Norwich bulletin., 1922-12-15

(Written Specially For The Bulletin) President Harding devotes more at tention to farming and railroads than to any other subjects in his last mes sage to congress- This ought to bs enough to show you and me that we haven't been far off our trolley in talk ing as much as VIC have about those two things, lately. To begin with, the president officially and formally confirms as true the as- sertion of farmers that they were hit first and worst in the deflation which followed the war. ''The first distress -of re-adjust1nent came to the farmer" he says. He calls attention to the fast that. by certain measures ostensFbly for' farn relief, this congress already has taken cognizance of the misfortune which precipitate defiation brought to American agriculture"
 The transportation problem, one "de- nandinS the most rigorous considera- tion of congress and the country" has to do with more than agriculture, of course. Tt is the channel for the flow of the country's commerce. But Let's make fresh paragraph for this next quotation:
 "But tho farmer is particularly hard hit. His market, so affected by world
 
 adjustment to meet carrying charges. In the last half Of the year now clos ing the railways, broken in carrying ca pacity because of rolling power and mo- tive stock out of order, though insist ently declaring to the contrary, em6ar- goed his shipments or denied him cars when fortunate markets were calling. Too frequently transportation failed while perishable products were turning -ag-I, N0 1Dee faH in tens of millions"
 Have you and I said anything more sweeping or more emphatic than that. in the course of our different talks about the way in whic4 deAation and railroad rumpuses have swatted the farmers of the country? If some of my non-farnins readers have thought was, perhaps, a little biased by sym psthy for my fellow-farmers. if rhe.' have pooh-poohed my complaints on the thEory that ''the farmers are always finding fault about something I hone theyll ask themselves how it happens that President Harding, himself non farmer, out-Spokenly corroborates us and adds his voice to our complaints?
 Let me ask you to read another quo tation:
 Had we escaped the coal and rail way strikes, which had no excuse foi their beginning and less justification fo their delayed settlement, we shouit have done infinitely better. In tn folly of conflict our progress was hin dered, and the heavy cost has not ye been fully estimated, The railwa! gtrEks accentuzted the diffculty of tn American farmer. The first distress 0 Deadtzstment came to the farmer and win not be a re-ad5ustmeut fit to abid Uncl he Is relieved Agricultura misfortune is national mlsrof tune. Agriculture is a vital actfv ity in our national life. In it we ha our beginning, and it's westward marc with the star of empire has refecte the growth of the republic. It has it vicissitudes which no legislation wi prevent, it's hardships for which no lal can provide escape. But the conGres can make available to the farmer tn financial facilities which have bee built up under government aid and su pervision for other commercial and in dustriaI enterprises" This, Presiden Harding declares, not only may D done" but MUST BE, DONE" ..
 All this, as you'n readily nnderstan has to do with giving farmers increase credit facilities enabling them to bo1 row more money at need, and on easje terms. Anyone can easily see that tn same rules which govern a banks lend irEs to merchants or rnanufacturef whose goods turn over" every sixty c ninety days, won't fit the conditions ( either crop or livestock farming. whe1 from six months to three years are nt cessary for similar turn. over" far as changes in the banking laws ma provide for this difference in condition & betterment of the farmers borrowin status may work for good in maf eases. This, however. is matter for di cussion and for allowable difference opinion. It certainly doesn't cover tf whole ground. President Hardin frankly admits as much. He goes or
 But American agriculture neet more than added credit facilities. IT credits will help to solve the pressiT problems growing out of war r7inhate land values and the drastic def1ation