The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-06
SAWYER HAS PLAN
Turn Poor Farms Into Expert
ment Stations, He Urges.
Modern Farm Methods Mean
Millions to Kansas.
TELLS BANKERS OF new HOPE
Aid to Farmers Is Aid to State
Banking Industry.
Topeka After Next Meeting
State Bankers Association.


broader public spirit among the Kan
sas bankers will not only add to the
prosperity and growth of the state,
but will raise the banker and the
banking business above suspicion and
restore a needed confidence, State
Bank Commissioner Charles N. Saw
yer told the members of the Kansas
Bankers association today at their
twenty-sixth annual convention in
Hutchinson. Sawyer urged county or
CARNATIONS amcng the state and ma
tional bankers and urged that the
bankers lead the way for the estab-
lishment of county experiment sta
tions which will add to the produc-
tiveness of Kansas soil. In the end,
Sawyer declared, the banker will
share in the profits.
About 700 bankers are attending
the convention, which opened today
in Hutchinson. Of the 1,12S state
and national banks in Kansas, all but
about 80 are listed as members of
the state association and it is prob
able that by tonight more than 500
will be in attendance at the conVen-
ton. At that time Byron w. Moser
of st. Louis, w. c. Brown of New
York, Mrs. Marion Wharton of Chi
cago and Governor George H. Hodges
of Kansas will be among the speak
erS. Tonight a ball will be given at
the convention hall in honor of the
visiting bankers and their wives.
Topeka After the Convention.
score of Topeka bankers came
to Hutchinson last night and this
morning to attend the convention
They will make a fight to take the
convention to Topeka next year. In
1912 the convention was held in the
capital city and was one of the big
history nf
ganiza ton.
A. E. Asher, president of the Hutch
inson Commercial National bank, well
coined the bankers to the salt town this
morning. Response was by A D.
Crooks, president of the Emporia State
bank. M. H. Malott, of Abilene. pres
ident of the association, spoke for 30
minutes on the advancement of the
banking industry in Kansas. Moral
Force in Business was the subject
of an address at today's session by Tom
BIodgett of Wichita.
The s. eech today by Bank Commits
sioner Sawyer was one of the princi-
pal events of the days session SAWYER
told of the progress made by the Kan
SaS bankers since their formal organ
ization more than quarter of a cen
tury ago and declared that they were
only entering on the broad field which
they are % cover in the industrial
affairs of the state Supplemental to
the plan for group meetings which have
been held for several years. SAWYER
urged that county organizations be
formed and that monthly meetings be
held by the bankers in the several
counties to discuss local conditions and
make plans for the future. AS a step
further, the bank commissioner urged
that the bankers of the state get be-
hind movement to turn the county
poor farms in county experiment farm
and aid in the campaign for intensi-
fed farming and soil development in
Kansas.
Too Many Poor Farms.
Not many Kansans are objects of
charity" Sawyer told the bankers. I'VE
are long on poor farms and short on
a source of expense, rather than of rev.
enue. Why not use them for agricul-
tural experiment stations?
Bankers Can Help.
In most counties your bankers organ
ization can stir up enough public senti-
ment for the plan to secure its adoption
by the counties 50 that the expense can
be paid by taxation and thus those who
reaped the benefits would share the bur
den- Get an efficient experienced farm
demonstrator so that your soils may be
and those crops planted that are
adapted to that particular
soil and have them planted and cultivated
in the way that will bring the best re-
suits Properties of the soil that have
Deen exhausted the prOQuct1On of
crop for too long a period could be re-
stored by the proper rotation and the
county demonstrator could tell how to do
it, He could also give instruction as to
the careful and scientific selection of seed |
which, as you will all admit is sadly
neglected. 1t has been demonstrated be- |
yond question that plant life can be i'm
proved by careful breeding as success
fully animal life and I am firmly con-
WINGED that the selection of seeds from |
the more hardy plants each year for a
period of years would develop wheat, corn |
and other cereals in the western section |
of the state that would mature properly |
and yield abundantly with the average
rainfall of that section Organization and |
team work bring results in any line of en-
deavor and bankers should take the lead. |
We have a prospect for an unprecedented |
wheat crop this year but there is a pos
sibility of immense damage through the |
ravages of chinch bugs. During the win
ter the state agricultural college at Man
haitian, and the Industrial departments |
of the railroads warned the people of the |
state that these pests had been doing !
great damage in Oklahoma for year or |
two past; that they had moved into south |
ern Kansas and that the south half of the |
state alive with them and that 15 |
per cent of them could be destroyed by |
Only in limited localities was any atten- !
ton paid to this warning. An active or /
ganiza ton of bankers in each county |
could have aroused the growers to the |
possibly saving hundreds of thousands |
of dollars.
Turn Defeat Into Success.
Another subject that your county or
ganizations could study with much profit |
Is the waste that could be eliminated in |
are leaks in most of your banks your |
business organizations and upon your |
farms which, if plugged up, would often |
times spell the difference between sue
cess and failure and in anv event the