The Glasgow courier., 1921-07-22
Fine Day and Splendid Program
At Farm Bureau Annual Picnic
Continued from page one)

Continued from page one)
same time, the chief points of need of
the farmers of America today. fall
into three headings: One, Credit and
Finance; two, Marketing; finally,
Transportation. Dean Davenport says
that a system of finance and credit
adapted to agriculture. This is evil
Federal Reserve Banking System.
amounts to eighty billions of dollars,
entire wealth. In spite of this fact,
handled by the Federal Reserve
Banks in 1920 was agricultural in
character, amounting to but 1890 of
the total volume of re-discounts of
the Federal Reserve Banks. The state
of frozen credit as it affects farmers
is best illustrated by comparing the
thirty million in farm paper in 1920
with the one hundred forty million in
farm paper in 1919, when the per-
centatge of the total handled by the
Federal Reserve Banks amounted to
$3.50. The farmers of the nation need
better credits and longer credits from
friendly source if agriculture is to
be made financially safe.
Commodity Financing.
ut will pay farmers of Montana to
give thought at this time to questions
of commodity finance on receipts
from bonded warehouses, on rural
credits, to re-modeling the federal re-
serve system, to increasing and ex-
f0ndiy,r tho &c g.
land banks SO that a maximum of
the present limit of $4,000, and to
livestock finance associations and
other problems in the field of credits.
The United States Census report for
1920 lists approximately thirty thous-
and Montana farms as mortgaged, or
about thirds of the total number
average rate of interest which the
farmers of Montana pay in 1921 ac-
cording to the census figures was
of about one-fourth of one percent
This is too high rate and the period
for which such loans are available is
too short to make this safe financial
basis for farming.
"a majority Of the interests alien
to farmers would like to see the So
called free competition now obtain
ing in the marketing of farm products
continued. The farmers on the other
hand, unable to see about them any
other line of industry or effort in
which this free competition prevails,
are interested in bringing themselves
and their farm interests into position
where they can exercise a greater de-
gree of influence or control over the
price at which their products sell.
Studies by the United States Bureau
of Markets and other marketing au-
thorities establish the point that in
its purchasing power as compared
with other commodities, the product
of the farmer today ranks about fifty
cents on the normal dollar. Prices
for farm products are back to the
prewar level in most instances, while
many of the men from whom the far
mer buys do not seem to know that
the war is over yet. A result of all
this is the effort on the part of the
farmer to follow his product farther
along the way toward the consumer.
This is a problem which concerns the
consumer as vitally as it does the pro-
ducer but the initiative it seems must
be taken by the farmer.
Could Not Happen in Norway.
"Not long ago the Minister of Ag-
riculture of the Norwegian govern
ment was in my office at Helena He
is spending two years in this coun-
try, making a study of our agricul-
ture. He told me that the most shock
ing thing to come under his obser-
walton was the tremendous spread be-
tween the price which the farmers
secure and the price which the con-
sumner pays. Such condition, he
assured me, could not continue and
would not be tolerated in his country.
GAS evidence of the farmers ambi-
tion to straighten the kinks in his
marketing machinery, the movement
among the wheat growers serves
well. We have the nation wide organ
ization of the United States Grain
Growers, Inc, which is the grain
marketing plan recommended by the
Committee of Seventeen of the Amer
lean Farm Bureau Federation, pro-
viding for movement of wheat and
other grains through cooperative
agencies until the final selling is done
by one collective marketing agency.
We have the National Wheat Grow
ers Association spreading through
Kansas, Oklahoma and the southern
central and southwestern states,
movement that is based upon tFss one
hundred percent compulsory of wheat.
We have movement similar to this
in the Northwestern Wheat Growers
Association and the Montana Wheat
Growers Association in the states of
the northwest. These movements are
developing rapidly and not entirely
in harmony. The collective plan is
moving forward to one big test in the
case of wheat. This test would be
more effective and more favorable if