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Show 'FARM PnOBLEM ! SOLUTION !r BAN ' J Suggestion of Relief Methods 4 Made at National Mar-; Mar-; X: keting Conference- : MADISON. Wis., K b. 4 Federal reserve paper with a nine months or f- twelve months period of maturity ? Wou' greatly antnt the farmer and overcome to a great extent the predlca- J fnent the toilers of the s'il find them selves In at the present time, accord- Ing to A R Ijetri , iii'Tfiht uf the f federal fiirm loan board, w ho addressed i the marketing conference here today. Th question uppermost in the .' minds of farmers Is what happened to . i bring nbout the present situation," ' paid Mr. Iever. "What has occurred - to justify a slump In prices of farm 7 products ranging from 60 per cent to 300 per cent within a period of twelve 4. months? I i 'Vertalnly there are no less mouths to be fed now. The yield for 1;'0 waa , f not unusually large! ( I- "The starving children of Armenia J 9 teed your wheat and corn nnd live- eN, bin Hie 5 liste nothing with ' Which to pay for It. The domestic ronsumer of farm products is on a . j buyers' strike. He is refualng to buy at the exorbitant prices demitnd-d by I aome retailers, except as he must buy to meet immediate needs. C DANCING THE HESITATION. "The domestic manufacturer, the t wholesaler and the Jobber, because of . , th uncertainty of tho prlro of th (i raw tnairtn) anr th demand for fln- iHhd product, lire, iia H vevtv, dancing th hrnltatlon, and thpy, too, nro In tli market only to fill immediate f , ' tnanda. : 1 ; "Th iindcrlyintf caua' h.ia norn ( that a farmi-r haa b'rn t.nifiht to wulk 5 th furrow and prodm-o, find, pr l capltti, h la the brat producer In the world. We havr taught him to becom I nn expert with hla handa and have left him aft a child In tho ut of hia f head in the nutn;iement of hia tif-i. tif-i. fatra, other than production. , "Kir the wreitt Ht.iplt? rn cropa like -whent, corn, cotton, wool and live- atock. there la no exlatinir machinery for the orderly marketing of -frm , product a. AfirlcuHure la both undtr- cnpltaltzfd ami in witliont Hnyui1 quate HHtcin of cmlita adapted to lla peculiar need a. STRAIN ON FINANCES. There la a terrific atraln upon tha flnancea of the country at the crop moving- aeaaon. A I ho an Inefficient and expenaive a)'atem of trana porta- certificates of Indehtedneas or debentures, deben-tures, in varying denominations and periods of maturity. "What la a government bond? A government bond la the evidence of the fact that congress, under the constitution, con-stitution, has the power to tax all of the aaaeta of all the people to make good the face of the bond. HIS SOLUTION. "A piece of farm land In Itself, no matter how valuable, will fall to unlock un-lock the doxrs of credit. A farm mortgage-on-t he nam piece of land in itself it-self would have no standing in the money markets of the world. Hut when, tinder the farm loan act, we have set up 4000 associations of farmers farm-ers through every agricultural county In the United States, and when these uaKoclntlona have tukn In many farm morUragea in the neighborhood of H'6,000 and have placed these In federal fed-eral land b.inks -regional banka In the hands of a government appointee known as farm loan registt ar. and these banks have leaned against this mortgage farm loan bonds, the farm has become through his itiitglc a liquid asset which flown freely In the money market a of the country. What ia a farm loan bond? It la the evidence that a trustee has In his pos-a pos-a -aaion farm mortgagee which. If foreclosed, fore-closed, would be sufficient in value to meet the obligation of the bond. "The working out of this system of f irm credit, aa well an the solution of all the other problems of agriculture, depend upon - nrK"i)iK"tioi. of the farmers themaelvea under sane, conservative, con-servative, fundament ally sound lead erahlp. With It there can be but success. suc-cess. Without this all theae efforts ' will fail." j tlon. There la an uneconomic and unwise un-wise strain upon buying and absorptive absorp-tive powers of the purchasers of farm products. Under this system we are asking the buyers of farm products to meet their needa for a period of twelve month a In a period from four to fiva montha. with the inevitable result to .the seller of these products. "The remedies which suageat themselves them-selves to me are: The elimination of all unnecessary factors In the present pres-ent system of distribution. The organization or-ganization of commodity sales agencies. agen-cies. The standardization of farm products Into grades and claaaea. The warehousing of aufficicnt quantltlea of products to set up an even flow of such products into the markets of the world as the Immediate demands of the world call for them. The devising of such credit machinery as will enable en-able the farmer to market hw products In a sane and orderly way. BANKING PROBLEM. ! '"The bank'-r thinks In the psychnl- egy of a quickly maturing paper. The 'turnover of the capital Inveatinent of ' the farmer is on-e in 30 days. A paper, therefore, with a maturity of .only alxty or ninety daya certainly. In .times of financial atreas, when money Is hard to get, ia of little value to htm. 'If we are to solve hla credit problem we must provide htm wit h a pn pr which hua a maturity jMriod equnl to the turnover period of hia investment, fend a paper of lewa tim than nine or twelve months' maturity letter fifteen fif-teen mom hs --caiiont.be of the great- , tst value to him. "To my mind, a system can be de- vised w hich will m- l thia necessity ;TMs Is predicted upon (he pooling of 'the r.aata of the con"rn and the la-"iance la-"iance against auch pooled aaaeta of |
