The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1921-06-03
Coming Problems of Farm
Financing To Be Met

amount of space to the meeting o
financeers called together and enter
tanned by the president last week. l
is argued from the event that the presi
dent intends to insist upon the relic
of the great agricultural interestS
first.
The wheat growers of the grea
northwest granaries, the cotton plant
ers of the south, the corn farmers O.
the plains states and the tillers Of
soil in general are foremost in the
presidents mind at the moment, as he
believes that Americas vast money re-
sources, properly placed, can bring
prosperity once more to the rural dis
tricts.
Mr.. Harding is convinced, with many
other economists, that general pros.
perity in the United States comes first
of all from the soil. When the farmer
is in Strengthened circumstances, bust.
ness lags the country over. The presi-
dent has heretofore declared there is
no short cut to prosperity. A profit
able outlet must be found for Amer
ica's great food and cotton crops, the
domestic demand will not suffice.
The average American farmer, not
much of an internationalist a few
years ago, has learned what President
Harding has been stating this week,
that America cannot live in majestic
isolation but is an integral part of
an interdependent system of nations.
President Harding believes that bus
mess "deflation" has been carried to
the point where there car be an easing
up of the governmental check reserva-
tions which have functioned through
the medium of the federal reserve
banks. He believes there can be a
modification of the restrictions which
a year or so ago were put on to curb
the speculative tendency which kept
prices at a high level and to force a
liquidation of stocks held for eXorbi-
tant profits.
He believes, first of all, that the
government is justified in approving a
proposal of the so-called international
bankers heavily to back corporations
and agencies formed to foster the eX-
port trade of the United States
through the extension of long time
credits to the European countries in
sore need of foodstuffs and raw mater
ials. These foreign export concerns,
organized under the Edge act, have
not been successful thus far, through
want of sufficient capital. The con-
ference in Washington the last few
days with the most powerful banking
interests of the country have had help
for these concerns in mind. In con-
sulting with the financiers, President
Harding has had to face a number
of problems which have had their diff
ficult sides, politically as well as eco
nomically. The big bankers, men like
j. P. Morgan and Charles H. Hanover
of the Guaranty Trust Co., and C. E.
McChell of the National City bank of
New York, have not hesitated to ask
the president if it would be possible
for the United States to guarantee
the integrity of certain nations de-
sirous of obtaining American loans.
The president just as frankly told
the bankers he felt that such a aguar-
antee was impossible. There is no
doubt the proposal Of the bankers
held a suggestion of Article 10 about
it, that ghost of the League of Nations
which seems difficult to down.
1t was agreed at the White House
conferences that the United States is
the only nation in the world capable of
putting the world on it's feet; capable
of furnishing the means to start trade
and commerce again in channels that
lead to normally; capable of making
the necessary monetary arrangements
to bring international exchange once
more to a nearly normal basis.
Gold continues to pour into the
United States and other nations have
no means to buy it back, or to buy
credits against it. "Frozen credits"
in the United States are given way to
high "froZen cash" which should be
employed in setting the wheels of
world trade in motion.
The big bankers, with the help of
modified rules, or a modification of
the law which requires federal reserve
banks to charge double interest after
their specified reserves are recalled,
say they will have the necessary re-
sources to float immense loans for for
eign governments, but they would like
for the United States government to
guarantee that the present order in
Europe will be maintained. This as
surance the president could not give
them, it is said, but it may be in the
end that the bankers will be satisfied
with the presence of an American rep
resentative "taking part" in the DELHI
erations of the allied supreme council
The supreme council at present is en-
gagged in absolutely regulating the af-
fairs of Europe and so far as an agen-
cy can do so. is guaranteeing the sta
biity of the governments.
President Harding is DESTROYS that
any help extended to foreign nations
shall have for its first purpose the
moving of Americas surplus fooc
crops and the rehabilitation of our al
but suspended export trade. To this
end the bankers are WORKING.
The problems in the way of making
the necessary arrangements are very
complex. Even Germany is looking tc
the United States for a financial plan
1t was learned that in one foreign
loan recently negotiated in the United
States a great part of the money was
spent in Argentina for wheat. II was
explained that this money afterwards
came back to the United States to pay
for manufactured goods bought by
South America. Mr.. Harding wants the
benefit of American loans to be more
direct to the farmer in the future.