loans 2,842,054 had been paid in full as of that date and the percentage repayment of the amount loaned was 76.3. In addition to loans which the Emergency Crop and Feed Loan Division has made under its regular appropriations, this Division is charged with administering drought feed loans made in drought stricken areas in 1934-35. In 1934, Congress appropriated approximately $500,000,000 (Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of Congress approved June 19, 1934) to be allocated by the President for relief to farmers in agriculturally distressed areas. The sum of $96,785,000 was allocated to the Farm Credit Administration for the purpose of making drought feed loans and of this amount $72,008,540 had been loaned when the appropriation expired on June 30, 1935. Because of the extreme emergency existing in the livestock areas at the time these drought feed loans were authorized, the loans were made on liberal terms, being supported only by the borrower's unsecured note, and collections in most cases had to follow payment by the borrower of prior liens on his livestock. Nevertheless, a steady and material liquidation of these loans continues to be made each year. Farmers and stockmen repaid $5,576,838.47 on these loans during 1943. Total repayments to December 31, 1943, were $32,025,517. Beginning in 1937, Congress, in each annual appropriation for the Farm Credit Administration, has (a) authorized use of collection of both principal and interest on 1937 and subsequent years' loans for the purpose of making new loans and (b) authorized use of a specific amount of money out of the same fund to be expended for administrative expenses for the making and collecting of new loans and the servicing of outstanding loans made in previous years. At this time, there are about 1,300,000 such loans, with total outstanding balances of around $156,000,000. Collections on all loans, including those made in previous years, exceeded the total amount loaned by $28,180,633.65 during the 7 calendar years 1937-43. The number of loans made, the amount loaned, and the amount collected on all loans in each of these calendar years were as follows: By December 31, 1943, 910,226 of the 1,128,801 loans the 7-year period had been repaid in full. made in Of the 116,675 farmers who were granted loans in 1943, 84,485. had repaid their loans in full by December 31, 1943. Mr. ANDRESEN. Was that on rehabilitation loans? Mr. LINDSEY. Yes. And in addition, 90,048 loans made in prior years were paid in full during the year, making a total of 174,533 loans paid in full in 1943 as compared with the 116,675 new loans made. The amount actually repaid in 1943 and deposited in the Treasury exceeded the amount loaned during the year by $13,397,811.99, and exceeded the combined total of loans made and amount disbursed for all administrative expenses, including overtime pay, by $9,188,419.99. Of the $32,037,282.46 paid in 1943, $13,826,826.57 consisted of principal and interest repayments on current loans, and $18,210,455.89, including interest, was on loans made in former years. Of the latter amount, $12,336,049.05 was on loans made in 1936 and prior years. The administrative expense in making and collecting 116,675 current loans and the handling and servicing of about 1,300,000 old loans with outstanding balances of approximately $156,000,000 was a little over $4,000,000 for the year 1943. As a result of annual authority from Congress to use collections on loans made in 1937 and subsequent years in making new loans and meeting administrative costs, Congress has directly appropriated only $20,000,000 for the program since 1937: first, to the extent of $15,000,000 in 1949 fiscal year, and second, to the extent of $5,000,000 for the fiscal year 1944. No additional funds are being requested for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1944, and ending June 30, 1945, because there is an anticipated balance in this fund sufficient if reappropriated by the Congress to meet the loan expectancy and administrative expenses during that period. As just stated, only collections on 1937 and subsequent years' loans are available for reuse when so annually authorized by Congress. Collections on all loans made prior to 1937 are deposited in the Treasury and are no longer available for lending or administrative purposes. Collections on loans made prior to 1937 and so deposited in the Treasury by years, since 1937, have been as follows: 1937 on 1936 and prior loans.. 1938 on 1936 and prior loans. 1939 on 1936 and prior loans. 1940 on 1936 and prior loans. 1941 on 1936 and prior loans_ 1942 on 1936 and prior loans_ 1943 on 1936 and prior loans. Total__ $10, 411, 279. 79 4, 238, 918. 64 3,726, 267. 17 3,881, 337. 65 5, 734, 116. 37 10, 304, 364. 50 12, 336, 049. 05 50, 632, 333. 