The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1915-12-03
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Augusta Chronicle.

bdnkeTS OI tue SOutn are TO make
an organized campaign for diversified
farming next year. A meeting to
be held in New Orleans the first week
in December has been announced for
the expressed purpose of formulating
regulations for loaning money and
Mr.. Joseph Hirsch Of Corpus Christi,
chairman OF the conference, declares
he and his committee are hopeful
that Southern bankers will take a
firm stand and base their credits for
next year upon absolute agreements
to plant specified acreage in feed
and home needed crops.
This savors Of compulsory educa-
tion and undoubtedly it will have a
salutary effect If enforced. The
banks are great factors In the devel-
opment of cities and they can play
equally as important parts in rural
advancement If they will settle upon
a policy of Improvement and devel-
opment. Opinions may vary as to
which Is the best method to pursue,
but everybody will agree that some
thing should be done to promote the
very cause the bankers now manifest
such interest in.
The New Orleans diversification
meeting will be addressed by w. p.
G.. Harding, chairman of the federal
reserve board; Bradford Knapp, head
of the states relations service, Of the
department of agriculture, and other
prominent agriculturalists and bank
ers. They expect to impress the en-
tire country with the necessity of
promulgating some plan whereby the
average farmer may be saved from
himself. or course, there Is going
to be considerable opposition, some
among bankers, but more from sup
ply men and the farmers themselves,
for the plan savors Of features un-
desirable to many who would be af-
fected by 1t.
The banks and the big business
men are the logical forces to get be-
hind an undertaking of this kind, for
nothing short of the federal govern
ment's specific acts have produced
satisfactory results in advancing the
agricultural interests, the cattle tick
eradication regulations being an eX-
ample of what wonderful good can be
accomplished by the plan presented.
The question of advancing money on
stipulated agreement as to crops to
be planted will be a perpleXing one.
a farmer may plant and yet fail to
properly prepare the soil, fail to cul-
tivate the crop and lack many other
essentials necessary to insure success.
But the move is in the right direc-
ton. 1t directs thought into chan
nels that have heretofore been al
lowed to lapse into disuse.
1t would be a good thing for the
bankers throughout Georgia ani
Carolina to take up this movement
on a two-fold plan. There is no
question but that banks suffer, and
individuals who pay, contribute to
the delinquency of others. An edu-
cational propaganda which would
send, or assist, in sending men into
the fields to advise and help the far
mers overcome obstacles arising uu-
der new conditions, and then follow
with the plan of loaning money only
to farmers who grow a specified
amount of home needed crops, would
prove highly desirable.
Unless the banks and the business
men demonstrate their interest In the
vital questions, demonstrating that
they believe the progress OF the city
and community involved is at stake,
how can one expect farmer, who
has no adequate facilities for gath
ering information, to become cogni.
zant OF conditions? If the business
men and financiers manifest anxiety
and give consideration TO the subject
the farmers and others concerned
will become imbued with their earn
estness and give thought, time and
effort TO any movement looking to-
ward overcoming the troubles arising
through hanging condition, affecting
every line Of business in commerce,
agriculture and industry.