Evening star., 1933-11-18
IGNORANCE CHARGE
MADE BY SEAL TO
MILK UNIT OFFICER
McGiEi Alleged to Know Moth
ing of Prices and Diff
ferentials.
ATTORNEYS QUESTIONS
PRECIPITATE ARGUMENT
Testifes Dairy Farmers Are Re-
ceiving 6 Cents Less for Sec
ond-Class Grade.

Elwood H. Seal, special counsel to
the Senate's Milk Investigating Com
mittee, today charged John McGill, jr.,
secretary of the Maryland and Virginia
Milk Producers Association. with
knowing nothing about milk prices or
butter-fat differentialS."
McGill testified this morning that he
had made no study Of butterfat con-
tent and the differential being paid
farmers for high butter-fat content.
and shortly afterward admitted he had
no idea what dairy companies in
washington are receiving for cream.
Under discrimination by 10 v.
Morgan co-counSel of the Protective
Committees of the Producers Associa-
tion, McGill testified that dairy farm
ers are receiving cents less per gal
lon for second-class milk, which is con-
verted into cream.
Precipitates Argument.
What prices are the distributors
charging consumers for the cream
which they make from second-class
milk?" Morgan asked.
II don't know what they get for their
cream" McGill replied
. DO you assume to act for your pro-
ducers without knowing what the dis
tributors get for their product?"
I'VE make an investigation"
do you know what Chestnut Farms
Dairy gets for quart Of cream?"
It do not"
seal's charge that McGnl was .igno-
rant of milk prices and butter-fat diff
ferentials precipitated a violent argu-
ment with McGill and w. Gwynn
Gardiner, attorney for the producers
organization.
After McGill had stated that he had
made no investigation Of butter-fat con-
tent. Seal questioned him as to the
effect of the three-claSs plan OF milk
purchase in Baltimore.
Admits Lack of Data,
ais it not true, Mr.. McGill, that milk
prices to the producers in the Balti-
more milk shed we're lowered as result
of the three-class plan?" Seal asked.
II do not know" McGill replied.
'Mr. Isaac w. Heaps is your sales
agent, is he not?"
He is"
"And you heard him state on this wit
ness stand that the three-class plan had
reduced distributor prices in Baltimore,
did you not?"
Gardiner leaped to his feet objecting
to the question and McGin interjected
that the milk-marketing agreement re-
Gently placed in effect in Baltimore haG
resulted in an increase in prices to the
producer
McCarran Enters Fight.
The committee counsel and Gardner
then engaged in a bitter argument
vice chairman, broke up after Seal had
shouted to McGill:
"As a matter of fact, you don't know
, anything about it, do you?"
McGill admitted he had made no
study Of the effects Of the three-class
plan in Baltimore, but that he had
urged its adoption in the Washington
milk shed over the early protest Of
Heaps, who is the manager Of the East
ern States Milk Marketing Association.
The sense of the three-class plan was
placed in the record by H. T. Pancoast,
Purcellville, Va, producer and direc-
tor of the association, who testified
that, although his receipts were less
for six months of this year than last
year, his herd had been decreased.
He said the average weighted price
he had received for his product for the
first six months Of this year was 15-100
of a cent more per gallon than last
year, when there was no three-class
plan.