The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-04-10
FARMS NEED men
Production of Good Corn Not
the Only Necessity.
National Conference Brings
Forth Expert Opinions.
CO. OPERATION In FINANCE
Facilities to Farmers That Are
Offered to Factories.
Must Learn to FOndIe and
NOurish the Soil.
CO. COOPERATION IN FINANCE

CnlcagO, April 1O-Ine third and final
day of the National conference on mar
keting and farm credits brought forth
expert opinion regarding the financial
needs of the farmers as interesting as
those heretofore heard on the subject
of marketing.
Among the speakers were financiers,
educators and editors. One Of the
most interesting papers heard from the
standpoint of farm credits was by Her.
bert Myrick, of Springfield Mass.
president of several weekly papers espe-
cially interesting to farmers The au-
thor was not present and the paper was
read for him. Some of the foremost
speakers of the day were B. F. Harris,
of Champaign, Ill. former president of
the Illinois Bankers association; George
Woodruff, president of the First Ma
tional bank of Joliet, ILL.,; Homer c.
Price, dean of agriculture at the Ohio
state university and w. G. Edens, of
Chicago. Mr.. Myrick's paper on Com
parative Finance set forth among
other things the following:
Enforce Organized Corporation.
"Organized cooperation is the great
est of all marvels in economic evolu-
ton. Applied to finance it multiplies
an hundred fold the power of each dol
lar of cash by transfers of credits
through the mechanism exchange. APP
piled to agriculture organized co-opera-
ton will enable farmers to finance
themselves, improve distribution, reform
marketing and promote their general
welfare. Therefore adequate finance
for farming is the basic need today and
hence the American farmers now
unitedly demand:
"First-That whatever reform of cur
rency and banking be enacted by con-
gress, shall provide facilities for fl
nancing the farm and small industries
relatively equal to the facilities afford
ed the great manufac turing commercial
and business interests
"Second-That such reform shall |
authorize and encourage the co-opera-
ton of savings and thrift credits and
loans, by people of limited means
farmers, workers in other vocations
and producers generally-and the
wise use of their combined resources
by the producers themselves.
t"Third-That this shall be done not
by grants of pay; not by special provi- |
leges but by relative equality of OPP
portunfty in banking and exchange for
personal mortgage, savings and loans, |
whereby farmers and the common peo |
pie may cooperate to successfully
finance themselves Tfder either or !
both federal and state laws.
Attract Funds to All.
A plan set forth by Mr.. Myrick in his
paper would tend to decentralize mort !
gage credit for the benefit of each !
farmer who needs it; centralize the |
security, supervision and mana gement4
of land credits; attract the funds
needed to meet borrowers demands;
mobilize all mortgages as a basis for !
safe investment bonds and pay off the I
feeling it.
Mr. Harris speaking on Improving +
Farm Credit in America said in |
part:
Until we learn to handle the sur
face soil less wantonly; to fondle and
nourish it as our other treasures, we
can hardly expect others to abet the t
plan of further despoiling it by finding
easier ways of using it as security for
it's own undoing. 1t is time to call
halt when the soil has been starved +
until its declining returns have helped
force unna tural and abnormal advance 4
in prices. Il
''The best product of the prairies is
not corn but men and the quarter sec Il
ton that produces a thinking man
may well be said to have performed
it's mission. II
Mr.. Eden's subject was FINANCING
the Farmer II
He said in part: i
Suffering From Indifference.
zone of the principal reasons for
the increas ed cost of living lies in the
crude AGRICULTURAL methods and condi-
tons prevailing. The agricultural in
terests of the nation are suffering
from indifference, while the popula-
to year the production from the soil
does not increase proportionately and
hence it is only natural that high
prices prevail I believe that it ought
to be possible to evolve some plant for
better financing of the farmer from all
he investigations that have been made,
which will be just and equitable for
all the interests concerned
Dean Price, speaking on the subject
Improving Farm Credits in Ameri-
ga said that Americans suddenly
had awakened to the fact that they
do not possess all that is working in
agriculture and that in agriculture
credit cooperation, distribution and
farm organization we are woefully be-
hind some of the countries in Europe.
Mr. Woodruff had for his subject
European Systems of Farm Credit"
He compared agricultural conditions in
Europe with those in America from
financial standpoint.