THE FEEDING OF THE NATION 5 



producer, not of the consumer, but of the distribut- 

 ing agencies which have it in their power to control 

 not only prices but production as well. Unregulated 

 private banking and usury have contributed still 

 further to the disorganization which prevails, while 

 no official concern has been shown for the economic 

 foundations of agriculture, the relation of the people 

 to the land. 



The extent to which this whole subject of the feed- 

 ing of a people has been neglected is indicated by a 

 comparison with finance or industry. To-day the 

 credit of America is organized in every detail. The 

 control of our monetary resources has been so mobil- 

 ized that it is under the direction of comparatively 

 few men, subject to regulation by the Federal Re- 

 serve act. The weekly deposits of the wage-earner 

 in a distant mining-camp are effective for credit pur- 

 poses in distant China or South America as soon as 

 they are deposited. The total resources of a bank 

 in a farming community are readily mobilized for a 

 two-billion-dollar loan through the district reserve 

 cities, and from them to New York. The credit 

 resources of the country are known, as are the lia- 

 bilities. Just as the tiny stream emerging from the 

 mountain slopes of Colorado ultimately finds its way 

 to the Gulf of Mexico, so every dollar in every bank 

 in America is potentially organized for the doing of 

 the work of America every moment of time. Yet 

 credit is merely an agent, an agent for production. 



