PROCEEDINGS CORN BELT MEAT PRODUCERS' ASSN. 575 



that the Federal Reserve Board had sufficient reserves to have extended 

 $2,000,000,000 more of credit than it did before it started to deflate prices 

 in this country. Mr. Barron is authority for the statement that with an 

 85 per cent reserve in this bank, which is three or four times as great 

 as that carried by other countries, we have more than 100 cents of gold 

 behind every dollar in circulation in this country. We have over one- 

 half of the gold of the entire world stored in the vaults of the treasury. 

 Gentlemen, deflation would never have taken place, there would not have 

 been this pinch put uion the agricultural interests of the country, if the 

 farmers had taken larger interest in public matters — if they had taken 

 as much interest in those things as they took in the routine of the farm, 

 and I want to urge you gentlemen, tonight, of the Corn Belt Meat Pro- 

 ducers' Association to take a larger interest in business affairs, and I 

 want you to take a larger interest in the political economy of this great 

 American republic. I am very glad that Mr. Crerar is leading the move- 

 ment in Canada. At the recent general election all of the western prov- 

 inces of Canada selected farmer delegates to their parliament. And in 

 this country I want to see all of the farmer bloc preserved in congress 

 until all of these things have been secured for the farmer, and it will 

 not be preserved if we fail to give it our whole-hearted support. This is 

 a serious time for the world. This readjustment is not going to take 

 place in a day or a week. Do you know that in the last three years since 

 the war that the nations of the world have inflated or increased the debt 

 of the world by $200,000,000,000? All that has taken place since 1918. 

 The inflated currency, promises to pay, and issues of bonds, have equaled 

 $200,000,000,000, and the debt of the world is over $400,000,000,000, on 

 which the interest payment is $15,000,000,000 a year, and Mr. Barron says 

 there is nothing for them to do but repudiate. It took us thirty-one years 

 after the Civil war to secure any sort of financial readjustment. That is 

 not going to be a ripple compared to what we will see if something isn't 

 done soon with these war burdens. I have been through two money 

 panics, but they have not affected the Mississippi valley; but the read- 

 justment of the world is not going to take place in a hurry, and you 

 want to be prepared for it. 



I hope that the leaders of the farmer movement in this country will 

 take a larger and larger interest in public affairs, and I hope for the 

 future of American democracy, for the future experiment we are trying 

 to make of freedom in this great country, that the patriotism of the 

 American farmer is going to be put more and more in control of our 

 affairs. No people will lose or be at a disadvantage that is ruled by its 

 farmers. Farmers never started a war, but they have fought every one 

 of them to a finish. The farm population of this country will preserve 

 democracy and right. Nothing would be better for America than that 

 the farm people of this country should have the controlling voice in our 

 public affairs, and that is my word to you tonight. (Applause.) 



The President : I am sure that we appreciate the words that have 

 come from both Dr. Pearson and Mr. Ingham, and while we regret 

 that the governor could not have been with us to address us tonight, 



