Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-12-02
GEORGE E, ROBERTS REVIEWS
FINANCIAL AND TRADE
CONDITIONS.
UNPLEASANT FACTS
BEING FACED BY ALL
liberal Subscriptions to War Loans
Created Over Borrowed Condition
in lowa-Farm Values Increased
in Face of Declining Values Of
Farm Products.


ler business review George K. Rob-
tnrts. vice president. of the National
city Bank OF New York, devotes
considerable attention to the tinan-
Cia1 conditions in Iowa. Mr. Roberts
EiS an fIowan and gained his first re-
nutation as a financial writer back in
$50 as editor of the Fort Dodge
.aessenger in his writings on the free
silver issue. He is the author of sew
director OF che mint and is exper-
fenced in banking He naturally
knows conditions In Iowa.
He discusses the report issued by
the farm management department at
llnes on the cost OF production OF
grain this year and the recen,
tanker farmer conferences held over
the state by the Iowa Bankers As
ISOLATION.
"A postmortem examination of a
loom period is never, pleasant read
ia2," he declares, and the lessons
which may be learned are seldom
readily accepted by the parties most
interested. The condition in all such
Periods are singularly alike. 1t can
rot be said that this great increase
in indebtedness has been forced upon
the people of Iowa by hard times, for
recent years have been unusually
prosperous ones. The department Of
ported. on the strength of an eX-
tended inquiry. that the average val
ue of the farming lands Of the state
increased 500, per acre between
March /, 1919 and March /. 1920.
Not Worse in Iowa, i
The tight money situation has not
been worse in Iowa than IN other
states because the people of Iowa
have been passing thru harder times.
but rather because they were more
under the spell of prosperity or the
appearance of prosperity. Of course
their lands did not actually Increase
IN value 500 per acre in one year, but
they thought SO, and thought they
We're entitled to use q correspondence
larger amounttof credit.
The people OF Iowa subscribed
literally to the liberty and victory
leans and undoubtedly borrowed for
that purpose, but these loans were
floated before July /, 1919, at which
date Iowa borrowings Of the federal
reserve bank We're only $12,OO0,0 0o. It
was not the war borrowing that put
them in their present situation.
This chapter from the experience
OF Iowa is just like the stories Of the
boom experiences of all other peoples.
IL any one had been able TO foretelli
iii 1914 the sums which tho peoples
OF Cuba would receive for their sugar
crops In the following five years and
II he had not known history or hui
man nature he might easily have
said that everybody in Cuba would
get out of debt and live on Eas.
street ever after. But the people of
cuba are living under a moratorium
today, proclaimed for the purpose of
preventing a general collapse CT the
credit structure
Lessons to Be Learned.
lie points out that the law of
averages will always work out to
the advantage of the steady going
man on the job.
Amid all the vicissitudes of asr;-
culture" he states, the farmer who
went on with his business as usual
d.yersifying his crops and getting
the largest yield he knew how to, has
always found that the markets came
back to him and on the average gave
a fair reward for his labors. On the
other hand the man who changes his
policies with a view Of influencing
world markets is likely to find when
prices are right that he has little to
sell. The steady going man the
job who depends on the law Of aver
ages, comes out ahead
Furthermore the man who keeps
to his work at this time has the sat
isfaction of knowing that he is doing
his honest part to bring order out of
chaos and restore the natural equli-
b'-iurn. This is no time to allow i'm
patience. resentment and class feel
tr!g to dominate policies which add to
the confusion and delay readjust-
ment.
"A policy Of making food and
clothing materials artificially dear
will fail, but a policy of bringing
other commodities down to level
with farm products will succeed and
III this way an equitable readjust-
n.ent will be accomplished The world
does not want reimbursement on the
basis of scarcity but on the basis of
Turnout all the 4 riod Of high
prices tens of thousands of people
have suffered because their incomes
have not increased to correspond with
tie increased cost of farm products
and Of wages in other occupations.
This has been true of the entire body
OF public employees, including school
teachers, of many OF the wage earn
In g and salaried class in private en-
ployment and of others dependent
upon fixed incomes. There has been
no redress for them. And now every
body should be content to take his
turn and do his part without being
too sensitive as to his own relative
position each day in a time Of con-
IL sion and change"
Masonic Event at Hampton.