Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1920-12-23
FEDERAL RESERVE
BANKS SCORED in !.
JOINT HEARlN !
Senator Gronna Takes ). i've
Part in Hearings Designed
TO Find Means Of Assisting
Farmers Gives Personal
Experience.

Washington, Dec. 2O.-A stenO-
graphic report of the joint hearings
before the committees Of congress;
OH agriculture, and the restoration
of the War ,linance Corporation for
relief Of the present depression n
the agricultural sections of the coun-
try, developed the fact that the
farmers purchasing power as a con-
sumer, has been almost destroyed
Nby the heavy declines in prices OF
agricultural commodities. the
causes that have led up to this were
discussed at length, including the
part played by the Federal Reserve
banks. Senator Gronna, chairman
of the Senate Agricultural commit
tee, took an active part in these dis
cussions and in eliciting informa-
tion from witnesses. The senator
at one point stated that he disliked
very much to be a witness before
the committee, but in criticising the
action of the Federal Reserve Bank
of the 9th district, he declared that
a personal shipment of a hundred
head of large cattle, to st. Paul
found the markets domoralized, and
when it was desired to ship them to
Chicago and feed them 1--WE could
not get loan of dollar on those
cattle The Ninth Federal Reserve
District does not furnish any money
to the producers of the country, that
is. the feeders and purchasers of
cattle.
Senator Gronna said the governor
of the Federal Reserve Bank in the
9th district at Minneapolis "has for
more than a year made it his busi-
ness to preach deiation and the
withdrawing of loans. know the
object of that, I am ready to face
him and discuss the question at any
time"
It was the opinion of Vice Presi-
dent Thompson, of the Merchants
Loan and Trust Co., Chicago, also
President Of the Farm Mortgage
Bankers Association and a witness
for the committee that ''it is poor
time in hard times to call for defla-
tion. The time to call for deflatiOn
is when things are good"
Mr.. Thompson believed that. farm
:. ers Of the fcountryWtn are suffering
from the loss in agricultural prices
should start something" and send
at least ten per cent or twenty per
cent Of their grain and cotton to
market and begin the process of.
debt paying. The sale of ten or
twenty per cent, of the agricultural
products held by the farmers will of
itself, he said, produce enough
money so that it will liquidate debts
to probably four times the amount
of the produce sold.
Bank Policy Criticised
The policy of the Federal Reserve
Banks was severely criticised by
witnesses before the committee as
causing Unnecessary hardships in All
unnecessary haste at defation, and
without giving the farmers an op-
portunity to dispose of their grain
raised this year before the heavy
losses occurred, following the expir:
alton of the fixed price for wheat in
July last. The protection of agri-
cultural prices was declared to be
vital necessity to save losses in other
lines of business, which might have
? been made much less, and more
gradual, and no one injured there
by, with every legitimate interest
benefited instead.
There is much speculation and
comment, as to the motives of those
in charge of the federal reserve
banks in forcing the sudden fall in
agricultural prices, which has had
Such q diSaSterOuS result