The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1921-09-02
VESTS DEMANDS
HAVE BEEN MET
BILL REGULATING GRAIN Elk
CHANGES IS PASSED AFTER
TWENTY YEARS WAIT
Many Measures OF Direct BENEFIT To
Western Farmers Enacted Int,
Laws During Year; Farmer
Seems To Be Factor

Washington - Under normal CON
ditions, the session OF congress lust ad
Journed would be called The Farmers
congress" IL the farmer Legislation
mad been overshadewed by taxstior
and the tariff. IL would be realized tina,
more measures demanded BY the farm
ers and presumed to be In their inter
ests have been passed since April thar
In probably any other i've months OF
congress In history.
The passage OF the bill regulating
grain exchanges In an answer to a de.
mand the west has been making for
twenty years. demand which in the
beginning was regarded as grotesauely
radical. On the same day that Presi.
dent Harding aligned the bill for the
regulating Of grain exchanges he sign.
ed also the bill regulating the packers.
This, too, is the answer to IN agftat zion
that began a generation ago.
II these two bills alone had been
passed during Roosevelt's time, when
the agitation for them was compara.
lively new and loudly insistent, they
would have been regarded as some
thing experimenting. 1t is true that
neither the grain exchange regulation
Dill nor the packer control bill is in
the extreme form originally demanded
by their proponents. Nevertheless.
they are strong, bills, and from now on,
In erect, the secretary of agriculture
has the power to scrutfnlze the bust.
ness operations of grain brokers and
packers, to review their actions, and
to regulate them subject to appeal to
commission.
This extension Of government rsgu.
laeion to grain exchanges and the
packing houses Is analogous to the ca.
Enlistment, generation ago, of the
Interstate commerce commission ia
regulate the railroads. If the interests
OF the country were not so intent on
the German treaty and on taxation and
the tariff, this striking expansion OF
the governments regulatory power
would get an attention In proportion to
its significance. Incidentally. II is q
marked extension of government into
business at q time when an administra-
ton slogan is LESS government In
business"
On the same day that these two reg.
ulatory measures were signed by the
president, congress passed the bill
which, provides that government credit
and government money shall be used,
through the agency Of the War Fin
ance corporation, to aid bankers and
others carrying agricultural commodit-
les. and to facilitate new loans on
those commodities, as we'll as to ex-
tend old loans. Here, too, the bill as
passed is short Of the original demand
Of the farmers, which was that the
government should loan money direct
to the farmers on their grain, stock
and other commodities.
Between the thing the farmers de-
handed and the thing that congress
has given them, the only obstacle L. the
difficulty Of setting up a mechanism
10 reach individual farmers in time to
10 them any present good. The bill az
passed forsshadows the next step,
which will be government mechan-
SIN for the facilitating Of credit to in
lividual farmers on their crops.
Aside from these three measures,
,wo other important ones passed by |
he present congress in the interest Of |
he farmer are the bill adding $35, OOO,-
700 of government money to the farm
oan banks and the emergency tariff,
passed at the beginning OF the session,
n the interest of the farmer.
These measures reflect the fact that |
he farmer is the strongest factor in
he present congress and is likely to |
to be so during the remain
rs.