The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-10-08

Of productive industries which are
essential--the production Of food.
clothing. shelter and fuel and The
provision of transportation. He also
stated in his Cleveland address "the
gradual and orderly marketing of
our great staple crops is a matter
of importance both to producers and
consumers"
As nation wide testimony shows,
however, such orderly, gradual mar
keting of our great staple crops
cannot be done with the credit farm
crs command today.
Federal Reserve Credit Facilities
Adequate.
The comptroller of the currency
reports that on May 4, 1920. the
resources of the national banks were
500 ,038, 900 and the total deposits
of the 2O,5OO,O0O depositors in the
national banks of the country were
on June 80 of this year S15,008, 567,-
OOO, most of this being individual
deposits. We should remember, too,
that the state banks have resources
and deposits which are approx
mately equal to the resources and
deposits of the national banks.
The comptroller of the currency
has stated further "Our federal re-
serve banks have at this time an un-
usual lending power of $750,000000,
and if occasion required, the board
could, by waving reserve require
ments on deposits and notes only 10
per cent increase the unused lending
power to two and a half billion dol
lars. In the face of
figures and facts as these the
fear expressed in some sections that
there may not be money enough
available to move the crops mani
festly absurd. 1t will be recalled
that in 1913 before the establishment
of the federal reserve system, the
stringency and uneaseness which pre-
vailed at crop moving time was in
stantly relieved by the announcement
OF Secretary McAdoo that the gov
eminent was prepared to deposit so
million dollars of cash in the banks
of the south and west to help move
crops. The unused lend
ing power of the federal reserve
gate amount of all the emergency
currency issued in 1914 upon the
outbreak of the European war in
volving the greatest financial crisis
in the worlds history.
The banks which have charged their
customers excessive rates-at times
as high as Is per cent or more
have themselves at the same time
been literally accommodated with
millions of dollars of the federal
reserve banks at average rates of
considerably less than per cent"
On August 10 Comptroller Williams
stated that, "The unjustifiable and
excessive interest rates maintained
in New York City in the past ten
months have been one
of the potential causes rather than
the result of the unsettling of values
in our securities market and of the
burdensome rates which our railroads
and industrial corporations and other
concerns and individuals of the high
est credit have been required to pay
for new capital essentially needed
for the country's development and
well being" Comptroller Williams
is eX-officio member of the Federal
Reserve Board.
No exact estimate can be made of
the amount of agricultural credit
needs, but it is evident that to enable
farmers to hold their crops so that
they may be marketed gradually and
in an orderly way they must secure
at least a considerable part of the
credit which has hitherto been ex-
tended to speculative middlemen. 1t
is equally clear that either the Fed
eral Reserve system must be changed
by legislation so as to provide ade-
quate and cheap credit to farmers on
ample security through legislation
or that system of personal rural
credit must be devised and put into
operation.
The present system through which
the peoples savings are being turned
over to spectators for the undoing
of the people themselves is un-Amer-
lean and must be changed.