The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1921-02-04
FEDERAL RESERVE
PAPER WOULD HELP
THE FARMERS
By Tiding Them Over the Predicament
in Which They Find Them
selves at the Present
Time.

Time.
Madison, Wis, Feb 4.-Federal re-
serve paper, with nine months or
IL months period of maturity, would
greatly assist the farmer and overcome
to great extent the predicament the
toilers of the soil find themselves in
at the present time, according to A. f.
Lever member of the federal farm
loan board, who addressed the market
ing conference here to-day.
"The question uppermost in the
minds of farmers is what happened to
bring about the present situation"
said Mr.. Lever. what has occurred to
Justify slump in prices of farm prod
ucts ranging from so per cent to 100
per cent within period of IL months !?
Certainly there are no less mouths
to be fed now. The yield for 1920 was
not unusually Target
"The starving children of Armenia
need your wheat and corn and live
stock, but they have nothing with
which to pay for it. The domestic con
sumner of farm products is on buyers
strike He is refusing to buy at the ex-
orbitant prices demanded by some re-
tailers, except as he must buy to meet
immediate needs.
''The domestic manufacturer, the
wholesaler and the iobber. because of
the uncertainty of the price of the raw
material and the demand for finished
product, are, as it were, dancing the
hesitation, and they, too, are in the
market only to fill immediate demands.
''The underlying cause has been that
a farmer has been taught to walk the
furrow and produce and per capita he
is the best producer in the world We
have taught him to become an expert
with his hands and have left him as
a child in the use of his head in the,
management of his affairs, other than
production.
"For the great staple crops like
wheat, corn, cotton wool and live.
stock, there is no existing machinery
for the orderly marketing of farm
products. Agriculture is both under
capitalized and is without any adequate
system of credits adapted to its pc
culiar needs.
"There is a terrific strain upon the
finances of the country at the crop
moving season. Also an inefficient and
expensive system of transportation.
There is an uneconomic and unwise
strain upon the buying and absorptive
powers of the purchasers of farm prod
ucts. Under this system we are ask
ing the buyers of farm products to
meet their needs for period of II
months in period from four to five
months. with the inevitable result to
the seller of these products.
"The remedies which suggest them.
selves to me are: The elimination of
all unnecessary factors in the present
system of distribution. The organiza-
tion of commodity sales agencies. The
standardization of farm products into
grades and classes. The warehousing
of sufficient quantities of products to-l
set up an even flow of such products
into the markets of the world as the
immediate demands of the world call
for them. The devising of such credit
machinery as will enable the farmer to
market his products in a sane and or
derly way.
"The banker thinks in the psyeholo
gy of a quickly maturing paper. The
turn over of the capital investment of
the farmer is once in 365 days. A pa
per. therefore, with a maturity of only
go or 30 days, certainly, in times of
financial stress when money is hard to
get, is of little value to him. If we
are to solve his credit problem, we must
provide him with a paper which has
a maturity period equal to the turn
over period of his investment, and a
paper of less time than nine or II
maturity, better Is months.
cannot be of the greatest value to him. !
ITO my mind a system can be de-
vised which will meet this necessity. !.
This is predicted upon the pooling of I
the assets of the concern and the is
suance against such pooled assets GER
tificates of indebtedness or debentures /
in varying denominations and periods |
of maturity. What is government |
bond! A government bond is the evil |
dence of the fact that Congress under |
the constitution has the power to tax 4
all of the assets of all the people TO 1
make good the face of the bond
"A piece of farm land in itself, no
matter how valuable. will fail to un.
lock the doors of credit. A farm mort I
gage on the same piece of land in it,
self would have no standing in the |
money markets of the world. but when |
under the farm loan act we have set up
four thousand associations of farmers /
through every agricultural county in 4
the United States, and when these as /
sociatiOns have taken in many farm
the neighborhood of /
l26.000-and have placed these In fed /
eral land banks-regional banks-in /
the hands of a government appointee
known as farm loan. registrar, and I
these banks have issued against this 1
farm loan bonds, the Mis- /
souri, farm has become, through this /
magic, liquid asset which flows free /
ly in the money markets OF the coun- I
try. What is a farm loan bond IL is /
the evidence that a trustee has in his 4
possession farm mortgages which, If /
would be sufficient in value /
to meet the obligations of the bond.
"The working out Of this system Of /
farm credit, as well as the solution of /
all the other problems of agriculture, 4
depends upon organization of the farm /
ers themselves under sane. oonserya-
tive, fundamentally. sound leadership. I
With il there can BE- but success. With. 4
out this. all these efforts will fan.
FIVE MORE CHARGES