The Washington times., 1923-07-05
HOW PANIC WAS
AVERTED IN
1922
Fred Starek, Director, TeNg Of
War Finance Corporation
Rescuing the Farmers;
By FRED STAREK,
Director of the War Finance
Corporation.

Corporation.
written for and copyrighted, 1923.
by International News Service.)
Picture a reservoir of simmer
ing gold and let your mind try to
comprehend it's value-five hundred
million dollars with virtually auto
matte power to expand to two bill.
lion-a mighty store located -on the
bank of the Potomac and sentinelled
Dy the lofty and inspiring shaft dedi-
Gated to Washington.
A restless, stirring mass, impatient
at It's restraining walls and waiting
to break through. Then noiselessly,
as though by touch of magic, the
slulceS open-there is an undulating
movement on the surface and sud
denly the precious fluid begins to
flow out.
Watch the directions It takes!
Not a single stream, but five, ten,
tWenty-more. Some move South,
ward, spreading their nourishing
powers over plantations of despair
ing cotton, tobacco, rice and sugar
growers as far as the Gulf of
Mexico.
To Aid Northwest.
Others, as though instinctive1y
realizing their function, start
toward the Canadian border to
restore courage to sturdy but
disheartened wheat raisers of the
Northwest, likewise made helpless
by forces, beyond their control.
More streams carve an uncharted
course over the Blue Ridge and
Alleghanies and radiate vital sus-
tenance to the praries, where
hopelessness had seized upon the
hearts of countless thousands Nof
farmers who furnish the staff of
life to millions of other Ameri-
cans.
Still other currents from the
golden reservoir proceed swiftly
to the Far West, surmount the
crests Of the Sierras and plunge
down into and through the lower
stretches, where sheep and cattle
growers are struggling desperate
ly against ruin-and then on to
the Pacific, where plethoric fruit
fields had shrunk to a sickening
leanness. simultaneously other
streams shoot off to the Southwest
over distant mountain ranges and
through deserts where more stock
men are throwing up their hands,
and also where the imagination
and hand of man had recently de-
veloped a new empire of cotton
on and on, stopping only at the
Mexican frontier, and all along
irrigating desolate spots and buoy
ing agonizing souls.
Immense Resources.
A wonderful spectacle-this auric
inundation, this outflow of hearten-
tvnrp Il
nance Corporation in operation IN
it's height Tor depth, panic in the
air and the specter Of ruin right
ahead, not only for men who pro-
vide food for the nation, but for in
Vulnerable urban industries which
thrive upon agricultural prosperity
Almost over night the mellow glow
from the Golfers of the corporations
lighted up the dark places through
out the land, checked precipitate
decline in values and brought re-
lief which held the stampede. The
grim apparition of disaster van
ished.
To get down to prosaic financial
terms, that is what this greatest
and most courageous Of all banks
did in record-breaking time in re-
storing agriculture to a fairly nor
NAL basis and bringing equilibrium
to the intricate business structure
OF the cities whose welfare is so
intimately interviewer with the
prosperity of the farmers. In at
tanning this marvellous result the
corporation loaned $3.50, 100000 to
approximately 4,3O0 bonks, 115 cat
tie loan companies. and Is co-opera-
tive marketing associations.
VI this colossal sum two hundred
and two million dollars was ad-
Vanced between the months Of Oc-
tober, 1921, and the middle of May,
1877 or an average output Of a mil
lion dollars cash a day for seven
months. These thousands of banks
In turn loaned the money to farm
ers and stockm9n for the most part,
ana the corporation in these transac-
tions accepted the notes OF indi-
vlduals to the number of $4,000
through the cooperative associa-
tions nearly three-quarters of a mil
lion farmers of all sorts were helped
through impending crises.
Half Billion in Loans.
But the two hundred and ninety
million dollars actually advanced
was not the limit to which the cor
poratlon was prepared to gO-in
fact, did go in a sense-it was not
much more than half wav. For the
grand total Of loans which 1t ap-
proved touched five hundred and
flfteen million dollars. In other
words the applications which were
granted reached that dizzy emf
nence, but the borrowers whose Sc
curity was offered found they would
not need 1t ALL Nevertheless, IL
the original capital of the corpora
tlon mad become exhausted by reason
or this mighty total of approvals it
would have been expanded, as indi-
Gated, threefdld.
imagine. if you can, the stu
pehdous volume Of work which the
hanollng or all these notes, instru-
menus and documents of various
xmas REQUIRED, and then your won
uer VIII increase when YOU learn
mat II was done by only 367 paid
empioyes in Washington and 1873
OUTSIDE of the Capital, connected
WIN the corporations agencies in
thlrty-three States. No such ex.
ample or speed and efficiency was
ever SHOWN in any operation under
taken by the Federal Government.
Inc biggest banks in the largest
cues nave thousands of emnloves,
dlthoueh the volume of their bust
ness Is comparatively smaller.
Rescued U. S. Resources.
S congress established a precedent
Wnen II authorized the War