The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-11
Bankers Didn't Attend Farm
ers' Conference Today.
Plans to Discuss Rural Credit
Are Sidetracked.
SHEARER TALKED FINANCE
Tells Kansas Agriculturists
They Are Busted.
He Condemns Policy of Federal
Reserve System.

Kansas bankers didn't come to To-
peka for the farmer conference.
Plans to discuss credit plans at the
state house today were sidetracked
when it became known that the meet
ing was composed of borrowers and
not lenders. Several hundred farmers
! and stockmen, anxious to find some
ray of hope for the future, came to
the conference. Shortly before noon,
tho, it became known that the farmers
! were doing their own discussing of the
| situation. The bankers stayed at
home to attend annual meetings and
seek relief from the rediscount situa-
| ton.
Told Farmers They Were Broke.
1t was Andrew Shearer of Marshall
county who gave the only genuine
color to the meeting that was to be a
| farmer-banker conference. For thirty
minutes Shearer told the farmers they
were a busted community and might
as we'll look the situation in the face.
| He said Kansas was trying to look and
! play Independent when almost every
| farmer was wondering how he could
pay his bills.
There wasn't a bit of the old time
| fire that made ANDY Shearer a
leader in Democrat politics in his dis
| trict lacking in today's speech. 1t was
the same Andy Shearer who as a
member of the legislature in the old
| days led the fights for the minority.
In Shearer'S speech was a bit of re-
vival of the old days of Populism and
the sorrow years of the 90's when the
farmers owed more than they could
pay or felt they should in justice be
asked to pay.
Shearer Talked Finance.
Shearer talked finance-the finance
that hits home to the man on the
farm. He flayed Wall street just as
fluently and just as viciously as thirty
years ago. He condemned the policy
of the federal reserve system. He
| told the farmers not to be deluded in
to the belief that high freight rates
alone-nor even high taxes-were re-
sponsible for their trouble. 1t was the
system of deflation, he said. which
caused 1t all.
Some Of the trouble, he said, was
even due to the farmers themselves
Shearer opened the session in just the
manner that would have given a live
Iy day of oratory had the bankers
been in the crowd to have fought
back W. w. Bowman, secretary of
the Kansas Bankers association, and
J. H. Sandell, assistant state bank
commissioner, spoke softly and sooth-
ingly. They said the farmers were the
first consideration of the bankers and
would have their cooperation in
every possible manner. But the bank
ers out in the small towns didn't come
to Topeka and the farmers didn't try
to hide their disappointment.
Farmers Are Disappointed.
When the farmers left representa-
tive hall for bit of noon lunch, they
were filled with Shearer's speech and
disappointment because the money
lenders had not come to town. Shear
er's speech was tinged with optimism,
but generally dyed in funeral colors
and given the settings of a first class
morgue.
TT is not worth while to tell each
other how hard up we are Shearer
said in his speech. ''The larger our
farms the greater our losses. We
would have made money last year if
we had turned our stock out to pasture
and hadn't turned wheel. In 51
years in Kansas. I never saw so much
financial hardship or knew so little
to be said about it.
almost every farmer knows he's
busted. But he isn't talking. Hes
afraid the banker and merchant will
close in on him and make things even
worse.
Many Reasons Given.
"AlI sorts of reasons are given. But
most of them are only contributory
reasons. There's freight rates, for in
stance. Why, if the railroads hauled
my 5000 bushels of corn to Kansas
City for nothing and the commission
| men sold it without charge, 1 would
MT get the first cost of production.
There's taxes, too. Why, If every dol
lar of taxes was rebated to me, I'd
lose money on last years business"
Several bankers are in attendance
at the afternoon session of the farm
ers' conference and some of them may
be called upon to discuss financial
conditions. Among the bankers at
tending the session this afternoon is
Walter E. Wilson, former state bank
commissioner.
And so on. Shearer was pinning
crepe all over representative hall. Two
or three times he offered to quit and
let folks weep in silence and alone
But the crowd yelled for him to go
on. And he did.
THE federal reserve system has
taken over a billion dollars out of cir
culation,'' he charged '"They also
took two billions of credits out of ex-
istence. The federal reserve board in
Washington has surrendered to Wall
street. I can prove it. One reserve
bank in New York loaned another
, bank in that city more money than
was loaned to four reserve banks in
the west and southwest. It means
money was withdrawn from farm pro-
duction.
Held Wheat for ss Per BusheI.
"But we haven't been altogether
blameless. Some of our leaders or
would-be leaders asked US to hold our
wheat for So. That did more than
any one thing to remove the sympa-
Continued on Page Two.l
Hold Egg Laying Contest.
III