I. A. A. RECORD— Seivtember, 1933 



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mand is so much greater than we had 

 any conception it would be." 



IN A recent press conference at 

 Washington, Henry Morgenthau, 

 Jr., Governor of the Farm Credit 

 Administration, disclosed some of the 

 things he is up against in the farm 

 mortgage refinancing program. 



Knowledge of some of these prob- 

 lems may influence many to be less 

 critical and more, charitable toward 

 those in charge of the farm credit ma- 

 chinery. 



As Mr. Behnke of Hancock county 

 pointed out in the July RECORD, the 

 whole trouble lies in the fact that the 

 commodity price level is still far below 

 the average of 1921-1929 when most 

 farm debts were contracted. Inflation 

 and farm surplus reduction work have 

 not gone far enough yet to bring 

 sufficient relief. And land bank of- 

 ficials along with private bankers 

 are still smarting from the blows of 

 the depression which drove farm land 

 values down in many cases below the 

 face value of what a few years ago 

 were considered conservative mort- 

 gages. 



"In June and July alone we received 

 114,000 applications for loans repre- 

 senting about $400,000,000," Mr. Mor- 

 genthau told the press. "And to give 

 you something to compare with that, 

 for the last six months of last year we 

 had only 10,000 applications represent- 

 ing 145,000,000. 



"On my recent trip to Illinois, Iowa, 

 Wisconsin, Kentucky and South Caro- 

 lina, I found our boys working 18 and 

 20 hours a day to catch up on this 

 job,!' he continued. "It's a terrific job. 

 On the first of April the whole land 

 bank system had only 210 appraisers, 

 and an appraiser can do only about 

 one and one-half farms a day. On the 

 28th of July we had 803 appraisers 

 working and 802 in training. And we 

 have to build this force up to 2,500 or 

 3,000 men if we are just going to keep 

 up with the demand. 



"Everywhere I went we told the 

 people that it would be 60 to 90 days 

 until money would begin to flow into 

 these states. It would take that long 

 until they appraise and title search 

 and all that. But there are two 

 things I got out of this trip, one, 

 that the people in the banks are do- 

 ing everything humanly possible to 

 take care of this sudden deluge of 

 business. There is nobody loafing. 

 And the other thing is that the de- 



The administration, Mr. Morgenthau 

 said, is making a special campaign in 

 five states, one of which is Illinois, 

 to refinance farm mortgages and 

 loans whether held by banks or pri- 

 vate parties. In Illinois they expect 

 to have at least 100 special appraisers 

 soon at work in addition to the local 

 farm loan secretaries. The new men 

 have instructions "to take care of 

 everybody who wants his mortgage 

 refinanced whether in closed banks, 

 open banks, or no bank. Before we 

 leave a county we will take care of 

 every application from any farmer 

 who wants to be refinanced," he said. 



Speaker Rainey Favors 



Recognition of Russia 



The land banks in all the states 

 have about $90,000,000 on hand and 

 another $100,000,000 has been prom- 

 ised by the R. F. C. After this 

 money is used up in exchange for 

 mortgage paper, the Administration 

 will be forced to sell land bank bonds 

 to the public unless more loans can 

 be secured from the Reconstruction 

 Corporation. 



Applications for land bank loans 

 and so called "commissioner's" loans 

 are now being received on one blank. 

 Land bank loans at 4%% are being 

 made up to 50% of the appraised 

 normal value of the land and 20% of 

 the buildings, Mr. Morgenthau said. 

 Commissioner loans are made on 

 second mortgages on land and on 

 chattels up to 75% of the appraised 

 value. The Credit Administration has 

 opened an office in the State House 

 at Springfield, 111. and is working 

 with the State banking department 

 particularly in refinancing frozen 

 paper held by State banks. 



Qualify Milk Ass'n. 



Sells New Dealers 



THE Quality Milk Association is 

 supplying three additional milk 

 distributors on the Quad-Cities 

 market, and reports that it now has 

 approximately 50 per cent of the local 

 fluid milk outlet. 



The association recently boosted its 

 price to the dealers to 95 cents per 

 cwt. Members of the Quality Milk As- 

 sociation are now receiving a higher 

 price for milk than the outlying pro- 

 ducers who are supplying non-co-op- 

 erating dealers. The price to the con- 

 sumer continues at six cents per quart. 

 A protest against extension of the 

 Quad-City milk shed beyond the limits 

 of the trade territory was voiced at 

 the last meeting of the board of di- 

 rectors. 



Devaluation of Gold Necessary 



For Higher Price Level, 



Says Pearson 



HENET T. BAIKEY 



SPEAKER of the House Henry T. 

 Rainey of Illinois, a member of 

 the Greene County Farm Bureau 

 and the I. A. A., declared in a recent 

 address before the International Apple 

 Association in Chicago that the Roose- 

 velt administration expected to re-es- 



tablish price 

 levels at or near 

 those for the year 

 1926. 



Congress man 

 Rainey asserted 

 that devaluation 

 of the dollar is the 

 quickest and most, 

 effective way to 

 restore the 1926 

 level of prices. 



He also urged 

 rec og n i t i o n of 

 Russia to stimulate export trade and 

 provide an outlet for American prod- 

 ucts. Russia is one of the few nations 

 in the world which has not lifted tariff 

 barriers against the United States. 



"Russia needs everjrthing we pro- 

 duce," he said, "and we should not 

 continue to withhold recognition from 

 the country whose government has 

 been in power for 14 years and which 

 today has a strong central authority." 

 Prof. F. A. Pearson of Cornell Uni- 

 versity whose immediate superior. Dr. 

 Geo. F. Warren, is close to the Roose- 

 velt administration, expressed the be- 

 lief that substantial increases in farm 

 commodity prices would not be 

 brought about until the administra- 

 tion definitely acted to reduce the 

 value of gold. He asserted that the 

 nation's attempt to manage the price 

 level is fully justified and will not re- 

 sult in wild inflation. 



"Devaluation of the dollar is the 

 simplest way to restore commodity 

 prices," he said. "But this will not in- 

 sure the future stability of that price 

 level. Stability can only be accom- 

 plished by varying the price of gold." 



The Reconstruction Finance Cor- 

 poration recently announced that it 

 will finance the cotton option program 

 of the Agricultural Adjustment Ad- 

 ministration for 2% per cent. The 

 R. F. C. originally offered Secretary 

 Wallace money at four per cent but 

 he turned down the R. F. C.'s offer 

 and obtained $30,000,000 at 2% and 

 2% per cent from commercial banks 

 in New York City. 



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