The daily times., 1922-01-30

r for assistance to the large number
of small State banks now non-mem
2 bers of the System.
In the second place there is NJ
medium through which the farmer OF
: live stock man may secure adequate
: loans for periods of from six months
to three years.
The Advisory Council has learned
, with great satisfaction of the plan
under consideration by the Joint
Commission of Agricultural Inquiry
the outline of which was recently
sketched by it's Chairman, Mr.. An
derson. This plan contemplates
STRENGTHENING the Federal Land
Banks and extending their powers so
as to permit them to discount agri-
cultural or live stock paper with ma
TURTLES running from six months to
three years, and to permit them to
re-discount this paper with Federal
Reserve Banks when it's maturity
falls below six months, and when
1t conforms to the requirements of
the Federal Reserve Act, or to pledge
the loans having the longer maturi-
ties as collateral for debentures
which it is contemplated they should
have power to issue to the invest
ment public. A plan of this character
would place at the disposal of the
agricultural sections vast sums in
sound and businesslike manner,
would open the Federal Reserve
Banks to their credit at the appro-
pirate period, and would fill seri-
GUS gap in our present credit ma
chinery.
To perfect in these two respects
the credit machinery available to
the farmer would be a great con-
structive accomplishment But merely
to compel the President to appoint a !
farmer to the Federal Reserve Board
would, in the end, only prove an illu-
sion and disappointment to the
farmers themselves. 1t should be OBJ
served that none of the Acts creating
The Interstate Commerce Commits
or even the Federal Farm Loan
Board, in any way restricts the Pres
ident's power of appointment by re-
quiring him to appoint to these
boards a representative of agricul-
ture or any other special interest.
The appointment OF farmer to
the Federal Reserve Board by spe-
cial Act of Congress would not, as
we have shown, improve or add to
present agricultural credit facilities.
1t would, however, be fateful notice
to the entire country that the Fed
eral Reserve System had come under
the domination of a powerful politi-
cal group designed to secure special
privileges for single class, of which
the approximately thirty bills already
into Congress serve as a
sufficient and significant Illustration.
The menace of the inclusion of
politics in a banking system of the
vast powers of the Federal Reserve
System, which reaches into the re-
hottest corners of the country, is so
obvious that the Council does not bel
ieve it necessary further to elabor-
ate this point; the more so as it feels
certain that these views are fully :
shared by you, Mr.. President. In
Iced, they are in entire accord with .
he 1920 platform of the Republican :
,arty which provided that '"The !.
Federal Reserve System should be
rec from political Influence, which
s quite as important as it's inde-
,endence of domination by financial
The Council does not deem it it's ,
junction, or this the appropriate op- g
,ortunity to refute the utterly false a
harges that have been made regard q
ng the administration and operation \
# the System. The Council feels it it's 2
luty, however, to point to the great U
LANCER to which the country is being /;
when the people, puzzled and f
larassed by the inevitable vexations h
# the wars aftermath, are melted Z
~ the wilful mis-statements of un-
or ambitious. demagogues.
A consistent campaign has been n
arried on in order to make the far
ners believe that they are suffering
,eca4seh the Federal Reserve System
uckd Up the peoples gold, and, hav- :
ng corral1ed it, is Withholding it in E
,rder, to make it available to Wall E
street. and to exact high ; interest :
ates.; 1t is significant. that the agita- +:
ors should have been able to main
ain this myth in the face of the fact
hat New York banks have reduced &
heir borrowings from the Federal