CHAPTER XXII 

 THE FARMER AND THE BANKER 



Up to the passage of the Farm Loan act for the 

 advancement of money to farmers at low rates of 

 interest and on long-term mortgages the farmer was 

 in an almost hopeless position in so far as credit 

 was concerned. But the Farm Loan act offers no 

 reHef to the would-be farmer who wants to buy 

 land nor yet to the tenant who has no real estate 

 to offer as security. 



Credit is as vital to agriculture as it is to industry. 

 The farmer must borrow a part of the purchase 

 price to acquire his land. He must borrow to build, 

 to drain, to clear, to improve. He must borrow 

 for farm implements, to plant his crop, and even 

 to pay wages for harvesting. But the whole fab- 

 ric of credit, with the exception of the reHef now 

 available to owning farmers through the farm-loan 

 banks, is organized against the farmer. He is 

 more discriminated against than any class of bor- 

 rowers. Yet a properly organized system of bank- 

 ing would make the promotion of agriculture a 

 matter of first concern. Credit in the United 

 States is so controlled that the interests which need 

 credit the least command it most readily and on 



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