The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-02-05
SUGGESTS FEDERAL LOANS TO
FARMERS ON II MONTHS TIME
a r. Lever in Address at Marketing
Conferences Outlines Scheme.
(By Associates press)

themselves in at the present time, &C
cording to A. r. Lever, member of
the Federal Farm Loan board, who
addressed the marketing conference
here today.
"The question uppermost in the
minds of the farmers is what hap
pened to bring about the present stu
alton" said Mr.. Lever. 'What has
occurred to Justify a slump in prices
of farm products 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 large
1.-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 a buy
ers' strike. He IS refusing to buy at
the exorbitant prices demanded by
some retailers, except as he must buy
to meet immediate needs.
1.-The domestic manufacturer, the
wholesaler and the jobber, because of
the uncertainty of the price of the
raw material and the demand for fin
ished product are, as 1t 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 ex-
pert with his hands and have left him
as 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 pro-
ducts. Agriculture is both under cap
italized 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 pro
ducts. Under this system We are ask
ing the buyers of farm products to
meet their needs for period of twelve
months with the inevitable result to
the seller of these products.
9TH remedies which suggest them
selves to me are: The elimination of
all unne. essary factors in the present
system of distribution. The organiza-
ton of commodity sales agencies. The
standardization of farm products into
grades and classes. The warehousing
of sufficient quantities of products to
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
orderly way.
The banker thinks in the psychology
of quickly maturing paper. The turn
over of the. capital investment of the
farmer is once in 365 days.A paper.
therefore, with a maturity of only so
or 80 days, certainly in times of finan-
cial stress when money is hard to get.
is Of little value to him. If we are to
solve his credit problem, we must pro-
vide him with a paper which has a
maturity period equal to the turnover
period OF his investment, and a paper
of less time than nine or twelve
months maturity - better fifteen
months-can not be of the greatest
value to him.
ITO my mind a system can be de-
vised which will meet this necessity.
This is predicated upon the pooling
of the assets Of the concern and the
issuance against such pooled assets.
certificates of Indebtedness or deben-
lures in varying denominations and
periods of maturity. What is a govern
ment bond? A government bond is
the evidence of the fact that congress
under the constitution has the power
to tax all of the assets of all of the
people to make good the face of the
bond.
A piece Of farm land in itself, no
matter how valuable, will fail to I'M
lock the doors OF credit. A farm mort
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 1000 associations of farmers
throughout every agricultural county
in the United States, and when these
associations have taken in many farm
mortgages-in the neighborhood of
126, OOO-and have placed these in
federal land banks (regional banks)
in the hands of a government ap-
pointee known as farm loan registrar,
and these banks have issued against
this mortgage farm loan bonds, the
Missouri farm has become through
this magic a liquid asset which flows
freely in the money markets of the
country What is a farm loan bondPI
1t is the evidence that a trustee has
in his possession farm mortgages
which If foreclosed would be sufficient
in value to meet the obligations of the
bond.
The working out of this system of
farm credit, as we'll as the solution of
hn re