240 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



KLAMATH WATER USERS PLAN FARM BANK 



ABEL ADY 



Midland. Off 



By ABEL ADY 



(President of the Klamath Water Users' Association) 



MEMBERS of the Klamath Water Users' Asso- 

 ciation have organized their first co-operative 

 creamery. Others will be formed. 



Sentiment is very strong among the Federal 



Water Users on the 

 Klamath project for the 

 organization of a co- 

 op e r a t i v e farmers' 

 bank. 



The Water Users 

 are also considering 

 the establishment of co- 

 operative warehouses, 

 flour and feed mills, a 

 cold storage and ware- 

 house and co-operative 

 buying and selling of 

 all commodities. 



Most, if not all, of 

 these activities will be 

 handled through the 

 Klamath Water Users' 

 Association, one of the 

 most active of the Fed- 

 eral project organizations. 



The settlers on the Klamath project are awak- 

 ening rapidly to the necessity of co-operation for 

 mutual protection. They are especially interested 

 in the creation of their own bank from which they 

 can obtain money at a fair rate of interest. 



Experience has demonstrated that twenty-five 

 per cent of the deposits being held in reserve in the 

 banks will take care of daily checks, resulting from 

 business contingencies. The remaining seventy-five 

 per cent of the deposits can be held in reserve for 

 contingency loans to the farmers who have no 

 deposits. 



This can be accomplished by a fair system of 

 private banks receiving farmers' deposits. When 

 the farmers' deposits are withheld from loans to 

 farmers who need temporary loans, the result be- 

 comes an outrage upon the entire farming com- 

 munity. 



The deposits in private banks on the Klamath 

 project aggregate one-half million dollars, of which 

 a large percentage is farmers' money, and yet the 

 farmers who have no deposits can not secure loans 

 from these banks at less than ten per cent interest, 

 and few farmers are able to secure loans at any 

 rate or on any security. 



The cattle and grain buyers and other mid- 

 dle men secure loans from the private banks 

 up to the limit permitted by law, and the farmer, 

 being unable to borrow money for his necessary 

 uses, must sell his cattle, grain and farm produce 

 to the middlemen at rates that are nothing short of 

 legal robbery. 



These conditions would not be so open to con- 

 demnation were it not for the fact that the middle- 



men drive their usurious bargains through forced 

 sales from farmers, with the use of farmers' money 

 borrowed from private bankers, while farmers are 

 unable to borrow money at any rate. 



This combination of bankers and middlemen 

 has exploited our settlers until many of them are 

 lying awake nights reckoning the time when they 

 will have to give up their farms. 



The extension of time of payment of construc- 

 tion charges by the government will not save the 

 farms for the farmers unless the grip of bankers and 

 middlemen is torn from the farmers' throats by 

 co-operation of the farmers in banking, marketing 

 and buying together with co-operative packing 

 houses, flour and feed mills, and other enterprises 

 for preparing the farm products for delivery direct 

 to the retailers. 



The desperate struggle of the money sharks, 

 middlemen and other exploiters to prevent the 

 farmer from getting on his feet through co-opera- 

 tion is the best possible evidence that the farmers 

 are making attempts along the right lines, and our 

 settlers have sufficient horse sense and grit to con- 

 tinue the struggle and complete their needed self- 

 protection by mutual co-operation in all their finan- 

 cial affairs. 



The exploiters are thoroughly organized into 

 banks, lumber companies, power companies and all 

 manner of associations for successfully farming the 

 farmers, and the farmers must organize for self- 

 protection or become serfs. 



The farmer is beginning to exercise the gray 

 matter of his own brain in the administration of his 

 own affairs instead of delegating such affairs to the 

 most successful exploiter. 



The farmer can more safely farm his own affairs 

 than to delegate them to those. who have become 

 rich by farming the farmers. 



The organized exploiters do not use dynamite, 

 but their subtle game is more successful than any 

 dynamite method ever employed. 



Our defense is co-operation in our own affairs. 



INGOT IRON INVADES ENGLAND 



The Amercan Rolling Mill Co., of Middletown < >.. 

 has invaded England. George H. Charts, director 

 of sales, and R. B. Carnahan, vice-president and 

 chief metallurgist, have succeeded in closing up two 

 license contracts, under which the Shelton Iron, 

 Steel & Coal Co., of Stoke-on-Trent, and Richard 

 Johnson & Xephew. Ltd., of Manchester, secure the 

 privilege of using the American Rolling Mill Com- 

 pany's method of producing Ingot Iron. 



ASK STATE TO BUY IRRIGATION BONDS 



The Irrigation District Association of Califor- 

 nia has begun the circulation of petitions to place 

 before the voters next November an amendment to 

 the state constitution, providing for the purchase of 

 irrigation bonds by the state. 



