The Washington herald., 1921-06-08
Financial Help to Farmers.
wv HETHER not the republican leaders
w the house appreciate the situation

w the house appreciate the situation i,
that body, there is a decided under
current there of insurgency. The republican ma
jority is very large, condition which in itself is
always difficult in control. The democratic min
ority is too small for independent action and its
members feel uncommonly free to vote as they
please for measures which appeal to them, re.
gardless of their origin.
1t is a situation ripe for revolt against a
leadership which many republican members fee
is too dominating, too personal and too closely
held There is demand for broader consideration
more inclusive consultation and greater freedom
of action. Bills with strong backing which il
Is felt the house would quite surely approve
are held in committee because not approved by
the leaders who control the house organization
This is old as the days of Tom Reed and
Uncle Joe's youth. But it has always been the
seed Of trouble and with large party majority
an occasion for upheaval
Party insurgency is never desirable; it leads
to disorganization; it causes delays, and upsets
a program which always centers around certain
major measures 1t is something to be avoided
If humanity possible The senate and the house
now have agrarian blocs Why? For no other
reason than to force committee action and where
denied, to compel action the floor. The SEN
ate bloc includes nearly third of the mem
bership. In the house there is reason to believe
that it has close to majority, and in each in
stance is of both parties.
One of the measures held back in the latter
body is bill for the financial relief of farmers
1t has passed the senate and is tied up in thu
house committee banking. 1t was introduced
in duplicate by Senator Curtis and Representa-
tive Adolphus p. Nelson. 1t is rather strange
situation that the senate should have quite promptly
approved such measure, while the house should
hold it back from consideration on the floor
when its passage is assured in advance
e. 1t is a simple measure to which it is diff
cult to objection. 1t is not in any sense an
appropriation, but loan bill. 1t but increases
the fund now available to the federal farm loan
board for loans to farms 1t has the in
dorsement Of the board and of Secretary Mel
Ion. The treasury is fully protected 1t would
in fact. relieve the treasury by providing sufi-
cient quantity of the farm loan bonds to war
rant public offering and sale 1t would also re-
leve the present somewhat serious strain the
country banks and help put them in a condition
to finance the coming crop movement.
These banks are now full of short time
paper. perfectly good, but it be liqrfdated
II this could be changed into long term farm
mortgage loans, the banks would have the avail
able cash which must be supplied from
somewhere. They cannot now extend any further
off from other sources, such the great in
surance companies, that are insisting on mort
gage payments and turning to the more profitable
bond field.
Every report which comes from farm ter
ritory without variance. tell of very critical con-
dition. Here again is danger of insurgency, if
not a wave of radicalism The farmers have
Iquidated in the prices of their products, which
are back at prewar levels, or below. No farmer
dares make long term loan at such prices for his
products, and high interest rate. His revenues
having reached the bottom, his carrying charges
which must extend over a considerable period
of years, must be on the same level or he but
postpones his day of reckoning.
What the farmers most need is this i'm
mediate financial relief. They need financial
stability and the feeling of financial security. The
tariff is slow acting. The regulation of the pack
ing industry will be of this same kind. The farmer
cannot wait He must eat plant and operate his
Nfarm His creditors will not wait for future
indefinite profits. He has abundant security, but
neither get money from the banks the
loan agencies, while if he could, the interest
would but delay his ruin. No other measure in
the senate house is OF such importance to the
farmer, and to the country as a whole as this
Curtis-Nelson bill 1t should at least be given
fair chance and a sympathetic right of way.
The house, not the house leaders, ban the right
to dispose of it and to deny this may lead to a
situation which should not be invited