Norwich bulletin., 1922-12-22
THE PoRTENDlNc ENLARGED FARM CREDITS.

M. L. Jenks of the American Surely com pany has recently completed a business tour of eleven western states. He says right out loGd. that the east hasn't, begun to comprehend the distress which rests Oh western farmers. He says they are still unpaid foa1 the tremendous losses of 1920 and the value of their dollar is still decreasing in comparison with the dollar of the wage-earner or business man. He says flatly: "If it were not for the fact that bankers, wholesalers and retailers in some states have instituted a tacit mora torium, thousands of farms would be. lost by their owners and thousands of merchants would be forced out of busi- neS"
 And Bernard M. Baruch, a New York city financier of high standing, with an unusually wide and accurate knowledge. of universal economic conditions, said the other day in Chicago:
 Millions of good farmers on good land and with good crops are actually running | their business, through no fault of their own or the miSchance of nature at loss | that spells ruin if continued"
 This condition MT. Baruch doesn't find i to be mainly due to the railroads but to the fact that other businesses have been so centralized and concentrated that the farmer is compelled to buy from them at prices controlled from great centers,
 while he must sell "iE an sz1Iiiiiialii sz1Iiiialiitt competitive manner in a market over which he has no control.''
 Nor are the farmers the only ones who
 arc getting it in the neck. The other day
 cut out from a single issue of one of the
 western newspapers, which my good
 friends of The Bulletin office keep me supplied with. accounts of the summary
 closing of three banks in the same day. In all the trouble was practically iden- tical; ''heavy farm loans uncollectable because of farmers inability to sell their crops"
 If William J. Meany had been director or stockholders in any of these banks perhaps he might have felt differently. Of course, that day when I clipped these
 three bank failures was no great excep.
 ticn. no especially Black Friday. OtheS
 banks are closing every day in other
 states. Especially in states devoted
 mainly to wheat and potato growing.
 This leads mo to another phase of the
 question. Just at present, the chief drive
 Of the farm bloc and of many well-mean.
 ing financiers and publicists is toward. the
 extension of farm credits. President
 Harding himself puts that first in hi:
 recent message. Their arguments seen
 strong, too as you read them, They al
 most carry you away. they sound so log ical and reasonable.
 Nevertheless. I wonder-I wonde,
 whether easier borrowing of rnore( (mone,
 will make for better farming. There
 one thing I've noticed in thefcourse of ; ! long and more or less ill-spent life. Tina ! is that most men rather like to borrow money-but hate like the Old Scratch tI 1 pay 1t back. Even as things are now 1 it's easier to give mortgage than it i \ to Keep up the interest and finally bay i I oH. While it is undeniably true tha most business is nowadays done on cred 1t, l. e., with borrowed money, it i equally undeniable that this practice ma : lterfatly increases the cost of doing busi Hessi-a cost which the consuming pur chaser invariably and inevitably pays i
 the long run. The farmer who borrow
 money to farm with must, perforce, mak , enough from his farming not only to sus tain himself but also to pay the interest How is he going to do it? By rroducin more? But he is already producing nor 7 than the railroads can haul or the mar i kets handle when it is hauled to then Banking statistics show that the vol 2 ume of bank loans to farmers in the nor luCIG2SSQ
 largely from 1915 to 1920. Said Vic , President Roberts of the National Cit : bank of New York in resent addres : before the Academy of Political Science . If wanted to state in the fewest DOS Q stble words an explanation of the agr s cultural distress of the last two years t ! would put it in three words, Too muc n borrowing.
 Even Ein& sa1a,.o~ ' that ''The borrower is servant to th lender" And Shakespeare held ths ! Borrowing dulfs the edge of husbandry }, He that goes a borrowing goes a Sol ! rowing" said Ben. Franklin. In tr41tI 7 borrowing was never regafded as an CT ' ftirely admirable way os making both enc | meet by the wiSest minds of the pas And for one don't believe that all tf | wisdom of all the ages behind us wa t wiped out at the birth of the preseI ' generation.
 n Coming unexpectedly upon a. bad spc [ in a back road, the wayfarer usuail :, feels justified in borrowing few raj from the fence to make it temporaril
 paSsable. But no sound theory of roas > building contemplates the use of ol Il fence-fafls as foundation for permanel 2 highways My own fealing is that the world yrOu] 2 be much better of and all forms of bus ; ness much more healthy, if borrowir was stringently restricted to emergencie If 1t was made just an occasional stn,
 gap. If it was regarded only as a de: perate last resort. But perhaps I'm tt
 old-fashioned and old-fegyish in th i matter.
 ft Anyway, we seem to be in for a perfe of enlarged farm credits. I really hoq my misgivings about them won't 1
 realized and that they will do all that
 predicated for them by their sponsor 2 May they put. bright sun baclk in
 clear sky and scatter the shades of gloo T wherever they belong: Only: Don't bet allayour old clothes { ! 1t; you may need lem later on THE FARMER.