Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-02-04
FEDERAL RESERVE PAPER
TO ASSIST THE FARMER
Member of Loan Board Suggests
Steps to Remedy Present
Situation.

y, Associated Press to Every Evening.
Madison. Wis, Feb. 4.-Federal re-
sarv,, nspcr with nine months or twelve
,,or,hs neriod of maturity would great
n assist the Farmer and overcome TO
prpat extent the prcdicament OF the toilers
- .he soil find themselves IN at the pres
on, time, according 20 \. T, Lever, MEM
Ior of ,bc Federal Farm Loan Board. who
addressed the Marketing Conference here
tulIy.
.Thc question uppermost in the minds
~ farmers is what happened 10 bring
.,hntt tho present situation, said Mr.
Iyrr What has occurred 20 justify q
.l,rnn m prices of farm products ranging
from 30 per cent to 100 percent within
a period OF IL months?
Certainly there are no less mouths to
b, led now The yield for 1920 was not
unusually large!
The starving children OF Armenia
need your wheat and corn and livestock,
but they have nothing with which to pay
for il. The domestic consumer of farm prod
ucts is on buyers strike. He Is refusing
10 buy at the exorbitant prices demanded
by some retailers, except rs be must buy
20 meet immediate needs.
The domestic manufacturer, the whole
saler and the jobbcr, because of the un-
certainty of the price of the raw mate
rial and the demand for finished product,
are, as il 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 on expert with
his hands and have left him as a child IN
the use OF his hesd in the management Of
hi. affairs, other than production.
"For the great staple crops like wheat,
corn. cotton. wool and livestock, 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
70 Is peculiar needs.
There is terrific strain upon the
finances of the country at the crop moving
season. Also an inefficient and expensive
system of transportation There Is an un-
economic and unwise strain upon the
buying and absorphvo. powers OF the
purchasers Of farm products. Under TINS
svs,em we are asking the buyers of farm
products 70 meet their needs for period
of twelve mouths in a PERIOD from four
10 five mon, hs, with the inevitable result
10 the seller of these products.
The remedies which suggest them
selves 10 me are: The elimination OF all
UNI ecessary factors in the present system
of distribution. The organization Of COM
modify sales agencies The standardiza-
ton Of farm products into grades and
rl.sscs The warehousing Of sufficient
quantities of products 10 set w an even
fov Of such products into the markets
~ ,he world as tho immediate demands
Of he world call for them. Tho deyislng Of
>,,ch crt di, machinery as will enable the
farmer 10 market his products in sane
and orderly way.
The banker thinks in tfs Psychology
of Quickly maturing paper. The turn
over of the capital investment Of tho
farmer Is orce IN 365 days. paper
therefore. With a maturity Of only sixty
or riretv DAYS. certainly, IN times OF
fi,arcIal stress when mou9y Is hard to
get. i Of little value 20 him. II we are 10
solve his credit problem, we must provide
hln with q papcr which has a maturity
Toriod equal 70 the turn over period of
bis investment, and a paper Of less time
than more or twelve months maturity
better fifteen months, can not be Of the
greatest value 70 him.