The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1913-05-01
SETS
SAIL FOR EUROPE
TO STUDY CREDITS
Hope to Devise Plan 10 Provide
Cheaper Money for Financing
Farmers and Legitimate
Industry.

1920 a6E&hW
New York, April 2Ss-A further Jolt
is TO be given the high cost Of living
ff the delegation OF 100 Americans
which sailed from here for Naples to-
day succeeds In its endeavor to devise
q separate banking system for Amer
lean farmers. The official name of the
delegation is the American commits
sion on agricultural cooperation. The
Investigation is to be made under the
auspices Of the southern commercial.
congress. Its aim is to place cheap
money at the disposal OF American
farmers in order to increase agricul-,
tural production and to lowersth cost
OF producing food.
Secretary of Agriculture Houston
represented the administration at the
farewell given to the commission. Pres
ident Wilson takes q keen Interest in
the undertaking and addressed the dell
egates personally before they left
Washington.
Report to Congress-.
The commission is headed by seven
federal commissioners bearing the Gre
dentials Of President Wilson and Sec.
Rotary of State Bryan. They will make
a report to congress upon the prac-
ticability of establishing farmers CO.
operative banks and a mortgage bank
system in the United States, copied
after thea agricultural credit systems of
European countries. Besides the fed
eral commissioners there are delegates
representing about three-fourths of the
states of the union who will make q
report to a COMMITTEES of nine gov
errors appointed at the last confer
| ence of the state executives In this
/ ymov nffoin1 1rropdp ffnnS will ha
placed before and the state
legislatures urging a consideration OF
the credit requirements of h farmers,
both as a means of assisting the farm
ers n OF relieving the OF
the country from the burden OF the
high cost of living.
Help Legitimate Trade.
The work Of the commission is close
ly connected with the efforts of the
banking and commercial interests to
| secure currency reform. The principal
claim of those seeking currency re-
form is that under the present bank
ing system which permits banks to re-
| deposit their funds with other banks
who in urn deposit them in Chicago or
New York. the tendency is to collect
the surplus of the nations funds in
the big speculative centers where they
stimulate stock gambling. The cur
rency reformers want permission ex-
1 LenQGu GDGG UdIlhS 10 IGIlQ llOIG lICcly
and with better returns to those en-
gagged in legitimate commerce and
manufacturing work. The American
commission on agricultural co-opera-
ton similarly wants a supplementary
banking system built up which will be
controlled hM the farmers and which
will Divert agtarge portion of the saw
ings of rural communities to the de-
velopment of the farms. 1t is claimed
that In m sacfi a system has
been able to supply as high as 50 per
cent OF all the money required by the
German farmers for their operating ex-
| penses from such deposits. Similar
systems are in operation in nearly
.every country OF Europe. 1t Is to study
the operation Of these systems that the
commission is visiting those countries.
Mortgage Banking System.
The second attempt of the commits
sion will De to secure the establish
ment of a mortgage banking system in
the United States. Such a system in
600, 900 to the German land owners for
the development and improvement OF
their land. In France the mortgage
bonds of the credit f%oncier, which are
only the farmers mortgages under q
different form, sell at lower interest
rates than ever first class industrial
bonds. 1t is declared that IL a mort
gage banking system could be estab-
lished in the United States billions OF
dollars OF additional money could be Sc
cured for the farmers at much lower
rates and on better terms and that
with the great development in Amer
lean farms which his none would
make possible, the problem of good
production in the United States, which
is rapidly becoming worse, would be
solved for ever.
Personnel of Committee.
The federal commissioners appointed
by the president are Senator Duncan u.
Fletcher. lawyer-farmer, and president
Of the southern commercial congress;
4 Senator Thomas p. Gore, of Oklahoma,
chairman of the Senate committee on
agriculture; Representative Moss. OF
Indiana, who was a farmer before he
entered congress, and is now chairman
of the House committee on expenditures
in the department of agriculture; Col
Harvie Jordan, former president of the
farmers union; Kenyon L. Butterfield,
a member of President Roosevelt's
country life commission, and president
of Amherst college; John Lee Coulter
the governments expert on agricultural
statistics, and DR.. Clarence J. Owens
managing director Of the southern
commercial congress.
h state delegates include farmers
bankers, lawyers and economists. Vim
cent Aston was appointed a delegate
from New York by Governor SulZer and
the prime minister of Saskatchewan
heads a delegation of Canadians rep
ion. The commission returns from Eu-
rope in August and will then prepare
it's report to congress n the states
CULT LEADER SEE is