The Washington herald., 1921-01-02
RESERVE BOARD
MEMBER OFFERS
DECLINE CAUSES
Miller Says Worldwide
Economic Forces Work
For Reduction.

That economic forces, worldwide
in extent, are responsible for the
sharp decline in the prices of lead
ing farm produce, and that the price
reductions viii spread to other COM
modities, was the statement of A c.
Miller, member Of the Federal Re
serve Board, in a talk on Relation
of the Federal Reserve System to
Farm Credit" at the meeting of the
American Farm Economic Associa-
ton held at the New National
Museum.
Farmers. and other producers of
basic commodities have thus far
suffered most severely because. the,
great and sweeping price changes
Of the kind that. the United States
and the rest of the world have; been
experiencing in recent months do
not affect all industries and COM
modities simultaneously or uniform
ly, he declared.
Just as prices did not rise uni
formly for all commodities before
and during the war" said Miller,
81 NAACg al Q llOl ldlllhB
now that the after-war readjust-
ment is under way. On the con-
trary, price declines have shown
themselves irregular, and there is
much evidence that the movement
is spreading and affecting all lead
ing commodities"
Thus far. he pointed out, liquida-
tion has not gone far in the retail
trade, due largely to the desire of
the retailers to take advantage of
the holiday trade to liquidate more
favOrably. He thought, however,
that the retail and other branches
of trade that had thus far not shown
much sign of liquidation would
bring their price reductions within
the next few months into line with
the great reductions in the prices
of the primary staples, and that BY
spring the present stage of the re-
adjustment movement would be near
completion and a condition of COM
parative stability with respect to
markets and prices will be reached.
Cause of Declines.
Lack of market and a world wide
revulsion due to the warped and
raCked economic condition in which
the world has been left by the war
were given as the causes of the
Price declines. All over the country
producers are in much the same fix
as there is an inability to consume
the raw material that they have
produced
But the Federal Reserve Board
has done and is doing all in its
power to make the necessary de-
cline gradual and orderly" said Mr..
Miller. The board is not restricting
credit or forcing deflation. Such an
idea or action ~ entirely foreign
to the boards policy. On the other
hand. during the recent crop sea-
son it has made more and not less
credit available"
Epecially has the farmer been
treated to credit just as literally as
tho law allows. Northern reserve
banks have discounted about $780,
100000 agricultural and live stock
paper from southern and middle |
western reserve banks, and it is |
estimated that a total of two thous- |
and millions of dollars of agricul- |
tTral paper has been. taken care Of |
by the reserve banks during the |
past year. he declared. This is a |
conservative estimate
Nat c. Murray of the Bureau Of |
Crop Estimates of the Department
of Agriculture gave a paper on |
Price Trends" while Byron Hunter |
of the Office of Farm MANAGEMENT
talked on Farm Efficiency" This
paper was discussed by DR.. w. ]. |
Spillman, editor of the Farm Jour. |
nal. and DR.. L. c. Gray of the Office |
of Farm Management. Other papers
were: Farm Tenancy" by B. H. |
Fibbard of Wisconsin University: |
Beef Cattle Feeding Costs" by r. |
H. Wilcox Of the Office Of Farm |
Fundamentals of Co
operative Marketing" by Asher |
HobsOn of Columbia University. Dis
cussion on the last paper was led
by c. A. Lyman of the National
Board of Farm Organizations.