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. 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. 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. Not available. 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 because the OPS is simply regulation-crazy. Whenever one set of regulations does not work too well, the bureaucrat's solution is to impose additional regulations. I am fearful that if this quota power is granted we may after a while be faced with the request that OPS have authority to decide which market the farmer must ship his cattle to. Then, if that still does not work, we might be asked to grant authority for OPS to tell the farmer when to ship his cattle. It may be recalled that back in 1946 the President announced that he had given serious consideration to the idea of sending men onto the farms and ranches to seize the cattle and force them to be sold for slaughter. He rejected the idea at that time, but evidently such an action might seem like a logical step to a bureaucrat in a system of regulations like this. I do not claim we are close to that point yet, but I do say that if Congress permits quotas to be imposed again, we may be taking a long step toward the day when farmers will be told when and where to sell their livestock. Incidentally, our neighboring Republic, Cuba, has already reached the point of attempting to seize cattle owned by ranchers and have them slaughtered. I shall not try to analyze this whole subject in detail. There are a number of very well qualified witnesses from the cattle industry who I am sure will be in a position to discuss the technical aspects of the subject with the committee. I would like inserted in the record the OPS release I referred to. The CHAIRMAN. With no objection, Senator, whatever you wish to insert in the record will be done. (The release referred to follows:) OFFICE OF PRICE STABILIZATION [For immediate release, Tuesday, July 31, 1951] RE LIVESTOCK QUOTAS (Amendment 7 to DR 1-Canceling livestock quotas, effective August 1, 1951) The Office of Price Stabilization today canceled the livestock slaughter quota provisions of its meat control program, effective August 1, 1951, but continued the requirement that slaughterers must be registered with the agency to engage in slaughtering operations. Elimination of the quotas conforms to the Defense Production Act Amendments of 1951, which prohibit imposition of quotas on livestock slaughter. The step was taken by amending Distribution Regulation No. 1 to strike out provisions which set up the slaughter quota machinery. Provisions in the regulation requiring slaughterers to register to engage in business, to stamp animal carcasses with their registration numbers and to keep records of their operations are left untouched, however, OPS emphasized. OPS officials said this should prevent fly-by-night operators from springing up over the country. Only registered slaughterers can legally slaughter livestock. The legislative history of the 1951 congressional action extending the Defense Act, OPS said, "makes clear that the Office of Price Stabilization may continue its present program of requiring registration as a condition of engaging in slaughtering operations." OPS said a revised Distribution Regulation No. 1 will be issued in the near future preserving the registration and other features of the regulation, but omitting quotas. |