SLAUGHTER QUOTAS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1951 UNITED STATES SENATE, SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a. m., in room 301, Senate Office Building, Senator Burnet R. Maybank (chairman), presiding. Present: Senators Maybank and Schoeppel. The CHAIRMAN. The subcommittee will please come to order. Before we begin I shall insert in the record three tables pertaining to meat quotas and prices. (The tables referred to are as follows:) Selected prices for cattle and sheep and lambs and of their products at wholesale and retail, by months 1951 2 Corn Belt, for slaughter. 3 Wooled through May, Spring beginning June. 4 Native steers. Average of weekly prices as reported by National Provisioner. 5 From U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, August prices are as of August 27. Source: Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Production of meat in millions of pounds under Federal inspection and in all commercial establishments, by months, March to August 1951 1 August, Per- percent Quan- cent Quan- cent Quan- cent Quan- cent Quan- cent of 1950 tity of tity of tity of tity of tity of 1 Slaughter quotas were in force April to July on cattle and May to July on other livestock. 2 Preliminary estimate based on weekly reports. 3 Not available. Source: Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Federally inspected cattle slaughter by market centers and areas, and total noninspected slaughter, 1951 to date, as percentage of 1950 1 1951 slaughter reduced during July and early August and again in early September by flood conditions. 2 Not available. 3 United States total noninspected slaughter (excludes farm slaughter). Source: Bureau of Agricultural Economics. The CHAIRMAN. Our first witness is Senator Butler. Go ahead, Senator. STATEMENT OF HUGH BUTLER, A UNITED STATES Senator BUTLER. Senator Maybank, I am delighted to have the opportunity of opening this hearing this morning. I feel it is quite an honor. As a former member of this committee, I want to congratulate you on the big improvements that have been made in the committeeroom. I have not been in here for quite a while. The CHAIRMAN. We appreciate your being the first witness before this subcommittee. We often sat together on the full committee. It was always a pleasure. Senator BUTLER. I appreciated the experience I had on this committee. I served here for a number of years and would still be here except for the Reorganization Act which decided that we couldn't have but two committees. I happened to be on two other committees where I had higher ranking than I did on this committee. In the President's message calling for this legislation he particularly singled out three or four amendments for criticism and contended that these amendments would make price controls unworkable. One of the amendments thus singled out is the one which I sponsored in the Senate, forbidding the imposition of any quotas or other limitations on the quantity of livestock that could be slaughtered. I am still very firmly of the opinion that these quotas are not at all necessary to proper enforcement of the various price-control orders. Furthermore, I feel that the quotas, if imposed, would probably seriously hamper the production of meat and thereby perhaps lead to a real shortage and to rationing at the consumer level. Even without the power to impose quotas on livestock, the Office of Price Stabilization has very broad powers over the operations of slaughterers and meat packers. In a release dated last July 13, which I would like to place in the record, the OPS took the trouble to mention some of the powers which it has to control slaughtering operations. According to this release, OPS is continuing to require registration of all meat slaughterers and may refuse to grant registration to any meat-packing plant, either for good reason or merely on the basis of an arbitrary whim. The OPS has actually denied the right to operate to a packing plant in my State, a fine, large establishment, well equipped to do an efficient packing business. If a packing plant is not granted registration by OPS, it is not permitted to operate. The OPS also has established ceilings on the wholesale and retail prices of all cuts of meat, and ceilings on the average prices at which cattle may be bought. It has the right to check all records and books of account of all meat-packing firms. It requires carcasses to be stamped with their registration numbers. It has even established. regulations over the manner in which the meat shall be cut, over certain marketing practices of meat retailers, and over other phases of the operations of the industry. With all these powers, it is hard to see why the OPS insists on having the additional power of applying quotas. Frankly, I suspect it is |