Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-01-23
CONGRESS DESERTS
SUBSIDY MEASURE
To AID FARMERS
Extra Session, Called ES-
peciaIIy to Pass Shipping
Bill, Turns Talents to Dis
tress in Rural Districts
BY ROBERT T. SMALL.
Geased Wire Service to The Journal.)
Copyright, 1921


congress-" PRECEDENT Harding hoped
it would also be shipping congress
and called it into extra session in
that hope. BUT the senators and rep
resentatives who will pack up their
grips and leave Washington just six
weeks from today appear content to
be known as the Iervent friends OF
agriculture and to let the American
flag disappear from any one or all Oh
the seven sounding seas.
Democrats and Republicans alike
are tumbling over each other in an
effort to put through the farmers
relief measures. The senate passed
the first of the big bills Friday al
ternoon without record vote. There
was no need to make a record, for al!
the senators present were animated
by the same desire to appease the
militant man Of the soil and all were
voting in the same direction. About
the only fault the Democrats had to
find with the Capper bill, which has
now gone to the house where it will
be railroaded through in short order,
was that it did not go far enough
to the rescue Of the farmer.
Having passed the Capper bill,
very comprehensive and carefully
worked out measure, the senate is
proceeding to consideration Of the
Lenroot-Anderson bill which is de-
signed to go somewhat further thai
the Capper bill in providing long-term
credits for all persons and as
sociations engaged in furthering the
arts of agriculture. The Lenroot
bill has been recommended for pas
sage by the senate committee on
banking and currency. 1t will be
passed probably within the next fort
night. To all intents and purposes
the work of the senate then will be
through, with the exception of the
routine Of the appropriation bills,
The ship subsidy bill will be taken
up and discussed but there~is no one
so brave as to say the measure VIII
reach vote before the session comes
O its constitutional end on March 4.
Farmers Relief
The farm relief legislation will!
stand as the one constructive
achievement of the congress and
when the time comes for the politi-
clans to go out upon the hustings,
there will be a great clashing of the
cymbals by both the Republicans and
the Democrats and great vocal eff
forts to convince the farmers that
they number their friends in Wash
!ngtcn by legion. The Republicans
will claim the lions shares credit for
the new liberal loan laws, for they
will have been enacted under Re
publican administration. The de-
bates have shown that the Demo
Gratis are going to claim that the re-
lief measures were made necessary
by conditions which came to pass
under the same Republican admin
istration and will further say thai
if the Democrats had controlled con-
.gress they would have been more
liberal with the farmers than the
G. o. P.
The Democrats in debate have
charged that the disastrous della
ton of the farmers in 1920, when
Woodrow Wilson still was in the
White House, was not due to any
thing done by the Democratic admin
istration but to restrictive legisla'
ticn passed by congress. The Re-
pub1icans have laughed at this and
placed the blame for the plight Of
the farmers at the door Of Mr.. Will
son. So it is seen that the farm
credit legislation now passing
through congress is to be an issue
in the next campaign although every
senator is voting for the bills and
none against them.
Certainly the events transpiring
on Capitol Hill show that the farm
err is in the saddle in Washington
at the present moment. The agra
rian movement storm clouds gather
ing in the west have not cast their
shadows in Washington in vain. The
Macedonian cry OF the agrlculturallst
has stirred Washington from one end
of Pennsylvania avenue to the other.
President Harding, who felt at the
beginning of the session of congress
that the ship subsidy bill should take
precedence over The farmers bills
made no serious objection to the
shift in program when he heard
from some of the western senator's
how the folks ''back home' in their
states were feeling and talking.
Agricultural Bills
At a hearing before the senate
committee on agriculture, a farmer
witness from the northwest told the
entire terse story of tho American
farmer in the following colloquy:
GLOW many of your farmers are
mortga ged?" he was asked.
"Practically all of them"
what have they mortgaged?'
"Their homes and farms"
"Have they any live stock?"
Eyes"
"Are they mortgaged?"
yes, SIR
what else have they mortgaged?'
"They have mortgaged their grow
ing crops"
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