Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-08-29
What the Wilson Administration
Has Done for Farm Interests.

Administration is its record of service to the
country's rural life. Never before have the
sources of the federal Government been applied so
freely thoughtfully to agricultural needs The
program of such legislation, mapped out in the
spring of 1913 and now virtually accomplished, has
touched every important phase of farm activity
from the production to the marketing of crops Not
only has it protected and promoted the farmers
practical affairs it also has enriched his social in
terests and widened the horizon of his opportunity
Among the earlier and more important of these
measures the Smith-Lever Agricultural Extern
sion act providing for the employment of farm dem
onstrators and specialists in each of the two thou
sand eight hundred and fifty rural counties of the
nation. Prior to this law, the Government had
spent great sums of money in ascertaining facts
and working out methods of agricultural value, but
it had spent comparatively little in placing this
knowledge directly before the farmers and in help
ing them to put it into practice. Under the Smith
Lever act this accumulated and ever-increasing fund
of discovery is being turned to daily definite &C
count thousands of farms the country over. Eight
million dollars annually thus is being used, or will
be when the system is fully in operation, for i'm
proving the methods and increasing the output Of
American agriculture; and that fund is steadily be-
ing supplemented by State and county contribu-
tions The resultant gains to the countrys produc-
tive resources beyond RECKONING. 1t is not too
producing power of America farms will be increased
ten or twenty fold by this measure alone.
The Administration did not rest upon this
service. II went further and established as a new
adjunct to the Department of Agriculture an Of
fee of Markets and Rural Organization. The fund
originally appropriated for this purpose has been
increased to a million, two hundred thousand dol
lars. The broader problems of marketing farm
products are being studied with view to prac-
fHrw
plying the producers of perishables with market
news service and it is announced that similar
efforts in behalf of livestock interests will be in
augurated this year. Such assistance will be espe-
cially helpful to the South where the raising of
food crops and food animals has been retarded by
the lack of adequate market facilities The local
efforts which are being made to improve condi-
tions in this respect will be encouraged and ex-
pedited by federal cooperation.
Equally if not more important is the Cotton
Futures act under which proper and dependable
standards for cotton have been established, the
operation of the futures exchanges purged of ee-
ments that we're unjust and harmful to the cotton
grower and the sale of cotton placed upon
fairer and hrmer basis. This measure, which
passed the Senate unanimously upon speech by
Senator Hoke Smith, will result in saving South
ern farmers millions of dollars which formerly
went into the pockets of INSCRIPTIONS Spectators
Whatever makes for the improvement and ex-
tension of public highways quickens every impulse
of rural progress. The Federal Aid Road act
creating fund of seventy-five million dollars for
appertionment among the States marks epoch
in the history of American highways. To share
in this fund, State must adopt approved meth
DDS of road construction and administration. Thus
a more efficient well as more vigorous sys-
TEN of road building will be developed through
out the country. Besides receiving substantial
aid from the national treasury, the States will be
induced spend their appropriations for
highways more thriftily. The developments thus
assured will enhance land values, facilitate crop
marketing and add greatly to the social as we'll as
economic advantages of rural life.
The Administrators browning service to agri-
cultural interests is the Federal Farm Loan
act which has been aptly termed The Magma
Charta of American farm finance" The establish
ment of the Federal Reserve Banking and Cur
rency system of pronounced benefit to farmers
as to all the people, particularly in the South and
West where the great crops of cotton ond grain
have to be marketed BY making ;nese sections
independent of remote financial centers, the Fed
eral Reserve system has done away with the ten
sion and restraint which prevailed in crop
moving seasons: furthermore by putting end
to panics it has safeguarded farmers along with
merchants and manufacturers and business at
large.
But for long-term credit accommodations, with
farm lands as security, a special plaff
sary. AS President Wilson expressed it:
The need was for machinery which would
introduce business methods into farm finance,
reduce the cost of handling farm loans,
place upon the market mortgages which would
be a safe investment for private funds, at
tract into agricultural operations fair
share of the capital of the nation and lead to
a reduction of interest"
All these purposes are served by the Federal Farm
Loan act, which enables every responsible farmer
to borrow, easy terms and at a fair rate of in
terest liberal of money for improving or pur-
chasing agricultural lands and for meeting normal
business needs
AS agriculture is the foundation of our indus
try and commerce and prosperity, these measures
will enrich every field of the countrys affairs and
promote the broadest well-beng of its people.