the r resident, who has advocated flexible supports, was

the r resident, who has advocated flexible supports, was unwilling to sign and which could not be passed over a veto, the present law allowing supports to drop to 75 percent of parity would become effective next year. V subsidy which agriculture lias received from price supports is a direct result ®f the essential need during World War II to stimulate domestic production of food and fibre to the point where there would be a surplus above our own needs which we could furnish to our allies. To justify farmers in taking the risk of increasing their ^'production in excess of domestic market demands the government promised them a floor under their prices for an appropriate period of readjustment after the war' ended. In 1949—four years after the end of the shooting war—we attempted to start this readjustment by ; passage of a bill to end fixed support for basic crops but the effective date of .this law was postponed and our biggest losses tyve