34 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



was great. Funds were to be furnished by the Secretary of the Treasury, 

 who was directed to subscribe to capital stock in these banks, but not in 

 excess of five millions for each bank. Additional funds were to be pro- 

 vided by authorizing the Intermediate Credit Banks to issue and sell 

 collateral trust debentures. These banks were not to make loans directly 

 to the farmers; the latter formed associations and then secured loans from 

 the Intermediate Credit Banks without the help of commercial banks. 

 Funds were to be made available for "any agricultural purpose or for 

 raising, breeding, fattening, or marketing livestock." 53 



The Agricultural Credits Act also provided for the National Agricul- 

 tural Credit Corporations. Their paper was first discounted by the Inter- 

 mediate Credit Banks following an amendment to the act in 1925. These 

 credit agencies were set up to meet the special needs of the livestock in- 

 dustry and were subject to federal control; the Comptroller of the Cur- 

 rency had the same power over them that he had over the national banks. 

 But the use of these agencies was limited. After ten years of the Agri- 

 cultural Credits Act, only three National Agricultural Credit Corpora- 

 tions were established, and only one of these was intended to serve as a 

 permanent agency. The other two were emergency corporations organized 

 to enable Iowa farmers to withstand the ruinously low corn prices of 

 1926. After the emergency had lifted both corporations went into volun- 

 tary liquidation. 54 



Other legislation was passed, too. In 1923 there was an extension to the 

 Warehouse Act of 1916 increasing the number of commodities for which 

 the federal government would issue licenses to warehouses. The "filled- 

 milk" bill also became law, thus outlawing in interstate commerce the 

 shipment of milk whose fat content had been replaced in part or in whole 

 with vegetable oil. 



There were other measures for which there was some prospect of pas- 

 sage but which failed of enactment. These included the "truth-in-fabrics" 

 bill, the numerous proposals to use Muscle Shoals for the manufacture 

 of fertilizers, and the Purnell bill, which sought to increase financial 

 assistance to agricultural experiment stations. 55 



53. Baird and Benner, Ten Years of Federal Intermediate Credits, pp. 83-93. 



54. Ibid., pp. 93-103. 



55. The New International Year Boo\, 1922, pp. 24-26; Bradley, in Journal of 

 Social Forces, III (May, 1925), p. 716. 



