The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-04-11
MILLION BALES MAY
BE EXPORTED SOON
HEAD OF FINANCE CORPORA
TON DISCUSSES PLAN-WILL
MEAN RELIEF-BANKERS OF
SOUTH BEARING HEAVY BUR.
DEN-GoVERNMENT WOULD
HELP THE BANKS

Washington, Apr 1o-Eugene Mey-
/ er, Jr., managing director of the war
finance corporation, holds that if
Southern bankers cooperate with the
government in putting into effect the
cotton export plan which he devised
it will be possible to put 100000
bales in urope. .-.
The plan is very simple. The gov
ernment undertakes to lend money to-
banks, in approved cases, when the
banks will underwrite the transpor
tation of cotton to foreign nations.
While the details are not known, it
is surmised that the government will
give the banks long time in which to
make repayment to the government,
so that the banks can give impov-
erished European countries an oppor-
tunity to pay. In the meantime, the
farmer will have credit at the banks.
One loan, as already reported,
] amounting to 100000, has been ap-
proved. The scheme is not approved
in it's entirety by all the Southern
bankers recently in conference with
the war finance corporation in Wash
ington. But the majority, tits under
stood, looked with favor on the gov
ernment's willingness to divide any
risk with them for the benefit of the
farmer. 81:
In this connection, it is the opinion
of certain financiers of the w. P. G.
Harding type that the scheme if gen
orally sponsored by bankers would
not only materially aid the farmers
but the bankers, themselves, and the
county. Mr.: Meyer, in talking with
the bankers, reminded them that the
plight of the south was not and could
not be sectional, but national; that
when the South's cotton was drug
on the market, the South could not
trade with other sections.
And Mr.. Harding Informed the
bankers that loans, on the basis of
present prices, were safer than on
the basis of high and necessarily fic-
tit:ous prices, and he urged them to
invest in European securities, and
check against them in advancing
money to the producers.
At the same time, the bankers OF
the South are hard hit. They are
carrying all the cotton paper. And
half the cotton produced is unsold
Robert F. Maddox, of Atlanta, inform
ed Mr.. Meyers that the bankers were
carrying the load with difficulty, and
that relief was necessary because Of
the certainty that if they did carry
the present crop, they could not carry
the next.
While there was no disposition on
the part of any banker to use force,
,r resort to law, in collecting the in
debtedness of the farmers, and Gov
ernor Harding spoke directly against
such policy, the idea was prevalent
hat the farmer, by some personal
means, should be made to see the fol-
| ly of over-production of one crop,
! that is, cotton.
R. G. Rhett of Charleston had this
idea in mind when he stated frankly
that a new found market during this,
the planting season, attended by an
increase in the price Of cotton, would
be exceedingly hurtful to the South.
Under such conditions, he declared,
the farmer, now inclined to reduce his
acreage. would redouble it. He urged
that no relief be granted until after
the new crop was in the ground.
He declared it to be necessary to
deal with the farmer practically in
asmuch as the farmer could not be