San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-10-08
THE FARMERS REAL GRIEVANCE
Not Lack of Money But of Banking
Facilities in Country Districts.


Facilities in Country Districts.
Why has Canada no currency ques-
ton, no cry for cheap money, and no
campaign against gold? These are
questions which Mr.. Thomas G. Shear
man answers very effectively in the
London Times of September IL.
Briefly summarized, Mr.. Shearman's
explanation of the discomfort among
farmers, which has led to the ridicu-
lous demand for free silver, is that most
farmers in the west and south are de-
prived of the benefits of banking facili-
ties. They seldom see or use a check
and are unaquainted with the benefits
of banks and bank credits. For this
reason there is a great scarcity of cur
rency in most rural districts. The
country store" supplies in part and in
a crude and costly. way the credits
which tide many farmers over from
one season to another. Because of the
great risk involved, the storekeeper,
by charging high prices for his goods
and by paying low prices for farm prod
ucts, really gets from 25 to 40 per cent.
interest on the credits given to the
farmers. OF course, such interest eats
up all of the profits of a large class Of
farmers.
The country storekeeper really does a
banking business in clumsy and cost
ly way. Local banks, such as exist in
Canada, would furnish the farmers
with credits at about one-fourth the
cost of store credits. With such banks
the farmers would sell their crops for
checks, deposit them in banks and take
up their discounted notes in this way.
The farmer knows nothing of this
method of conducting transactions, and
thinks that his needs can be supplied
only by making more money-cheaper
money, if necessary.
The farmers, therefore, make no
efforts to obtain better banking facili-
ties. Instead, they work and vote
against banks and bankers at every OPP
portunity. They tax money and other
loanable capital at two or 2h per cent.
while demanding that interest be re-
duced to two per cent. They thus drive
away the very money they are SO eager
to get. In some sections of the south it
is so or rs miles to the nearest bank.
They prohibit branch banks, such as ex-
list in Canada and Scotland, to the great
advantage of remote country districts.
The farmers themselves are the great
est enemies TO what is most needed in
their communities-frst-c banks of
deposit and discount. Mr.. Shearman
makes this point clear. He says that
Canadian farmers "have suffered from
the fall of prices and from every other
alleged result of the single gold stand
ard to the same extent as the farmers
south of them. Yet there is no bimetal.
lie league in Canada, and the cry for
cheaper money is not heard. Canada
has not only enough money to supply
all of her own wants, but also lends
such great amounts in the United States
that jealous American bankers some
times try to shut Canadian money
out"
Mr.. Sherman sees what too few
seem TO see-that the farmers have q
real monetary or currency grievance,
He has indicated what is probably the
only way of giving relief. He offers
something positive. That the farmers
are not willing to take the only remedy
for their ills and prefer the quack free
silver and cheap money remedies only
prolongs their sufferings and makes q
rational solution of the money question
more difficult and uncertain.