The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-01-20
They Have Given Corpora
tive Machinery to FL
nance Themselves
FARMERS WILL RUN
THE BUSINESS, TOO
Frank r. Wilson Concludes
Series of Articles on
New System

The social and, economic effects of the
farm loan att are considered by Frank
r. Wilson of the federal farm loan bu-
reau in the sixth and last of series OF
articles, given as follows:
"The main points of the federal farm
loan act have been set forth in the pre-
ceding installments. The reader will
readily see that this act is new thing
in this country, and is liable to have an
important effect on our social and finan-
cial life.
"Let u briefly suggest some of its pos
sible effects:
"The rapidly increasing cost of living
has of late given American thinkers a
great deal of uneasiness. The fact is
everywhere recognized that our city pop
ulation has been increasing more rapidly
than the rural population. Every day
there are some more mouths to feed, but
there is only a slowly increased acreage
upon which this food is produced Two
important facts are therefore patent:
First. more farms must be established
to provide homes for more producers,
and second, the land under cultivation
must be farmed more carefully and with
more and better equipment to meet the
growing demand for food.
'The farm loan act viii have a strong
influence toward realization of both of
these ideals.
Farm tenantry is curse whose worst
effects are lowered fertility and inefi-
cient farm methods. The tenant is not a
normal farmer. The transient nature Of
his living makes maximum production
impossible. He is often not meat pro-
ducer, because he is not on one farm long
enough to build up herd of livestock
He is a grain farmer. and a grain farmer
is a sapper of fertility. He is engaged
in the pastime OF hauling the fertility
of his landlords soil to market With
approximately one half Of the farm lands
of the country in the hands of tenants,
America is cashing in her land fertility
at an amazing rate.
"The farm loan act has for one of its
important purposes the placing OF land |
into the hands Of owners who win farm
it with the inspiration that comes from |
ownership. The owner of land treats it i
so as to conserve its fertility. He is
permanent fixture in the neighborhood |
He markets his crop through his live
stock, returning the fertility to the soil. /
A nation of land owners means a nation
with constantly increasing capacity to
produce food for its people.
"But the farm loan act will do more
for agriculture than merely supplying /
cheap money. The act actually specifies
how the money borrowed shall be spent.
1t says that unless used to pay debts, it
shall be spent on things that will contrib
ute to more production on the same acre
lge. So the farm loan act means high
sr and better type Of agriculture.
"But some students OF tho act believe
Is greatest contribution will be the stim.
llation to the practice of cooperation.
Cooperation is its basic fact Farmers
ire required to get together into groups
% secure its benefits. When they put I
heir mortgages together for the sake of
getting cheaper money, they will also
orm the habit of cooperating in other s
of common interest. Who II
,nows but that these cooperative asso
iations may become the business and a
ocial units of farm society?
1.-THE financial saving to the farmers of '
america would alone be enough to iusti-
v this enactment. On volume OF four
'illion dollars our farmers are paving
ow nearly Q per cent annually, all OF
shich is tax on all the people because !
limits consumption by handicapping
he producer. If this rate should be re.
uced by 4 per cent it would mean an
ctual annual saving of 100000 900. But
his estimate of the money to be saved
oes not take into consideration the fact :,
hat the normal volume of farm loan =
usiness will greatly increase with an ad
analogous interest rate. "
'The success of the farm loan banking :
ystem is now up to the farmers them u
lives. They have been given the CO.
perative machinery TO finance them
lives without profit to any individuals. =
hey have been given the machinery for y
1verning their own financial institutions ~
nd maintaining control of them. So l.
refully is their ownership guarded, no
after who buys the stock in the federal L
nd banks eventually none but the farm
5 may have voting power.
"Yes. the federal farm loan act Is some
hat revolutionary. II upsets all past
actices in farm finance. II puts the in.
rest of the majority above the interest q
the few. IL gives the under dog a
ance. 1T writes Humanity First
ross the ledger of modern business"