Evening star., 1933-08-20
BY HENRY MORGENTHAU. JR..

BY HENRY MORGENTHAU. JR..
Governor of the Farm Credit Administration.
TINE Farm Credit Administration
is new agency of the National
Government created by an exec
i utive order signed by President
Roosevelt on March 81 and ef-
fective two months later. Its plan OF
organization and its functions were fur
ther defined by an act OF Congress
passed at the very close of the history
making special session of 1888 and
signed by the President on June IL.
It is not to be classed as an 'emer-
gency" organization. 1t Is not tenn
porary device solely to meet national
crisis, but it is planned for permanency.
Nevertheless it has an important part
to play in the administrations pro-
gram for national recovery, for building
a new prosperity on firmer basis.
Since 1916 the Federal Government
has been assuming an increasingly i'm
portant role in financing the farmer.
1t was in that year that the Federal
Land Bank system was launched. There
followed in 1923 creation of the Federal
intermediate Credit Banks. which put
the Government into the field of pro-
duction credit Calamities in the form
of drought and floods broughts acts of
Congress for direct loans to farmers
in small amounts which in the last
three years have been distributed on
Q Nationwide basis.
New Rural Credit Banks.
The failure of country banks liter
ally by the thousands and the "freez-
ing" of credits caused the creation last
year of new form of rural credit
banks for direct loans, the Regional
Agricultural Credit Corporations. There
are II of these and 81 branches. which
are in effect separate banks. All these
deal with credit to individual farmers,
but another angency, the Federal Farm
Board, was created to promote cooper
ative enterprises and to stabilize mar
kets for farm products.
Four divisions of the Government ad-
ministered these five farm loan activi-
ties before the creation of the Farm
Credit Administration, which has taken
over all of them with commission to
put them all together into perma-
nent unified system of Federal farm
credit, which will meet agricultural
needs in a more satisfactory way.
am very confident that we can do
this Our problem and our program
are in three parts: Land mortgage
credit. production, credit and credit for
co-operatives.
LII ldIlu ulOItSdSt ClCull lllCAC ID o4A
emergency of heavy debt. high interest
rates. foreclosures and threatened fore
closures Congress, at the Presidents
request dealt with this through the
emergency farm mortgage act of 1888.
This provides Government guaranty OF
interest on 81 900 600 600 of Land Bank
bonds bearing per cent interest, re-
duces interest on farm mortgages given
to Federal Land Banks and underwrit-
ten by farm loan associations to Az
per cent. and grants five-year mora
to-ium on principal payments. 1t also
provides S200000,000 for supplemental
loans by the Land Bank commissioner
to pay off menacing debts or to buy
back land lost through foreclosure.
Activities Extended.
The land banks hold just over ST.
900 900 900 out of s8,500,000.000 of
farm mortgages 1t is not anticipated
that they will be asked to take over
the whole remainder, but they now
have resources to deal with eligible ap-
plicants. The number of these is in