The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1913-04-26
Economists Say at Present, Money
Flows to Wall Street for
Speculation.
SHOULD GO TO FARMERS
Cheaper Interest, They Believe, Will
Make Intensive Agriculture
and Lower Prices.
BY United Press.

BY United Press.
New York, April 26-The S. S.
Saxonia, bound for Naples, carried
a delegation of 100 Americans when
it sailed today. The Americans are
going abroad to find the solution of
the high cost of living riddle. The
key to the riddle, according to this
delegation American Commits
sion on Agricultural Cooperation
is the establishment of a farmers
banking system which will break up
the present flow of money to Wall
street and send it into the farms so
that the consumers Of the country
will have more food and cheaper
food.
A majority of the dollars deposited
in American banks today declare
members of the commission, are
bound to find their way to the.specu-
lative markets since every bank has
no alternative under the present
large portion of it's funds with othe-
banks which in turn place the funds
with the New York or Chicago banks
and turn it over to spectators under
the guise of call money. The aim of
the American Commission on Agri-
cultural Cooperation is to establish
little cooperative banks in every
American farming community which
will receive deposits of the communi-
ty and loan them directly to the farm
ers for the development of their
farms
Besides the efforts to establish
these farmers banks, the commission
will undertake the study Of the lane
banks of Europe, institutions which
carry on the mortgage business of
the European farmers, accepting all
mortgages and issuing bonds based
upon them which sell on the stock
exchanges and command as wide a
market as any railroad or municipal
bond. France has a land bank with
a capital of $5O,OO0,O00 controlled
by the French government which
brings the farmers loans at 43 per
cent as compared with the 8.5 per
cent on an average by the Ameri-
can farmers. The German land banks
have secured some $2,000,000, 900
for the development of the German
farms.
If such a system can be established
in the United States and the billions
of dollars which are poured into the
speculative markets by the banks can
be diverted to the farmers, it is the
belief of the cooperative commission
that this country will see such de-
vefopment of it's agricultural re-
sources as will solve for one and all
the problem of the high cost of liv-
ing. Cheap money and easy terms,
say the members of the commission,
would make it profitable for farmers
to double the production of their
farms and open up all of the vast
areas of uncultivated land in the
United States in the course of not
very many years. .-.
Once cooperative banks are estab-
lished among the farmers, it is said,
other cooperative societies will be
formed and the farmers will secure
control of all the machinery for dis
tributing and selling their produce.
and leave the profits largely to the
farmer himself. In Europe the farm
farmer hiself. In Europe the farm
ers even form cooperative societies
to buy all of their materials, there
by benefiting by wholesale prices
and better goods.
A federal committee, bearing Gre
dentials from President Wilson and
Secretary of State Bryan, heads the
commission. The federal representa-
tives are Senator Fletcher, of Flor
ida; Senator Gore, of Oklahoma; Rep
resentative Moss, of Indiana; Col.
Harvey Jordan, president of the
Southern Cotton Growers association;
John Lee Coulter, the governments
expert ON agricultural statistics, and
DIR. Clarence j. Owens, Of Maryland,
managing director OF the Southern
Commercial congress which organized
the commission. About three-fourths
Of the states Of the union are repre-