their operating in real sympathy with their true purpose; i. e., to make crops bring growers a fair price. When the Dane brings his pig to the cooperative bacon factory within two or three days he gets 90 per cent of its value in cash. "Farmers, as a class, are neither better nor worse than other folks. But their interest is the largest interest. If there be a conflict between that interest and any other interest the other interest should yield."-Abe Lincoln's only agricultural address. Did bankers yield? Not a bit on the contrary they succeeded in taking away from us our own banking machinery, i. e., Federal land banks. Last commission (United States Senators and Congressmen) reported a conflict between farming and bankers over length of loans. Cattlemen particularly suffer severely, so conclusion it reached, as evidenced by legislation, was embodied in this intermediate credits act (amending Federal farm loan act), see page 3, paragraph C. But as we were cheated out of cooperative control of Federal land banks so we are also cheated out of any general relief as promised by that administration. I am not asking any favor-only demanding justice-confident of being able to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling and cooperation. It is quite unreasonable and unjust to expect crop growers to continue maintaining all this extra machinery for handling and standardizing crops just to be sold out ahead of all big advances; so that profits after all go largely to speculators. Present speculative control of banking means the eventual failure of commodity marketing associations. Universal experience demonstrates the necessity for cooperative banks for cooperative business. However, the need among cooperators for their own banking institutions was felt for years. The history of Danish cooperation reveals many difficulties experienced by the farmers in financing a new cooperative enterprise, especially large associations. The limited capacity of the savings institutions often prevented them from supplying the larger amounts of capital required by the larger central cooperative organizations. Frequently, where a new, large, cooperative enterprise was to be financed the private banks lent money with great reluctance and demanded unreasonable security. The need for a cooperative banking institution was strongly advocated by the cooperative leaders at the close of the last century. Besides an available supply of money, the larger cooperative associations would also benefit by the earnings of their large banking transactions, when conducted through their own cooperative banking institution, it was argued. The CHAIRMAN. The intermediate credits act, of course, comes under the Committee on Banking and Currency, and is a matter over which this committee does not have jurisdiction. Your suggestion should be presented to that committee. The committee will now adjourn until to-morrow at 10 o'clock. (Thereupon, at 12.05 p. m., the committee adjourned until tomorrow, Thursday, February 12, 1925, at 10 o'clock a. m.) |