The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-01-17
By DAVID LAWRENCE.

ffeSluenf WINS In Having Business
Designated n Membership of Board
BY DAVID LAWRENCE. .-....
| Special Despatch TO The Reformer)
Copyright 1922
| WASHINGTON, Jan. 17.-President
Harding has assured the agricultural
| bloc that he intends TO appoint a farmer
| to the federal reserve board. Senators
| Kellogg of Minnesota and Kenyon of
Iowa, who discussed with the President
the proposals pending in congress
whereby the chief executive would be
required TO appoint a farmer, gave the
impression as they left the White House
that they would persuade their col
leagues in the senate to abandon the
project.
The basis of the compromise. if indeed
the concession of the White House to
the agricultural bloc, can be so de
scribed, is simply that the executive will
| do what the agricultural bloc wants but
the latter will. on its part. give up the
dea of actually specifying by statute
what the President shall do in the way
Of future appointments.
Really Farm Protest
controversy between a powerful group
n congress which appeared DESTROYS of
uSurpIng the domain of the executive,
but the meaning of the increment lies
ar deeper than that and is significant
of one tendency of reconstruction which
affects not merely the farmers of the
West but the bankers and manufactur.
ers of the East. In fact, the agricul-
turaI BLOC owes its existence to the very
fundamentals which are involved in the
present controversy. The farmers feel
and their attitude is completely re-
tieCted in the aggressive position aiken
Hv senators from agricultural states
that the federal reserve board was I'M
duly severe on the farmers during the
| detlation period which began nearly
two years ago. The banks of the nation
were advised not TO loan money on de-
Ginning markets.
The farmer was caught i'm the maCl-
>trom of rulings and advice by the fed
eral reserve system. On its part. the
| federal reserve board iustitcs itself
claiming that deflatien is painful at best
and that the farmer had TO take his
medicine along with the rest. But the
farmer now points out that the process
Went too far and that thetfedcral reserve
board didn't help him I'm time of stress.
The overwhelming demand from the ru-
raj districts fer the revival OF the war
finance corporation which Secretary
Houston opposed under the Wilson adj
mIniStratiOn and which was reluctantly
accepted by the Harding administration
has worked out SO well that the farmers
are pointing to it the best evidence of
their ill-treatmeut.
Farmers Needs UnreCOgnized
Why should the war finance corpora
ton have been necessary. SAYS the agri-
cultural group if the federal reserve
board had comprehended the needs Of
farmer finance The fact is the war fl (
nance corporation has done some won
derful things. for which the farmers in !
those sections of which have been
helped, viii be everlastingly grateful
and the praises of Eugene Meyer. ir..
head of the finance corporation. arc
loudly sung in the North. East. South
and West. wherever timely finance aid
has been extended through the finance
corporation.
The agricultural bloc argues that
when the crisis came nobody on the fed
eral reserve board seemed to realize what :
a terrible blow was being handed the
farmer. If there had been a man on the
board experienced in agricultural ways
his might not have happened, Men on
the board had dealt with the farmers
through their banking experience Snt
the agricultural bloc contends that the
farmer viewpoint should have been OBJ
tanned from the other side of the loan
counter.
VIII Pick Farmer Next.
This much is admitted by administers !
ton ofhcialS-the crisis might have been
better handled if the government had /
known then what it knows now about |
farmer finance. President Harding is !
not unSympathetic with the wishes of y
the agricultural bloc that farmer be !
appointed to the federal reserve board. |
He has indicated that he will pick a !
farmer next time. This means unques- /
tionably that he will fill the next va
eancy from the agricultural sections of !,
the country This geographical Hmita-
ton is the Presidents idea of tho wav |
the statute should read but senator's
have pointed out to him that the pres
ent act specifies that men of banking ex-
perience shall be selected alfd they nrn- !
pose that in amending the act the Pres |
ideht shall be required to select the board |
from the industrial, commercial and ag- !
ricultural sections of the country and |
that the words Banking experience be |
eliminated. Otherwise they will insist |
nm no nh SOD e.