fly
MH't
A:
n JJj
M
.4 V
'"V?...
-4
V
I
-TV
-7
David Lubin, the Noted Expert, Tells
Money Makes the Mare Go and
armersMold-theJEhi& Mand:
How
Our
MEN the- old - farmer, who
owned the old mare, struck oil
on the old farm and saw the
it in oats to the old gray mare.
Crippled, bound, gagged and
robbed by the existing system of
rural credit, the American farmer
nevertheless has in his lands well
springs of riches which he can tap
til
tour Europe in May of next year and report in '
detail on the systems of credit in successful operv .
ation there. State legislatures are to be looked to . "
for the $1200 expenses of their individual dele
gates, and their presiding officer ia to be sought
in a national department head, like the secretary
of commerce and labor or of agriculturer.- -4-
Pending this comprehensive and direct study
of the problem, the American ambtasadors in fira
of the leading countries of Europe are now undef
instructions to report fully on rural credit systems
as they come within their individual scope of -
? inquiry. , x,
So this matter f money to make the mars
. a (Totimllw cpttlprl iihrnad and so
heedlessly neglected at home, bids fair to be forced
upon the attention of the American farmer; he
may be compelled, fo'.lijj a?1 capitalist in spite of
himself. " .
"Jt me strike the keynote of all money value
at the outset," observed Mr, Lubin, as a Preface
to hiff 'explanation of rural credit in the United
fitfites. "The American farmer doesn't need cheap
money so much as he needs dynamic money. There
are really two kinds of money static and dynamic
Monev in static form ia immobile, dead.
"The traditional farm' mortgage Is statio :
nionev, the loan of a fixed amount for a fixed
period. Mortgage calls for mortgage until it re
duces any business to, bankruptcy.
"Money in dynamicform is free money, erery
dollar of it in constant, dynamic, energetic pro
ductive use. The department store that had to
.. .ir,a nrmild hn forced into
W borrow its money cm "ifts" -.- 4
rkruptoy within a few months. It u i one of
1 the miracles of agricu ture's fniRJtj and econ- .
, .i . j troon on fallimr all arouno,
omy inai ruiu uuwu
lilce hail. , , .
"The conditions in farm finance in this country -today
parallol those-in American trade frTB
ago. Manufacturers and retailers were working on
the static dollar bams; the jobber was the only man
who.bfld,-n4 used, the dyinio r
master of the situation, and our inarm faotniwi wert
largely shoddy -clothes and paper-soled shoes.
FIGHT FOR, BIO STORES
"When in the seventies, the American 'depart,
ment store entered the arena to do business m t
cash basis its exponents ere able to go direcUy
to the manufacturers and obtain ""tl '
qualitv and markedly lower prices. The aerAantl
who bought on credit through tl hide-andtalloj
Tkinning line of jobbers were readily surpassed and
.iiistantlyjundersold. -
"That terrific fight, in whicTi the johhmg inter
rsts cmploved the boycott mercilessly on the manu
facturers "who dared sell to good customers for
rash, is still warm in the memory of American
trade and industry. But the economic principle
back of the innovators was so unassailably sound
that, in the end.- the-jobbing cohorts j col-
lapsed. Their one dependable ally-dynamio
money, live money, ready money, reaj .oney-wM
in the hands of their antagonists; th strnggto
could not have ended otherwise. Under its modern
system the United States is now producing the best
poods in the world at the lowest prices. In itt
exports it has not only set its pnp on the markets
of the world for sewing machines, agnertrawl - -implements
and machinery but for "JJ
ana countless specialties, and all we need f Ph--to
establish abroad the nowledgment f out
excellence in garments, hardware, 1 blankets and
, . ii -ii -ii tt-ma nf mprehandise. Witn
gejaittswdpoweravab
"The rendition of trade and the static, dead
far
tfie
luxury, lus neighbors made pels on ins
t. ... ,A fjou mnved from wine-obencr
Tint the. fir it thin? he did was bv a ximfile ioininv of his credit
tv iinjt-i - o- j T r o i
buy ten bushels of oats; and when, a month with his neighbors!? The most help-i-.i-
i. . j . Mai xtrfrt in hlnrk lest debtor in the world todav. the
later, tie aiuvc uuw - ,
broadcloth behind his o4 nag, leaving, a farmer actually holds the whtp hpd
r fellows at the store o " present-usurious snyiacKs; an
ft
trail of dust behind, the
yelled to hmtr
"Hey, Hit It takes oats to make the
mare go, don't it?" " ' .
