The dispatch-news. [volume] (Lexington, S.C.) 1919-2001, 1922-06-07
UR: IRVING FISHER, OF YALE
UNIVERSITY, ONE OF GREAT
EST AMERICAN ECONOMISTS,
STRONGLY ENDORSES NEED
FOR PROPER AGRICULTURAL
FINANCIAL MACHINERY.

erica, in which he very strongly en-
dorses the great need for proper
:. system of short-term agricultural
= credits divorced from our present
banking system: '.~.>
80 YALE UNIVERSITY
Department of Political Economy
=. "Prof. Irving Fisher, 49,. :: So.
"46o Prospect ST.; 80 -: :.,
"New Haven, Conn.
.... May 19, 1922.
"Mr. ]. S. Wannamaker, Presi-
dent,
."American Cotton Association,
":St. Matthews, S. G. -: 3. D..
"My dear Mr.. Wannamaker: -.
81 have your two letters Of April
21 and May and greatly regret
the impossibility of having an.
swered more promptly because Of"
absence from town and hurricane,
Of work. $3.50.
g 'Stabilizing The Dollar is pub
lished by the Macmillan. Company.
sc Fifth Ave, D., New York, and you
should have no trouble in getting
hold of a copy. - ...., :.
r.. ;..I am immensely interested in all
you say in regard to- the losses OF
the farmer through thetrise in the
: value Of the dollar which means
tan increase IN the burden Of his
, debt Had we had a stable dol
lar this would not have occurred.
1 think your Association might well
go on record as endorsing the
Stable Money League as did the
recent Agricultural Congress in
Washington One Of our vice
presidents is Henry Wallace, Edi-
tor Of Wallace's. Farmer, and son
Of the secretary of agricult lture.
enclose letter head which, Z will :.
show you who are connected with
the committees. WaddilI- Catch,
ings is Chairman of the Executive
Committee. I believe It as well
worth the while of those who snf-
fer by these alterations Of our edol-;
lar TO try persistently for fey
years to secure stabilization. I be-
gin my answer to your letter by
this. statement because / believe
that in this suggestion lies the
permanent solution and that tenn
porizing merely means continuing,
the waste and loss. ..
believe that cur system OF loans
in this country is inadequate and:
there seems to be at the present
time no proper machinery for Civ
ing the farmers the kind of loans
they need do not think, how
ever, that the Federal Reserve
System should be used for this pur-
pose. Farm loans are a thing by
themselves, differing in length OF
term and security from commercial
loans. I think that all producers
ought to have chance. on adequate
securitS to get any loans desired at
the proper market price = empha-
size the last named saual alton
because & abso1ute isappross atsE
tie popular among.
the sagI tculsara1 popnaaties oa, iizn-
ting the rate Of interest: The rate
of interest ought 10 be flexible and
to rise and fall as supply and de-
mand dictates, and any attempt to
artificially lower il will take re-
venge in inflation,,:' which, while
temporarily beneficial to the far
mer, in the end will hurt him just
as deflation does.
And just as disapprove of arti-
ficially controlled rates of interest,
I disapprove Of artificially con-
trolled prices. To stabilize the
price level is quite a different thing
from attempting to fix the price OF
any individual commodity other
than gold (Which makes the money
standard and which we fix already,
though on a wrong principle) II
we stabilize the general price level,
that is stabilize the dollar, we shall
stabilize the price Of farm prod
ucts so far as they ought to be
stabilized and allow any changes, II )
agricultural conditions to have full
effect. The trouble now is thaf
the major part of the changes in
the price Of cotton and everything
else is due to the change in the 3
value of gold and not to conditions
of the cotton crop. When say
the value of gold I mean, of course,
the value of our gold dollar which
is affected not only by conditions or
gold but by conditions Of money
and conditions Of credit. The, re-
cent great fall in prices was due TO
the arrest of credit. 1t was de-
flation following on initiation, both
of which are evils. =.>>~
''% II think the farmer and the cot-
ton grower should not be penalized
for holding their products in stor-.
age. have no objection to CT =
ing this speculation, but it is not
OF the 'manipulative kind wnich
does damage, but of the regulatlVe
kind, which does good.
II am sorry that I cannot take
the time to go into such minute
study of the different kinds of
proposed legislation as would en-
able me to endorse any particular
bill, as I have So many other COM,
mitments and the: collee year is just
1,,;p1TDo nm Pn< think T nave