation Control Act said all corporations of the Government must get a Federal charter before June 30, 1948. We have just attempted to bring together in this bill authority for the activities in which we have been engaged and want to continue. Senator LUCAS. Mr. Dodd, turning for a moment to a question or two which were propounded at the beginning, do you have a record of the total tonnage of the cold-storage plants, including private and public? Mr. DODD. Yes; we have those reports. They are in different fields. We have the dairy products, the poultry products, the fresh fruits and vegetables, and all of those things. Those are issued at regular intervals. Senator LUCAS. Could you break that down for us and put that into the record also? Mr. DODD. Yes. Of course, we have an up-to-date record of the commodities that are owned by the Commodity Credit. We have those at the end of each month. (The information is as follows:) Commodity Credit Corporation cold-storage stocks, as of Dec. 31, 1947 [Based on shipping documents and warehouse receiving reports] Source: USDA, PMA, Jan. 1, 1948, cold-storage report, table 13, pp. 18-19. Senator LUCAS. Returning to eggs, how long have you held these eggs? Mr. DODD. These eggs were bought last year under the price support. Senator LUCAS. Where do you keep those eggs at present? Mr. DODD. They are scattered around in different cold-storage places. We started buying eggs last March when the price of eggs to the farmers in certain areas began to drop below what Congress told us we should support as to the price of eggs. Up until last year, we had had a very large outlet to Great Britain for dried eggs and also to the armed forces. Senator LUCAS. Are these plants privately owned? Senator LUCAS. Do you have to pay storage? Mr. DODD. Yes; we have to pay storage. Senator LUCAS. How long are you going to continue to pay storage on these eggs? Mr. DODD. We have to find an outlet for them. Senator LUCAS. If you cannot sell them for 35 cents, which the law requires you to do, what are you going to do with it? Mr. DODD. They would have to be put in export channels. They could go into export for relief, but there again Congress put another limitation when they said we could put them into export at a price equal to the calorie price of wheat. Is it 1.19 a pound for eggs? Mr. GILMER. The dried eggs are 1.31 a pound. Mr. DODD. On the basis of the caloric value, you would have to sell them for about 10 cents a pound. Then you have the limit of $57,500,000. We cannot lose any more than $57,500,000. Senator LUCAS. Do you think the foreign people will buy eggs at that price? Mr. DODD. They will buy them at a dime. We could turn them into the relief agencies or the Army at 10 cents, but we would lose so much money if we turned them all in. If we used all the eggs in this program, we could not get to use dried fruits, raisins, and other things, because of the $57,500,000 limitation on loss. Senator LUCAS. How much loss do we have on eggs at the present time? Mr. DODD. We do not know because that has not been cleaned up. We have no loss at the present time, because we still have the stocks. On the eggs we sold this winter, we have been receiving all of our costs. Senator LUCAS. What does it cost for storage per month on the eggs you have? Mr. GILMER. A very nominal amount. Mr. DODD. We had $58,048,000 invested in eggs, both dried and frozen, on December 31. Senator ELLENDER. How many dozens of frozen eggs does that represent? Mr. DODD. Oh, some one hundred and forty-odd-million dozen. Senator ELLENDER. I understand that eggs are now selling for 75 to 90 cents a dozen? |