Seventy-Third Annual Report 1287 



Wall Street and the present unfair system of Americun financial 

 operations. They must be placed in possession of a system of 

 finance made possible through the liquification of their own assets 

 and under their own control and operation. 



ASSEMBLING A COMMISSION 



The Southern Commercial Congress, with headquarters at 

 Washington, D. C, is now actively engaged in assembling a com- 

 mission of two delegates from each state to go to Europe in April 

 and make a careful and thorough investigation of the rural bank- 

 ing systems which have been in such successful operation in 

 foreign countries. This movement has the endorsement of the 

 United States Senate, the President of the United States and the 

 governors of the various states in the union. 



Many of the states have already acted upon this matter and 

 have appointed delegates and secured the necessary appropria- 

 tions for expenses. I feel assured that this state will be fully 

 represented on the commission. 



The time consumed in the investigation will be three months, 

 and the average expense per delegate will be about $1,200. It is 

 now practically assured that nearly every state in the union will 

 be represented on the commission. 



The American ambassadors to the various European countries 

 will give every possible cooperation to the committee during the 

 time of the investigation. 



WANT OF COOPERATIVE EFFORT 



As an evidence of the absence of cooperative effort and the 

 imperative need of some system of sound finance to aid the 

 farmers in marketing their products, I desire to call your atten- 

 tion to the crops of cotton produced in the South during the years 

 1910 and 1911. The crop of 1910, amounting to 11,500,000 

 bales, sold in the markets for $903,000,000. The crop of 1911, 

 nearly 16,000,000 bales, sold for only $860,000,000. The crop of 

 1911, although 35 per cent, larger than the crop of 1910, sold for 

 $103,000,000, or 10 per cent, less than the smaller crop. 



An absence of cooperative effort and inability to market the 

 crop of 1911 according to an intelligent and business-like system 



