The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-07

try's wealth, and in which l2,WO.V0 CT the population are engaged.
 Governor o'Neal said in part:
 Tt has long been recognized that the failure of our financial system to pro vide methods by which our farmers could procure money, at reasonable interest for their legitimate requirements, con stituted one of it's most serious defects. Yet. while this defect has been admitted, it was not until recent years that any remedy for this condition was suggested.
 towing to the absence of proper bank ing facilities for agricultural needs, the farmer has been compelled to apply to loan brokers merchants and private individuals for that capital which the le- ultimate conduct of his business required, and to pay not only heavy commls- sions, but, generally, exorbitant ana usurious interest. The necessary result has been that agriculture, which consti- tutes the chief source of our national wealth. and the most important 1ceu- patton in which our people are engaged, was not only injured, but It's development seriously retarded. The farmer could not understand why occupation which added annually to the national wealth over eight billion dollars. and in which twelve million of our people were en- gagged, should be practically boycotted in the money markets of the country, and denied that credit so generously ac- corded to our manufacturers, mefchants and other business men.
 Land Values Increase
 '.The report of the last census showed that there had been in the country gen erally remarkable increase in the value of farm lands, and the percentage of crop values and production. In the south, especially was this increase most marked For the first time since the civil war the south, which had been pro ducing the least per capita in farm val ues, commenced to produce the most. The last decade showed that the central west ern states whose lands were long re- earded as the most productive In the nation, showed 56 per cent increase Tn crop values, as compared with an ln- crease of 13S per cent in the South At lantic states, an increase so unpreee- dented as to be characterized by leau- ing journal as the most important econ omic phenomenon occurring on the eontl- nent of North America.
 Yet notwithstanding the more general adoption of improved systems Of agri- culture, and the rapid advance in the value of all farm products and farm lands, the farmer was still confronted with the same old problem of dgrloul- tural credits He fed the world and the ,isurer alike. He was still entangled in the coils of the money shark, still com pelled to pay heavy commissions on the top of high interest rates, for the money required for his legitimate needs.
 "Fortunately the attention of the ooun- try has again been directed to the soiu- tion of this important problem. As the President stated, in his interesting and instructive letter to the governors, The need for the establishment of an ade- ouate financial system as an aid to the farmers of the country, was now quite generally recognized,'
 Accordingly, the President directed the department of state, through the diplomatic officers in Europe, to make an investigation of the agricultural credit systems in operation in certain countries in Europe. These instructions issued by the President to our diplomatic ofii- lcers in Europe on the 18th of last March, were as he states, effectively supple ,nented by the American Bankers asso- citation, the Southern Commercial con- gress, and other bodies, with the re- suit that a vast mass of valuable in- formation and knowledge has been fur nished the country to the methods adopted in foreign lands to so extend their agricultural credit facilities as to make equal to the benefits enjoyed by other industrial and commercial organi- zations.
 .'The last report of the census bureau shows that during the past decade there has been a steady and continuous en- hancement in the value of farm lands all over the union. In my own state this increase has been over 1l6 per cent, and we have every reason to believe that this increase will continue during the coming decade at even a greater ratio. It is evident, therefore, that those who are seeking investment could find no safer or more valuable security than farm lands whose values are constantly increasing. With the growth of our wealth and pop ulation, the adoption of improved meth ods of agriculture, the construction of better highways and cheaper methods ot transportation, and the ever growing de- mand for farm products, this security will continue in the future to become day by day and year by year more valuable.
 Farmer Pays High Rates
 'Yet, notwithstanding this, We all know that under the operation of the financial system that now exists the farmer is forced to pay a higher rate of interest for loans upon his land than is exacted from any other form of se- curity. Until some better system is adop- ted some plan by which farm mort gages can be more readily negotiated, the