AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES 969 



Land Banks (not the associations) were to have power to issue, 

 subject to the approval of the Federal Reserve Board, and to sell 

 farm-loan bonds at a rate of interest on such bonds not to exceed 

 5 per cent. The trustees of the postal savings banks were directed 

 to employ in the purchase of farm-loan bonds, if they could be 

 obtained below par, the funds withdrawn from postal savings 

 depositories ; and they might use their discretion in purchasing 

 them at par. It was further provided that the Secretary of the 

 Treasury, on application from one or more of the Federal Land 

 Banks, should purchase from the Land Banks farm-loan bonds 

 not previously issued or sold, in an amount not to exceed 

 $50,000,000 in any one year. Varied and far-reaching powers of 

 supervision were given to the Federal Reserve Board. 



This bill should have met the approval of those who believed 

 that the Moss-Fletcher Bill did not go far enough. It was 

 certainly not a bankers' bill, because all chance for private 

 initiative and all possibility of profit were shut out. Moreover, 

 there was a superabundance of federal supervision and financial 

 assistance. But this federal assistance was made dependent on 

 the formation by private initiative of farm-loan associations and 

 the bill carefully removed all incentive to such action. 



The administration, however, soon let it be known that it 

 was unalterably opposed to the granting of financial aid by the 

 federal government, and all attempts to put through a rural- 

 credits bill were abandoned for the current session. 



A perusal of the numerous bills presented and of the volumi- 

 nous reports of the hearings must convince one that there is an 

 utter lack of adequate information as to the actual credit needs 

 of the farmer and of the extent to which existing agencies are 

 supplying them. And moreover, when one studies the measures 

 in detail he discovers that instead of profiting by the experience 

 of Europeans our legislators have proposed measures which these 

 have avoided or abandoned. Credit agencies in great variety have 

 come into being in the United States to meet the demands of 

 an undeveloped, unstandardized agriculture. The evils of this 

 lack of credit organization have been greatly exaggerated, but the 

 time has probably come for more organization. Such organization 



