Seventy-Third Annual Report 1317 



very responsible party in New York City, and do you think the 

 savings bank in Ponghkeepsie would take that mortgage? No, 

 fir. Oiw ot tlu' nu'Uibers of the finance committee said we are in 

 a very inconsistent position relative to our procedure in these 

 matters. A large percentage of the sixteen millions in this savings 

 bank is farmers' money, and we will not loan money to farmers. 

 That man wanted to buy another farm and he needed the money. 

 He had made a purchase contract to take the farm and needed 

 the money, so he said to me can you find someone here who 

 would take this mortgage. I started out to do it and went to the 

 treasurer of the savings bank first. He said, " Make an applica- 

 tion for a loan and that will bring it before our finance com- 

 mittee and we will act on it." I went to all the stores I could 

 think of, and had Mr, Sagne's advice as well and the only thing 

 I could do was to get a broker there to offer to find a purchaser 

 for this mortgage by giving a 2 per cent, brokerage fee of $70. 

 Now, that is because we lack a financial system adapted to the 

 farmers' need. 



Mr. Dillon : I have heard a great deal of discussion one time 

 and another on this financial proposition and I have heard no 

 discussion yet that was so convincing to me in the need of 

 a system of this kind as was given by Mr. Schriver in opposition 

 to the proposition. If it has come to pass that the farmers have 

 m.oney on deposit in the savings banks — and I know they have 

 — and that that money cannot be used to finance the farm but 

 that it does go to finance anything else that comes along and the 

 surplus goes down to New York to speculate with in Wall Street 

 and to create artificial value for stocks, paper certificates there 

 that have no value in themselves, then I think it is nearly time 

 that we have the machinerv or instrumentalities bv which we 

 could accumulate that money in our own centers, near our homes, 

 and in exchange for that money give to the holders of it and the 

 owners of it and the men and the women who have worked all 

 their lives to save it — just give them a little return for it, let 

 them buy the debentures and put them* away and make them as 

 safe and as sound as the best government bond you can possibly 

 print. Now that is all there is of this. We are not bringing 

 this as a cloak to throw over some one, and we are not bringing it 



