The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-05-05
1saac r. Marcosson, in Golfers
Weekly

world said a Kansas county editor
the other day as the procession Of
vehicles rolled out of the village on
Saturday afternoon carrying the farm
folks back to the farms. They are a
race of tout hearts. Hog cholera deci-
mates their stock, chinch bugs and
Hessian fly blast their grain crops,
drought may reap where they have
sown, taxes n mortgage rates eat
them up, and yet they grit their teeth,
through thick and thin, and stick to
the land"
This might sound like the wall of
"a hard-luck bowler. but the truth is
that this anne view is AXE by the
conservative financiers Of the East.
They say hat "if city borrowing had
TO pay the same price as country bor-
rowing most urban enterprises would
throw up the sponge" This cOrrObO-
rates the statement of the country
editor: that the farmers have stayed
in the game only by sheer courage.
What they have to contend with would
break the hearts of any other class
Of American business men.
Interest is the worst bu~ that eats
the farmers cropS. Blight, drought,
boil weevils, and grasshOppers con-
sumo much, but interest devours more.
The interest bill and the wheat crop
balance. Like a mosquito, the inter-
est pug. WIFI lis Dcdk III the farmer S
wallet, sucks the life-blood Of the
farming industry. In the last gener-
alton it has wiped out the entire in
creaSe in land values?
The farmer gets up and goes to
work two hours before daylight, but
The interest Dug has been working all
night. Locusts and grasshoppers can
only eat his crops in the summer, but
ihe interest bug hath all seasons for
his own"
New Hope Of a Credit Machine.
Farming, the least profitable bust
ness in America, pays h highest
rates Of interest. The cost OF farm
credit is from 8 TO Is per cent. In
the latter case it eats the farmer up
Il help, or agriculture must perish
under this burden. And help is COM
ing. What is the remedy. Farm
without borrowing? No. borrow more
and put On more debt than ever. That
is the answer. But the money must
be had at low rates OF interest such
as other safe and solid businesses en-
JOY.
After years of bootleSs talk about
establishing better relations between
the banker and the farmer we appear
10 be approaching some definite ac-
,ion. The slow and cumbersome ma
chine of national legislation is grind
fhS - way oVdiu a ~ vi
The farmers pocketbook. 1t seems
safe to assume that before the end
OF the present session of Congress
some rural credit measure will be en-.
acted that will place the agriculturist
beyond the thrall Of grasp and greed
and make him economically independ'
ent. In other words, the United State!
IS about to catch up with her sister
countries in emancipating her mos
important worker from Nsury an(
providing him with a credit machine
that will enable him to fulfill his des
tiny.
The very prospect of such a %
summation bareS a vision of FAR
reaching significance. Though n
dwells along the highways and tn
hedges and off the beaten, spectacula
paths, the farmer, in the end, tOuche
everybody, however rumble. The foo
We eat, the clothes We wear, the ex
ports that swell our mighty trade bal
ances, all bark back to the man be
hind the pillow. When you succor him
YOU nourish the whole national body
Hence this imminent Harvesting u
Of our mastery Of the soil with tn
science of a new rural inance ca
only mean a Whole fresh and eve
thrilling epoch in the uplift Of tn
land.
Any explanation Of rural credits
however simple may be the attempt
must of necessity involve two vas
and compelling agencies. One is tn
institution of credit itself, aptly name
the vital air of commerce." With
out it's beneficent aid all developmer
would falter, for more than 80 pc
cent Of the worlds business is base
ON it. The other is farming, the gres
universal activity, old as time an
participated in by over half OF tn
population.
Clearly to understand the need an
Importance of this approaching ect
nomic daybreak it is necessary at TT
outset. to look into the business sid
or rather the ack Of the busine!
side, of farming.
The Farmer As Financier.
Why should the farmer n cred
be so intimately related? Simply b.
cause the man who gets his living OF
of the ground cannot, to use the con
m'rlcal phrase, turn over his goo'
quickly. However scientific may