Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-01-31
THREE BIC EVENTS
EMPHASIZE NEED
Of AIDING FARMERS
Athens Conference Con-
gressionaI Hearings and
Potato Growers Meeting
Show Need of Help
BY RALPH. SMITH

1
Three big events in Georgia last
week served to emphasize the real
.zation that commerce and industry
are the dependent children, rather
than the twin sisters of agriculture,
and that permanent prosperity de.
ponds upon the resuscitation OF the
parent.
That agriculture is well nigh
PROSTATE in Georgia, as elsewhere
throughout the United States, was
| the testimony that predoninated at
the Athens market conference, the
joint congressional hearing on rural
credits in Atlanta, and the confer
ence of sweet potato producers in
Atlanta.
The testimony as to the unsatis-
factory situation was singularly sig
nificant because it did not come
from farmers themselves, but was
developed with, clarity and conVlc-
ton by bankers, merchants, manu-
facturers and professional men who
have been brought to the realization
that the future happiness of every
class is wholly contingent upon pros
| perity in the rural districts.
"A
gressional credit hearing and the
potato growers activity, while indie
| pendent of one another, were the
result, not Of mild desire, but the
imperative necessity for constructive
measures to help the farmer get his
OK out of the ditch.
The absence Of any immediate
connection between the three &C.
centuates the concord of opinion
that prevailed to the effect, general
lv. that the farmers salvation is
dependent, in large part, upon the
provision of facilities that will en-
able him, not only to make another
crop, but to market advantageously
such diversified products as his
lands may yield in cultivation.
The Athens Conference
| The Athens conference, under the
auspices of the state department OF
agriculture, assembled leaders in
many walks of life. The discussions
We. liked by the utmost frank
ness of expression regarding the sit
uation, and the remedial ideas ad-
vanced were equally sincere and
logical.
It was the concensus of the eX-
perts from Washington, recognized
farming authorities in Georgia, bust
ness men and others assembled that
the remedy is to be found surely in
the provision for better marketing
facilities. <
There was manifest no disposition
to encourage the farmers or Geor-
gia to abandon entirely the produc-
ton of cotton, but there was unami-
nous agreement that the farmers
must turn to the production of other
things than cotton, if the solution is
to be found.
The authorities stood as a unit in
the belief that the safest and SureSt
means of combating the boil weevil
is by providing for the farmers facili-
ties for marketing profitably other
products than cotton. 1t was &C
ceptel by all that diversified pro-
duction in Georgia, and throughout
the south, depends upon the extent
to which market facilities are pro-
Vided.
One Of the big features of the con-
ference was the acclaim with which
the Georgia Farm Market Fedora
ton was accepted as the most prac-
ticable movement that has been in
augurated in the south for meeting
the situation. , The speech of L. r.
Adams, secretary of the Country
Bankers association, explaining the
organization in detail, was received
= with genuine approval.
AS Mr. Adams explained, the pros
poets of the federation has been sub
mitted to Secretary of Agriculture
? Wallace at Washington, for exami
nation, and when his approval has
been received by the organizers the
federation will be formally launched
70
, The Georgia Farm Market FEEDER
alton, as remarked by Mr.. Adams, is
neither an association Of bankers
merchants or farmers. 1t is an or.
ganization that will receive its
original impetus and financial sup.
port from all classes, but which will
; be managed chiefly in the interest
! of the farmers. Its efforts will be
directed toward co-ordinating the
many diversified interests that in
! evitabIy are associated with the pro
duction, sterilization and profitable
sale of farm products other than
cotton.
The Congressional Hearing
Underlying the discussions at 1.-THE
hearing before the joint COMPRESSION
al committee, in Atlanta, Thursday
and Friday, was the realization OF
the necessity for relief through fur
| Their financial aid and in the impera
tive necessity of providing means
that will enable the farmer to sell
NJ profitably his products.
It became apparent at the hear
| ing that the committee will consider
amendments to the rural credits law
| that will expand and facilitate the
work of the federal land bank sys
| tenn. Many of the leading Georgia
bankers and business men who ap'
| peared urged the wisdom of such
course. and the Georgia members OF
congress presented a memorial along
the same general line.
The federal farm land banks, 4
was pointed out, can render, and al
! ready he rendered, invaluable hell
to the financial necessities of the
farmers, but it's full value has been
denied them through the hardness
attendant upon the conduct of the
| several land banks.
By facilitating the work OF these
| agencies in making long term loans
| on farm lands, the joint committee
| was shown the small country banks
will be relieved of the loads tn ~
| have been carrying-loads in the
shape of frozen loans" that have
tied up their capital and made many
of them valueless to the farmers in
the emergency that has developed
By releasing the capital and re-
| sources of country banks that are
tied up in these frozen loans,
through the effective and expedi-
tious operation of the lands, millions
| Of dollars will be restored to the
! channels of active trade-channels
that will enable the smaller banks
| to function in financing the farmers
to make additional crops.
It was developed with telling ef'
feet before the committee that the