The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-07-31

thS Ieuto OiSultS uilf mar ne the sue
cessful elimination of long fight
led by The American and Other
Hearst newspapers, for the emanci
patton of the farmers from unjust and
burdensome conditions imposed upor
them by the banking interests and
the banking laws of the nation.
The President very fairly and just
ly summed up the conditions from
which the farmers are relieved by
this legislation when he said:
"The farmers, it seems to me, have
occupied hitherto a singular position
of disadvantage. They have not had
the same freedom to get credit on
their real estate that others have had
who were in manufacturing and com
mercial enterprises, and while they
have sustained our life they did not
in the same degree with others share
in the benefits of that life.
Therefore this BILL along with the
very liberal provisions of the Federal
Reserve Act, puts them upon an
equality with all others who have
genuine assets and makes the great
credit of the country available to
them. One cannot but feel that this
is delayed justice to them, and can
not but feel that it is a very crafty
ing thing TO play any part in doing
this act of justice"
To Senator Fletcher of Florida is
due the greater part of the credit
for steering this legislation success
fully through Congress. The Senator
was a pioner in the movement. Rep
resenting as he does an agricultural
State, he keenly felt the injustice
which the existing banking laws al
lowed to fall upon the most important
class which farms the land and pro.
duces the fundamentals upon which
all other. classes of the community
depend.
After a vigorous agitation of the
evil, the Southern Commercial Con-
gress under the leadership of Senator
Fletcher, appointed a commission to
study European methods of financing
the farming interests. The Congress
of the United States took like action,
and the commissions, both appointed
nv prnCidanf INfluau
countries in 1918, making a very care
full investigation into the rural land
credit banks which form so great
part of the financial system of Con-
tinental countries.
The immediate results was the
Fletcher-Moss bill, which, after va
rious changes, both in title and in
substance, by later Congresses, fur
nnshes the essential features of the
present law.
Senator Fletcher may, therefore,
rightfully claim the honor of being
the author of this step forward and
this progressive provision for reliev-
ing farmers from situation which
was really one of extortion practised
under the countenance of the law.
1t was vital to the country that
some legislation of this sort should
be provided. During the long and
heated, discussion, not merely In Con-
gress, but in the press, which has at
tended the slow progress of this bill
to enactment, the American people
have been made familiar with the
grave injustice done to the farming
community by the existing systems
of extending credit.
1t is not too much to say that no
manufacturer or merchant could pos
sibly do business successfully to-day
If the obstacles in the way of securing
credit and the interest exacted of him
for loans made were as great as in
the case of the farmer.
1t is not fair to charge that this
condition of affairs was due wholly
to the greed of the banks. Partly it
proceeded from the lack of knowledge
among bankers of proper methods of
securing farm loans so that they
would not be extra hazardous and for
the protection of the banker bring
in extraordinarily large interest.
The fact that there was no provis-
ion in the Federal law for rediscount.
ing notes based upon securities which
farmers had to offer was, of course.
the fundamental flaw in the haphaz-
ard system under which we have been
working.
All this is corrected in the Fletcher
BILL The system of twelve loan
banks. under control of a Federal
Board to be appointed by the Presi-
dent, puts the business of farm loans
on a plane with that of commercial
loans. The farmer is assured of the I,
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