STATUS OF AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISE 239 



the financial distress of farmers. Senator Gooding, 

 for example, directed attention to the relatively 

 small number of bank failures in the manufacturing 

 sections of the country compared with the number 

 in the agricultural states. From 1920 to 1925 there 

 were 13 bank failures in the New England States; 

 there were 32 in New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Delaware, Maryland, and District of Colum- 

 bia; the number increased to 583 in Virginia, West 

 Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 

 Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, 

 Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee; to 435 in Wis- 

 consin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, and to 1141 

 in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, 

 Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and 

 Oklahoma. There were 2475 bank failures between 

 1920 and 1925. Most of this number occurred in 

 agricultural states where bankers were financing 

 farmers or in agricultural sections of industrial 

 states. 3 It is quite obvious from these figures that 

 there was a high correlation between the financial 

 distress of agricultural production and the number 

 of bank failures. 



The Causes of Farm Distress 



It seems, therefore, that there is ample justifica- 

 tion for assuming that a farm problem actually 



8 Congressional Record, Vol. 67, No. 152 for June 11, 1926. 

 Also see Congressional Record, Vol. 67, No. 136 for May 22, 

 1926. 



