The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1915-06-25

BANK is O.K'D BY
CAPE FARMERS
Continued from page H.

1 =
fighting for their nationality and their
existence.
Col. Gardner tabooed politics, stat
ing that he was present, not as can
didate for office, but as champion of
measure, conceived for the benefit
of humanity, and that its adoption by
the people would be the means of set
ting the poor farmer free.
His explanation of the farm bill
found his audience in sympathy with
it, and cheers interrupted his address
time and again.
Speaking on the Land Bank Law,
Col. Gardner said:
Cali the State of Missouri will be
asked to do is to lend the Missouri land
bank, which the bill creates, million
dollars, which the bank will pay ba :;
to the State. The State of Missouri
does not underwrite the bonds issued
by the Missouri land bank. Indeed, Gil
the State does is to give its moral in
dorsement to the system. We have
modern financial machinery for the
business man and medieval financial
machinery for the farmer. The Gard
ner land bank bill simply proposes 20
equip the farmer with modern fi1an~
cial machinery. And let me say this
has got to be done. This is not a case
of ought; it's case of must.
Former Gov. Herrick of Ohio en-
dorses the Federal reserve act and Ge-
clares it is calculated to assist all in
dustry, including agriculture. Il is n
great act, but so far from helping tne
farmer, it in effect, discriEinates
against the farmer First, it limits the
period of loan to six months, which,
of course eliminates the farmer. Sec
ond, the small country banks with
which the majority of the farmers Go
business cannot join the reserve sys-
tenn because they have not the capital
of $4,000 required for admission.
Third, the reserve system, in its opera
tons, must further concentrate money
in great cities where millions are al
ready conferred and which the farrnc"
cannot borrow, simply because there
is no business machinery by which The
money in the city and the farmer who
needs it can be brought together.
"Mr. Herrick objects to the prOpo-
sition to exempt frUm taxation the
bonds issued by the Missouri land
bank. l insist that these bonds, being
exempt from taxes, will be most at
tractive investment; that they will
bring money into Missouri from all
parts of the country; further, that
they will attract to rural Missouri
money now piled high in the vaults Of
st. Louis and Kansas City. 1t will
mean putting to work of Missouri
farms $1OO,0OO,000, almost a million
dollars to each county-money trat
otherwise will never reach Missouri
farms. And the Missouri farmer VIII
get this money at $40 per cent In
tereSt for as long as twenty-five years,
where he now pays anywhere from 8
to 10 per cent and even higher inter-
est end has to renew his loan, when he
can, every two or three years.
Further, it is not the bondholdtr,
ordinarily, who pays the tax on bond.
1t is the borrower. Or, in this instance
it would be the farmer. If the bonds
were taxable the bond buyer would
charge that tax up against the propo-
sition before he put his money into il.
The exemption from taxation is made
first and last in the interest of the
Missouri farmer.
"Gov. Herrick suggests cooperative
societies among farmers and recon-
mends laws for the creation of bond
mortgage companies. The cooperative
society plan works we'll in certain
parts of Europe, where conditions,
however, are vastly different from
those here. What it means, in word,
is this: That every member of the So
ciety shall be liable to the full extent
of his property for all the loans made
to all members of the society. 1t is
wholly impracticable in this country.
GAS to bond mortgage companies,
there is no law in Missouri prevent
ing their creating, but, on the con-
trary, there is statutory provision for
the organization of such enterprises.
But they haven't been organized and
there is no probability that they will.
\'Finally, Gov. Herrick wants farm
loans open to private competition.
They always have been open to private
competition, but what has private
competition done for the farmer? 1t
has charged him the highest interest
rate the traffic would bear. You know
that.
'The State must put its shoulder to
this wheel. This is no Utopian promo