Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-11

" HE forces endeaVoring to play
agricultural politics with the
Federal Farm Loan Bureau
Il were severely j0lted last week
by the plain words in the
Presidents message to Congress re-
garding The conditions OF certain joint
stock land banks and by the convic-
ton and the sentence to Imprisonment
of Guy Huston. chairman of the boar d
of the Joint Stock Land Bank of
Southern Minnesota.
1t became clear that President Cool
ldge has been quietly reintrOducing
strict business methods into the gov
ernmental supervision of the joint
stock land banks for the salvation of
their $3.50, 00U. 900 of bonds now in the
hands of investors; and it became
probable that the Presidents chief
agent in this large effort. Eugene Mey-
err. jr., would be triumphantly con-
firmed by the United States Senate to
the post of being the Federal Farm
Loan Bureaus executive officer He
has held this post under a recent re
cess appointment" which is now be-
fore the Senate for action.
Meyers Views Changed.
1t has been the conscientious opin.
ion of Senator Fletcher of Florida and
of certain other dissatisfied Senators
that Mr.. Meyer. who happens to have
had large financial experience in pri-
vate business, was not sufficiently
"farm-minded" to supervise the opera
tons of agricultural financial institu-
tions. II has been, and is, the opinion
of President Coolidge that Mr.. Meyer
became thoroughly 'farm-minded" and
even specifically and in detail corn
minded" and hog minded" and "oat-
minded" in the course of his eminent
ly success. al management of the hun
dreds of millions of dollars of agricul-
tural loans made by the Federal War
Finance Corporation, of which he was
managing director and in the course
also of his spectacular rescue and ad-
vance of the price of cotton at the
time when President Coolidge sent
him on that special mission through
the South.
The contest between the opponents
and the supporters of Mr.. Meyer has
been a contest between these who
in effect, maintain that farm finance
is farming. and those who, in eff
feet, maintain that farm finance is
finance. The latter are at this week
end in a stronger and stronger posi-
ton as the news keeps rolling into
Washington of the moral scandals
and financial collapses that occurred
in the joint stock land banks when
they were under the supervision of
a Federal Loan Bureau which did not
include Mr.. Meyer and in which So
called farm minded" members were
dominant.
Three i'm Hands of Receivers.
The Kansas City Joint Stock Land
Bank and the Bankers Joint Stock
Land Bank of Milwaukee and the Ohio
Joint Stock Land Bank of Cleveland
are in the hands of receivers. All
joint stock land banks are private
institutions, and the money which they
lend on land is private money, but
the bonds which they issue and sell
TO investors are made taX-eXempt
by the Federal Government and
carry with them the color of govern
ment-backed securities. All joint stock
land banks are, therefore, supervised
by the Federal Farm Loan Board,
and the insolvency of the three banks
above mentioned is grave reflection
upon the quality of the supervision
that was being given TO them.
In addition to receiverships of
joint stock land banks, there have
joint stock land bank officers. Such in
dictments have been brought against
officers of the Southern Minnesota
Joint Stock Land Bank, the Kansas
City Joint Stock Land Bank, the
Chicago Joint Stock Land Bank and
the Des Moines Joint Stock Land
Bank. Among the practices alleged
in some of the cases are the follow
ing:
Oficers Of the joint stock land bank
have taken money which they got by