17 The basic characteristics of the loan is that it represents a form of Federal credit which is made available only to farmers who cannot obtain loans from other sources and who need funds with which to produce their crops or provide feed for their livestock. The objective of the loan is to make it possible for a farmer who cannot obtain a loan from other sources and whose cash requirements are small, to produce sufficient crops with which to repay his loan and at the same time enable him to continue his farming operations and, through such operations, meet the needs of his family and care for his work and other livestock. A contributing factor in realizing this objective is the fact that there is included in the amount loaned sufficient funds for the production of crops for home use and for work stock and subsistence livestock, but we do not collect out of such crops. The regulations state: Applicants must agree (1) to use seed and methods approved by the Department of Agriculture; (2) to plant a garden for home use; and (3) to plant a sufficient acreage of feed crops to supply feed for their work stock and subsistence cattle. This objective is therefore toward improvement of the economical status and resources of the borrower. An actual survey showed that 81,151 farmers who obtained loans in 1 year did not apply for a loan in the following year. Of these, 29 percent were able to finance themselves and 33 percent had sufficiently increased their credit standing to be eligible for loans from private and cooperative credit institutions. The remaining 38 percent were distributed among those who had adopted other means of livelihood or about whom definite information as to their source of credit was not obtainable, with less than 10 percent of the total being financed by any other Government source. The E. C. F. L. loan is supervised to the extent of seeing that the loan proceeds are devoted to the purposes set forth in the application, that the crop is actually planted and cared for, and that the proceeds are properly applied. The loan is also made with the understanding that the borrower will use seeds and methods of farming as approved by the Department of Agriculture. Other supervision, such as home management and scientific methods of farming, has been left to the Extension Service. There is nothing "selective" about the E. C. F. L. loan. It is available to all farmers who can establish eligibility. During the entire 25 years of its existence, no applicant who could establish eligibility under the regulations governing the making of loans promulgated pursuant to the authorizing act has been denied a loan to which he was entitled under such regulations unless through error in some individual case. The credit and collection activities throughout the country are carried on by 11 regional offices and the States embraced in such regions are the same as those which comprise the various field districts of the Farm Credit Administration, with two exceptions. The regional office organization includes a force of field supervisors who are assigned to a specific territory on a county basis in the various States. In the making of the loan, the field supervisor is assisted by local county committees who serve in an advisory capacity without compensation. The message transmitting the Executive order of the President of March 27, 1933, reorganizing the agricultural credit agencies of the United States, issued pursuant to the provisions of section 1, title III, of the act entitled "An act to maintain the credit of the United States Government," approved March 20, 1933, reads as follows: Pursuant to the provisions of section 1, title III, of the Act entitled "An Act to maintain the credit of the United States Government," approved March 20, 1933, I am transmitting herewith an Executive order reorganizing the agricultural credit agencies of the United States. This Executive order consolidates in one agency-The Farm Credit Administration-the functions of all present Federal organizations which deal primarily with agricultural credit, namely, the Federal Farm Board, the Federal Farm Loan Board, the functions of the Secretary of Agriculture with regard to loans in aid of agriculture, and those of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation pertaining to the management of regional agricultural credit corporations. The functions of the Federal Farm Board with regard to further stabilization operations are abolished by the order. A better coordination of the agencies involved in our agricultural credit system will produce a more uniform program for agricultural credits and will result in substantial economies. A saving of more than $2,000,000 is the immediate effect of this order. Further substantial savings are anticipated. Important as are the foregoing, of greater and controlling importance is the maintenance of the long-standing policy of the Federal Government to maintain and strengthen a sound and permanent system of cooperative agricultural credit, subject to Federal supervision and operated on the basis of providing the maximum of security to present and prospective investors in bonds and debentures resting on farm mortgages or other agricultural securities--all for the purpose of meeting the credit needs of agriculture at minimum cost. That was the message transmitted to the Congress in regard to the consolidation of these agricultural agencies in March 1933 into the Farm Credit Administration. Prior to the promulgation of the Executive order, the crop and feed loan program was administered by the Department of Agriculture. As a result of its inclusion as one of the agencies of the Farm Credit Administration, it has been under the supervision of the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration, who also has general supervision over the cooperative lending institutions within the Farm Credit Administration, which includes among others production credit associations. One of the most significant conclusions which can be drawn from an analysis of loans made out of Federally appropriated funds (such as our program) is afforded by an analysis of the number of loans made by this Division in each year as reflected in the attached table: |