The Oakes times. [volume] (Oakes, N.D.) 1906-current, 1921-08-04
HARDING WOULD AID FARMERS
Money May Be Loaned ON Products
Not Yet Ordered

shape ana Cnat fellef Tor them is q
proper function Of the government;
but it is probable that it will try to
find some way Of providing this relief
other; than through the Norris bill.
The Norris bill creates a corpora.
tion with a capital Of $1,000 900 to
be provided from the government
treasury. Thereafter the corporation
is to sell 800, 0,0O0,000 in bonds. This
800, 900, 900 will not come directly
from the treasury but will come from
the people.
To that extent it will make it less
possible for the treasury to sell its
own bonds to the public, will increase
the rate Of interest which the treas.
urysnust pay in the market for tht
moneyrand will add to the existing in.
flation.
These are the defects in the or.
ganization Of the relief which the
Norris bill proposes in the subsequen,
function Of the relief that are fur.
ther economic defects. It is proposed
that the corporation to be formed by
the Norris bill shall buy and sell farm
products. Everybody knows that the
buying Of the farm products by the
government will come very easy but
that the selling of these products will
come very hard. If there was q
market for these products a govern
ment institution would not be needed
Markets are always sought out more
easily and effectively by private
agencies than by government agen-
cies. What would happen would be
the loading up by the government OF
an immense mass of farm products.
Furthermore the experience of sim
liar agencies during the war makes it
clear that the institution contemplated
by the Norris bill would necessarily
have to be accompanied by a system
of price fixing.
It is probable that if the admins
tration does anything it will recon-
mend an extension Of the powers of
the war finance corporation. The war
finance corporation is now limited to
loaning money for the purpose of ia
cilitating exports.
A very slight broadening of the
powers Of the war finance corporation
would enable it to loan money on
farm products for which orders have
not yet been received. This would
give relief to the farmers without in
volving the government in the owner
ship of great quantities Of materials
and without putting the government in
the position in which government is
nearly always failure, namely, in
the position of a merchant irving ia
sell goods.
The administration is obviously
concerned by the state of the farm
ers and by the political results of dis
tress among farmers. Abundant re.
ports from the country to Washington
point out not only the economic dis
tress of the farmers but also the po.
litical consequence present and po.
tential, Of that distress. The political
consequences of economic distress dc
not always aim accurately. They fre.
quently express themselves in blind
resentment against the party in power
and an espousal of the party out Of
power.
Well informed reports recently
brought to Washington concerning
political conditions in large middle
western state said that if a congress.
ional election were held in that state
today it would go democratiic, al.
though in the election last year il
was overwhelmingly republican. II
is not merely that the administration
fears political results Of this kind
Even more does it fear the rise o1
economic and financial heresies which
are always an accompaniment Of bad
times among the farmers. It is 8
normal phenomenon reasonably to b.
expected that the man who was 9