The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1924-07-03

late John IL. Rich.
The late John III. Rich, chairman
and federal reserve agent, in a bull
Ietin issued shortly before his death
estimated the banking and farm
mortgage Indebtedness of ninth re-
serve district farmers at $1,000,
and improvements valued at $S,-
O39, 600, 900 exclusive of $3.50 ,0O0,-
600 farm value of the seven prin-
cipaI crops they produced in 1928.
As against this estimate northwest
agriculture as a whole has So with
which to pay 81 of Indebtedness.
Senator La Follette's recent resolu-
ton asking for a congressional recess
only, and stating that appalling con-
ditions demand legislation for agri-
cultural relief excited more than or
binary interest in northwest business
and financial circles because of the
representation therein of a degree of
distress not known here.
Senator La Follette's statement
credits the secretary of agriculture
with having reported that 40 per cent
of South Dakota's farmers are bank
rupt, so per cent in North Dakota,
and 81 per cent in Montana.
Survey of Conditions
There r 72,50O,0OO acres in 1885,
PAP farms in the northwest grain
area. Six months ago, in the only
,~r-o that hoe hann
made, so far as is known here, the
Minneapolis federal reserve bank
compiled the results of an inquiry
into the actual circumstances and con-
ditions of 203,040 farmers. There {
were found $3.50, that w the de- Y
preston period of three and one-half |
had become bankrupt, in the s
area wholly or principally classed as
grain raising. These included farm {
abandonments, almost wholly in the !
far western, semi-arid or poor mans t
country, the last part of the United
States where in the past 10 or Is '
years a man with little or no capital l
could start. OF the 203,04O farmers /
consideration the bankers with
they did business estimated f
in Minnesota and South Dakota
Is per cent were incompetent, IN i
North Dakota 20 per cent and in Mon
tana rs pei cent. Men of nearly every
occupation remote from farm :
ing figured among these incompe- \
tents. In the Montana area of the /;
heaviest failures 81 per cent of these 7
who had rome upon the land were :
without previous experience. =
At least one-third of the farms =
abandoned in Montana in the period :
Of 1920 to 1928, when activity of :
numbering, copper mining and other 4
created demand for higher !
priced labor meant the going back in y
% industry of men who came origi- !,
laIlv from labor's ranks and who, -
.fter taking a chance on the land with :
lender capital in a territory of vary
ng sufficient and insufficient rain
all, lost out in two successive bad d
easons, although the history of the "
agricultural west is that hun l
reds of thousands, homesteaded or q
therwise, began with practically no u
hing and did win out. =
What Survey Showed 81
The survey showed that in addition Il
0 the 1888 bankrupt farmers there 1
,ere $500 badly in debt and not able p
0 see their way out. Assuming that 0
hese would all eventually go bank al
upt there was a total of 1850 or a,
2 per cent. Montana had a per Il
entage of 17.7, North Dakota 10.5 T
err cent, South Dakota 7.3 per cent, b
Minnesota 81 per cent, northern Wis il
onsin 8 per cent and northern Mich tt
gan 2.8 per cent g
Whether the proportion of farm tc
istress as set forth in this summary al
e%presenting the cumulative effect of II
condition extending over several
ears, could possibly have grown SO e.
luch worse over a six-month period, u
I which the bottom in agriculture, a
anking and general BUSINESS I'M II
oubtedly was struck and a reaction W
~ trend indicated, M may judge u
the per centage comparisons. 81
From the time, now nearly three ~
one-half years ago, when the first NJ
mall country banks had closed in ~ ~
umber sufficient to draw outside at =,
no denial of conditions ever =.
gone forth from any responsible y.
PURGE in the northwest states. Frank !"
omission that there was a condition