Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-05
BY WILLIAM HARD.

The most human situation in Wash
ington at this week end is the one that
revolveS about Eugene Meyer. Mr..
Meyers resignation from the managing
headship of the Federal Farm Loan
Board opens up the whole subject of
Federal farm relief and Federal farm
finance from the standpoint of the
personal character and personal capac-
ity of the men available to the Fed
eral Government for such Tasks
The Federal Government presently,
under the new farm relief bill, viii be
seeking men qualified to administer q
financing fund of half a billion dol
lars. The qualifications manifestly
needed are non-political independence
and strength Of will, broad economic
knowledge and vision, sound and sue
cesSful financial experience. and
special acquaintance. not with the
growing crops. but with the technical
processes, national and international,
through which crops are marketed.
The political pressure, on the other
hand, is for the naming of men who
are what is called farm minded
polite term for the description Of the
mental condition Of persons who SYM
pathize strongly and sincerely with the
farmer on the farm and who can pre-
Sumably milk Q COW without getting
kicked by her, but who do not neces-
sarily possess any acquaintance what.
soever with the successful and profit
able marketing Of milk or of anything
else.
Problem Delicate and Difficult.
The problem thus brought before the
President Is perhaps as delicate and
dimcult as any that he will face in his
whole presidential career. The de-
parture OF Eugene Meyer from public
life gives q dramatic and ironic point
to 1t.
For two years Mr.. Meyer has been
engaged In eliminating from our Federal
Farm Loan system the ineficiencies
and the delinquencieS created and per-
mitted there by q merely farm minded"
Federal Farm Loan Board. When Mr..
Meyer and his associates, Mr.. Floyd
r. Harrison and Mr.. George r.
Cooksey, were put into the board by
President Coolidge to reform and reno
vate 1t, they were instantly attacked by
certain OF the outstanding specialized
friends OF the farmer" in the Senate.
The board, in the view Of these Sen
ators, was and should be a farm
minded" institution. Mr.. Meyer and
Mr.. Harrison and Mr.. Cooksey were
not farm minded" They we're
"money-minded." The boards
job Is to supervise banks-Federal land
banks, Joint stock land banks, Federal
intermediate credit banks. It seemed a
scandal to certain Senators that
"money-minded" men should be ap-
pointed to manage the Governments
interest in banks when those banks
were lending money to farmers.
Actually Gets Money Back.
1t was even urged against Mr.. Meyer
that in lending money for agricultural
apar~ l1~A- -
War Finance Corporation, he so lent
1t as actually to get it back-and with
interest. The charge was well grounded.
Mr.. Meyer, as managing director Of the
War Finance Corporation, lent some
$500, 900 900 of Federal money. Through
lending 1t he so stabilized the market
ing of numerous agricultural commod-
tiles as to raise their price levels from
abnormal depression to a considerably
closer correspondence with the price
levels of commodities in general. The
sudacity. and at the same time the
adroitneSs and sureness, of his methods
won commentator then which today.
when the circumstances are obscured
by time, seems eXtravagant. Carl Will
liams, editor of the Oklahoma Farmer
Stockman, speaking as the president of
the American Cotton Growers Ex-
change, with 100000 farmer members,
said:
The War Finance Corporation,
under the direction of Eugene Meyer,
through its financial aid to cooperative
marketing associations and its assist
ance to country banks in agricultural
communities. has performed, in my
judgment, the greatest single service
ever rendered to the American people
by any administrative division of the
Government"
Mr.. Meyer rendered that service,
however. in a manner which certain
Senators describe as that of q Shy
lock-" Lending $500, 900 out of the
United States Treasury. he returned to
the United States Treasury 100000 900
AMI also some $4,000 900 more as in
accordingly gravely feared that such
man would Introduce "moneS-minded"
principles into the operations of the
Federal Farm Loan Board.
Fears Painfuny Justified.
The fears have been painfully
justified. Senators have found that no
amount of political influence could keep
their inefficient political friends in the
Federal Farm Loan Bureau under the
Meyer management. On one classic
occasion five United States Senators
and several members Of the House
appeared in the bureau to protect the
JOD VI OltC AiCOlupSJCHb oNlIO6l dpihCA'
He nevertheless was discharged. In two
years the whole supervision given by
the Federal Farm Loan Board to our
IL Federal land banks, our so joint
stock land banks and our IL Federal
intermediate credit banks, has been
changed from being q prey of politics
to being an engine of utterly non
political governmental business.
Oflcers OF the banks have been In
MANY instances rAplaced Some ON