PROCEEDINGS CORN BELT MEAT PRODUCERS' ASSN. 5S3 



The President: I think, gentlemen, we will have to close this 

 discussion at this time. The next speaker on our program is Mr. 

 L. A. Andrew, who is president of the Iowa Farm Credit Corpora- 

 tion, and formerly president of the Iowa Bankers' Association. Mr. 

 Andrew has been before former conventions and meetings of this 

 kind on a number of occasions, and I think it is hardly worth while 

 for me to introduce him in the ordinary way, as most of you know 

 of Mr. Andrew, if you haven't met him personally. So at this time 

 I will introduce Mr. Andrew for a talk on "Farm Finances." 



FARM FINANCES 



L. A. Andrew. 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the Corn Belt Meat Producers' Associa- 

 tion: I am very glad to be here today, because the bankers of Iowa have 

 had a direct personal interest in the Corn Belt Meat Producers' Associa- 

 tion for quite a few years. You men throughout the state of Iowa are large 

 users of credit. It is you men who have built up Iowa farms. You are 

 men who have a fundamental idea that Iowa land is not going to last for- 

 ever if it is being mined, and the rest of the people are going to get that 

 idea before many years. I was talking with a farmer from Scotland the 

 other day and he said he couldn't understand Iowa; the greatest thing he 

 found over here was not our farm equipment, our farm buildings, as won- 

 derful as they were, nor farm implements, or anything of that kind, but 

 our farm land. He said before they started a crop over there they had 

 to use so much fertilizer that it took practically half of the proceeds of 

 that crop to pay for the fertilizer, and here, he said, you don't seem to pay 

 any attention to the land, at all, just keeping on putting in crop after 

 crop; but there is an end to that and you men who run farms where feed- 

 ing is done extensively, are the ones who are building up Iowa land. 



The bankers of the state have their difficulties, too, which in the main 

 is probably best illustrated by this story — it is a banker's story and copy- 

 righted: It seems that a Spencer banker came to Des Moines a few 

 weeks ago and in going by a dark alley he was attacked by a yegg. The 

 banker was quite husky and they fought up and down the street for a time, 

 and finally the yegg hit the banker on the head with a billy and he went 

 down. In going through the banker's pockets the yegg found an Ingersoll 

 watch and 37 cents. Since this happened in Des Moines, the yegg sat 

 down and waited for the banker to come to. When he regained conscious- 

 ness, he sat up and rubbed the dirt and blood out of his eyes, spat out a 

 tooth or two, and then noticing the yegg sitting there he said, "Well, you 

 got all of my money, didn't you?" "Yes," replied the yegg, "I got all your 

 money and your watch, but I just wanted to know why in hell you put up 

 such a fight for 37 cents and an Ingersoll watch?" And the banker said, 

 "It's because I didn't w^ant to reveal my financial condition." (Laughter.) 



One other copyrighted story that I want to get off my chest is of a scene 

 laid at Red Oak. The president of a private bank was attending a po- 

 litical convention and he was surprised to find, when he looked out over 



