East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1920-09-24
LEAGUE OF NATIONS FAVORED SMs If NOT ONLY ROAD FUTURE PEACE

prompt transaction Of the nations leg
lisiative business.
Agricultural Interests.
To the great agricultural interests
of the country the democratic party
does not find it necessary to make
promises. 1t already is rich in its rec
ord OF things actually accomplished
For nearly half century of republican
rule not a sentence was written into
the federal statutes affording one dol
lar of bank credits to the farming in
terests of America. In the first term
of this democratic administration the
national bank act was so altered as to
authorize loans of five years maturity
ON Improved farm lands Later was
established a system of farm loan
banks. from which the borrowings al
ready exceed three hundred millions
of dollars and under which the inter-
est rate TO farmers has been so mater
tally reduced as to drive out of busi-
ness farm loan sharks who formerly
subsisted by extortion upon the great
horticultural interests of the country.
Thus it was democratic congress
in the administration of a democratic
president which enabled the farmers
of America for the first time to obtain
credit upon reasonable terms and in
sured their opportunity for the future
development of the nations agricul
tural resources. Tied up in supreme
court proceedings, is a suit by hostile
interests. the federal farm loan sys-
tenn. originally opposed by the repub-
lican candidate for the presidency. APP
pealed in vain to a republican congress
ffor adequate financial assistance to
tide over the interim between the be-
ginning and the ending of the current
year. awaiting a final decision of the
highest court on the validity of the
contested act. We pledge prompt and
consistent support of sound and effec-
tive measures TO sustain, amplify and
perfect the rural credits statutes and
thus to check and reduce the growth
and course of farm tenancy.
Not only did the democratic party
put into effect a great farm loan sys-
tenn of land mortgage banks. but it
passed the Smith-Lever agricultural
expansion bill, carrying to every far
mer in every section of the country,
through the medium of trained ex-
perts and by demonstration farms, the
practical knowledge acquired by the
federal agricultural department in all
things relting to agriculture horticul-
lures and animal life; it established the
bureau of markets, the bureau OF farm
management. and passed the cotton
futures, etc, the grain grades bin, the
cooperative farm administration act
and the federal warehouse act.
The democratic party has vastly i'm
proved the rural mail system and has
built up the parcel post system to such
an extent as to render its activities
and its practical service indispensable
to the farming community. 1t was
this wise announcement and this ef-
fective concern of the democratic par
ty for the farmers of the United States
that enabled this great interest TO rem
der such essential service in feeding
the armies of America and the allied
nations of the war and succoring starv-
ing populations since armistice day.
Meanwhile the republican leaders at
Washington have failed utterly to pro-
pose one single measure to make ru-
raj life more tolerable. They have
signalized their fifteen months of
congressional power by urging schemes
which would strip the farms of labor:
by assailing the principles of the farm
loan system and seeking to impair it's
efficiency; by covertly attempting to
destroy the great nitrogen plant at
Muscle Shoals upon which the govern
E1ent has expended $4,000, 600 to SUP
ply American farmers with fertilizers
at reasonable cost: by duthlessly Grip
ping nearly every branch of agricul-
tural endeavor, literally cramping the
mediums through which
the DeODla must he fed
We favor such legislation as will
to the primary producers of
the nation the right of collective bar
calming and the right of cooperative
and marketing of the pro-