South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1913-07-22
COMMISSION WILL
URGE FARM LOANS
American Investigators Con-
vinCed of Wisdom of Step
After Foreign Trip.
BY WILLIAM SHEPHERD.
STAFF Correspondence.

staff Correspondence.
Paris. July 22.-I have seen a great
American committee of 100 legislators
and business men at work in Rome.
Berlin, Paris and London in their
effort TO get at the facts regarding
rural credits in Europe. This COM
mission has been over here, hard at
work. for weeks.
The biggest fact that this commit
ee has learned is that the American
farmer in his financial arrangements,
is a century behind the times.
The American farmer must consoli-
date. Though this great committee
Will not give such advice In so many
words. / can say now that the effect
Of it's report will be TO suggest such
consolidation by farmers in every part
OF the United States.
Almost everywhere the committee
went in Europe IL found farmers con-
soldated. except in England. owning
their own banks lending money to
each other, buying their supplies
their machinery. fertilizers. etc.-co-
operatively, and selling in the same
way.
Not Afraid to Borrow.
The committee found none Of the
terror of farm mortgages that breaks
The Italian farmer. they discovered in
Rome. doesn't have to take his hat in
hand and scrape and kowtow his way
into the office of a money shark to
borrow money for running his farm
at from 8 to 10 per cent. interest.
Neither does the Swiss farmer. the
French farmer or the German farmer.
In other words, the American COM
mittee has found that the European
farmer is a business man, not a
drudge; an EFFICIENT. powerful
cash buyer, whose trade is sought
and not an installment plan buyer,
like the average American farmer.
The European farmer. too. is an
efficient salesman who knows, every
| moment of the time, how the law of
| supply and demand is working in his
| territory and where he can get the
| best prices
And il isn't any wheat corn or
| produce gambling concern, like the
| Chicago pit. that fixes his price for
| him.
The European farmer is not at the
mercy of the railroads as is the Amer
| lean farmer. The railroads are his
| servants, not his masters. The farm
ers are so powerful that the railroads
would not dare to do TO them what
| the American roads did TO the west
ern wheat growers in 1907 when. be-
| cause the railroads did not send them
cars hundreds OF farmers were forced
to leave their wheat lying in piles at
the railroad stations throughout the
/ winter
Many Farmers Banks.
| In various places throughout
| Europe the American committee
| found farmers banks, owned and con-
| trolled by farmers under government
| supervision, lending money to farmers
on their land. fer long terms, at dates
| of interest varying from TO per
cent. 1t found these government
banks paying dividends, just like any
| other banks. TO the farmers 1t
| found that the funds Of these banks
could not be used for stock gambling
purposes. and that no central money
power, like Wall st. in the United
States, could draw the money Of these
banks for speculation.
The gist of the report OF this COM
mittee will be TO this effect:
THE American farmer is drudge
| as compared with the European
farmer: money lenders are a leech
| on the American farm. Farming
must be put on a basis in America and
| the American farmer, by consolida-
ton. must do away with the old hap
| hazard system of borrowing. buying
and selling, and must become a bust
! ness man. Raising produce from the
soil is only half Of the farmers task;
the other half is to conduct his affairs
on a strict business basis. and the only
| way he can accomplish this is to con-
sOlidate."
Currency Reform Needed.
Most of the members of the COM
mittee believe that there must be cur
rency reform in the United States
along the lines laid down by President
Wilson before farmers banks can be
operated independently of Wall ST
With a money trust in existence in
the United States, controlling credit
and ordering the direction in which
the tides OF gold flow. farmers banks
would Immediately fall under the con-
troll of Wall st.