The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-29
Bank Deposits Of Nations AgriculturiSts Greater
 Than Last Year
By WALTER B. BROWN, Editor New York Commercial


 Leased Wire to The Age-HeraldO T NEW YORK, Oct. 2S.-The moment Eongress opens there will be a viz erous demand for action to relieve -the distress of the wheat farmers. 5All sorts of extreme methods will be Ssuggested, from price fixing to out |fright purchase of the crop, but none II of these will be of any value. There | is, in fact, nothing that Congress can do, because it all resolves itself down \ to the fact that there is an excess N supply of wheat for which there IS no market.
 Those who suffer most are the one- E crop farmers who place their entire &. .defendence upon wheat. These may &be sub divided further into those who F for one reason or another nave been fable to raise only six or eight bushels $to the acre, as against IA on an aver Mage, and on land that is heavily daortgaged on an inflated basis. It Attracts nothing from the unhappi- tAsss of these farmers to realize that bey form but small percentage of ne whole..
 Nevertheless, considering the agri- ultural question as a whole, there not the general distress among the armers which the agitators have ade it appear. Practically all other
  ing power of the agricultural lmunity will be maintained. Even the agricultural states, particu- the wheat states, it Is shown bank deposits are greater than year. 'ropasanda Proves Boomerang. Without minimizing in the least de- gree the distress of the farmers, in
 arious localities, 1t is unfortunate nat there has been so much reck- less propaganda in their behalf. The impression has been created that the farmers are bankrupt. This has even caused bankers to hesitate in accept ing farm paper.
 The farmers are resenting this, and are hastening to make it known that
 hey are far from being bankrupt. While there Is a great deal of talk
 If forming cooperative associations,
 e real remedy lies in the diversifi-
 tion of crops.
 There will also be plentiful attacks lpon the railroads, and the famous
 ection 150 will come up again. This
 ection is called the guarantee clause, because it is supposed to guarantee to the railroads an income of 51a per cent on their valuation. The repeal f Section 15-A would not have the
 lightest effect upon freight rates. would simply mean that Congress lad so little regard for the railroads that the matter of their earning a fair return was matter of indiffer- ence.
 But even so, tho interstate com merce commission would continue to base freight rates upon fair return, or it would be a suicidal policy to so cripple the roads that they could not earn fair return. Service would be crippled, and the loss to
 shippers through crippled railroad
 service has already been demon strated by practical experience. The probability is that this is merely one of the topics about which much ora tory will revolve, but it will not do much damage to the roads.
 Not Receiving Necoded Tonnage.
 While most of the roads are In a prosperous condition, those in the northwest are not showing up well in their earnings, because they are wheat carrying roads and are not re- ceiving the tonnage necessary to maintain their earnings. The earn 'rgs statements for September, which
 e now coming in, are encouraging most of the roads. They show particular increase in gross earn s,Abut there Is an increase in net ause ot the reduced expenses fol- wing the acquisition of so much " equipment.
 The banking situation continues to
 a satisfactory one. The reduction
 redscounting with the federal re-
 we indicates an ample supply of
 ids by the member banks to meet
 ,ir requirements. The steel indus-
 shows an improvement and the
 to economic conditions, the out
 Jk is favorable, but political con-
 lions. both here and abroad, are
 using unrest.