Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-12-11

through the use of government cash
or credit, was the position taken by
Secretary Houston of the Department
of Agriculture, in discussing rural
credits in his annual report submitted
today to President Wilson. Secretary
Houstons statement was regarded as
indicating the policy of the admins
tration.
Secretary Houston pointed out that
the new bank law takes just and
particular knowledge of the farmers
requirements He suggested that any
credit needs of the agricultural COM
munity beyond those cared for under
the Federal Reserve Law, should be
cared for by system of cooperative
credit associations" financed with pri-
vate fumes, by means of which the
combined credit of farming commune
ties could be utilized, and by system
of land mortgage banks, likewise, pri-
vatefy capitalized.
There seems to be no emergency
which requires or justifies government
assistance to the farmers directly,
through the use of the governments
cash or the governments credit" said
the report. THE American farmer is
sturdy, self-reliant and independent.
He is not in the condition of serfdom
or semi-serfdom in which were the Eu-
ropean peoples for whom government
aid was extended in some form or
other during the last century"
In advocating a land mortgage bank
ing system and a system of coopera-
tive credits associations the report
asserted that the use or the funds
loaned for productive purposes on the
farms covered by the mortgages
should be insisted upon.
Mr. Houston's report reviews the in
vestigation Of the marketing and dis
tribrtion system, and. while the study
is not yet sufficiently finished to ad-
nit of final conclusions the work thus
far shows the need of a reorganiza-
ton of the distribution process. He
says:
During the present grass season.
for example, Chicago has received
Mexican, Canadian and Florida cattle
at about the same time. Steers raised
in California by an Oregon operator
have been shipped through Denver to
Omaha and their beef sent to points
on the Atlantic coast. Hogs raised
in Illinois and sold at Indianapolis
have been slaughtered at Boston and
part of their cured bacon shipped to
Los Angeles. Michigan dressed veal
| calves expressed to South Water
street commission houses at Chicago
have been returned to the identical
shipping points from which they came
to fill orders from local retail mar
kets."
Secretary Houston asks Congress
for an additional emergency appro-
priation of several million dollars on
account of the recent outbreak of the.
foot-and-mouth disease among cattle.
He said that if the interval between
the last and the present session of
Congress had been longer the depart
ment would have been without suffi-
cient funds to meet the situation.
1.-THE department. he said, has
pursued its former policy of purchas-
ing diseased and exposed cattle at an
appraised value and of slaughtering
them and burying them. 1t has es-
tablished a very strict quarantine. The
expense of this task will be very great
and it will be necessary to ask Con-
gress for an emergency appropriation
of several millions of dollars. The in
| terests at stake are vast and justify
any reasonable expenditure"
The report sets forth the activities
of the department in establishing
| standard grain grades, and in the ini-
| tial administration of the new cotton
futures law which the secretary calls
the first definite, systematic, legal
approach to the solution of difficult
problems in this field of distribution"
The secretary recommends consider
alton of legislation to establish a per-
missive warehousing system for grain
and cotton. He pointed out that the
warehouse facilities for cotton in the
South are not centralized.
IF the warehouses now in exist
ence," said the report, were remod
eled so as to comply with the under
writer's requirements, and were BOND
ed, and if adequate business methods
| were adopted, the financing of the cot
ton crop would be materially i'm
proved. Such a system would furnish
relief in times of emergency and would
form userli part Of the normal dis
tributive system. 1t is probable that
a federal law for permissive ware
housing system would stimulate this
desirable development.
While the production Of grain gener-
ally showed a great increase in the
crop of 1914, the report pointed out,
the production Of corn showed no ad-
vance. and the meat production showed
a distinct decline. In this connection
the Secretary points out ''lamentable
neglect of live stock production in the
South
The Secretary's report includes a
table giving the census figures for 1899
and 1909, showing that in all products
except corn and meat animals there
has been a marked increase in pro-
duction during the ten-year period.
Continuing, the report says:
I'VE know that the wheat crop of
1914 of approximately 100000 BUSH
| els is the greatest ever produced in
our history, and that the crops Of oats,
barley, rye, potatoes, tobacco, and hay
are unusually large. The cotton crop,
forecast in october at IL, 900 bales,
is the second largest. The apple crop,
estimated at 259,O00,O00 bushels, is the
greatest ever harvested. The total pro-
duction in six leading cereals Is esti-
r,o e6 IN box,o 1oovr H., 000 mn nm