The Bulletin. 115 



pleasing to me, therefore, to note in these hitter days that bankers generally 

 throughoiit the country are spending their money and giving their time to the 

 development of the farming interests. 



Do you wonder why this is so? Shall I claim for them a motive entirely 

 free from selflshuess? I will not. I need not. The banker is not unlike the 

 rest of mankind. He likes to see affairs prosper in his hands, and while 

 perhaps as altruistic as the average man, yet when we see him organizing 

 his forces and spending his bank's money in large sums we may safely con- 

 clude that behind such action is something more than a desire to see the 

 farmer increase his yield of corn or cotton. There is another motive — perhaps 

 a selfish one, but if so, a kind of selfishness that is justifiable, and even 

 praiseworthy. He seeks the largest success for the farmer because thus he 

 secures the largest success for himself, and for the entire conunuuity. I say 

 to you, then, in all seriousness and sincerity, the bankers of North Carolina 

 and the bankers of the Nation ai'e interested in you and want to work with 

 you and for your best interests and for the best interests of the whole coun- 

 try. Many of the State Bankers' Associations, like that of North Carolina, 

 have appointed committees to facilitate this work, and the American Bankers' 

 Association itself, with its more than twelve thousand bank members, has 

 declai-ed its interest by the appropriation of cash and the appointment of a 

 committee of seven, of which I happen to be a memlier. 



Last year one member of this committee spent several months in France 

 and Germany investigating their methods of financing and developing the 

 rural sections, and to-day two members of the committee are abroad pursuing 

 the same line of study. Governor Hedrick of Ohio, the Ambassador to France, 

 is a men)ber of the committee and is doing good service. Under sanction of 

 the Government, he has a young mssi making special investigation of this 

 subject. Two great lines of helpfulness are now being considered — that of 

 Development and that of Finance. 



The wonderful work of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, continued now by his worthy 

 sou, was an eye-opener to the bankers, and it required no prophet's eye to see 

 that if the lands could be made, as he made them, by intelligent handling, 

 to increase their yield two and three and fourfold, that as sure as the day 

 follows the night, so surely would there come larger deposits for the banks, 

 larger trade for the merchants, greater demands on the manufacturer, and 

 substantial increase in values of all property. 



So the banlvcrs are vitally interested in the betterment of your soil and the 

 improvement of your methods, and hence their willingness to offer prizes for 

 bo.vs' corn clubs, and their interest in the promotion of the agricultural schools, 

 and in that line of work inaugurated and operated so successfully by Dr. 

 Knapp, carrying the school to the farm, and making it an object-lesson to the 

 neighborhood. 



To the practical, everyday man in the field, instruction and actual help in 

 preparing the soil, in selecting and planting the seed, and in attention while 

 growing, is worth a whole .vear's study of text-books, although these may be 

 full of good suggestions. 



The bankers believe that this work of demonstration should be extended, 

 and their committees are urging the passage of one of the bills now before 

 Congress, making provision for more extended work along this line. 



The other phase of this work which is of special interest to our section is 

 that of finance, and it is this feature particularly which is being studied by 

 the two members of the American Bankers' Committee now abroad. The 

 farmers of the South have long been at a disadvantage because of their lack 

 of proper facilities for holding and marketing their crops. They have been 

 almost forced to rush their main money crop on the market within a period of 

 three or four months, and have thus made it easy for speculators to put the 

 price up or down as might best suit their own plans. 



Much has been said recently about monetary reform, and there is urgent 

 need for it in this country. ]\Iany plans have been proposed, but none yet 

 perfected. It is certain, however, that no system of finance can ever liecome 

 effective that does not embrace in its scope the needs of the agricultural 

 sections, that is not built upon the idea that back of all commerce, back of 

 all banking, back of all manufacturing, back of all industry, lies agriculture — 

 the real basis of all prosperity. 