But old Hiram yelled back:
"It's money makes the mare go, boys.
I had it all the time, only I didn krww it."
David Lubin, the delegate dJ the
United States in the International Institute
of Agriculture, who has devoted years to
ike tromotidn of the industry on which all
he need do is use it.
What is more, the principles
which Mr. Lubin explains are al
ready under semipublic as well as
governmental investigation; and al
ready the answer has been made
clear as to why the formers of
Europe have all the nij$fjWy can
use at trivial rates of interest, while
the' A merican husbandman sweats
blood, prst in raising a farm mort-
'r f,c ' . ,
. . 1 . nnitii fhit the Amen
can' farmer 'stands precisely where Hiram? gage and next tn keeping it from
t -J ..JtJ Afittnrjriiret, hint
Stood before ne coinca uu uriu jcu s-...w.
A S MR. LUBIN sees it, and as millions of
I V. farmers in Germany, for example, have
proved it, the simplest, easiest thing in
; the world is for;the farmer tobecome
bis own banker, to convert himself into a cor-JlPJojj.--a
trust, if you prefer the word which
. -shall uy'Jblrajnto'ney atlhe lowest possible rates
of interest iff the very 'sdwrces and tenters of the
money .supply. . ' " v
- " There .no mystery about it, and practically
KttlA diffifnltv RiricfW. th A American fArmf.r
any farmer is at-the scant mercy of the wield
ers of capital united with others, he can bond
himself, in eommon with them, and have securi
, ties for . sale" which, are as gilt-edged in their
.'safety as the soundest railway bonds ever offered.
' Bo large a share 'of the agricultural horizon
1
- -JUCCf
is now occupied vby this question of
rural creait, Dasea on ue aDinty of the ..
American farmer to help himself, that
it looms as the ond dominani "factor in
the agricultural progress of the future.
The International Institute had had
-..comoiled very thorough studies on rural
co-operative credit1. systems in Europe
gresfi, in Jantiary, invited Mr. iibin to atWd InMr! Lubin's opinion, - based on the trend
a,XQiueren.cxuaprijUt JN asiiviilaXenn. That-- ol xpm
i'
Rico, iu uauuarjF, iuviicu jur. lyUDin to attend la iur..X(Upins opimu, wuseu on xne ireuu mai,riuuw;r a weu Ms.moiKJis wt imui ivuui.w. , -TMbin vas aa
wa9njerec6,k,4pJil4iaa BQ.j:epotted,offiiffa
conference canvassed very thoroughly the sahent ville, the evolution of the rural credit system in Institute. '-" ' , in American rur
l- : mi turn now. nownero iui
Sanity tharrin the rM U mXtTvh
TZltor; who loaned to Pter..tijdJ,
them prior to the clvu war, uu ulvu .
' . i. .i,or,rlioo hft needs and
urower 1 he fasn -aiw-'it"""" -- ,,-
Ukes for them a lien on the future crop. The
Lrower blames his small ultimate returns on, the
ftorekper apd that worthy's habit of taking his -round
of flesh; but the storekeeper is also the
vutim of this vicious system. But place our cot-
on Sowers on a cash basis by the formation of .
o" irativ" .roups which shair -JJ
individual assets into one negotiable bond, and they
are Instantly lifted from poverty and helplessness
to freedom and prosperity.
WOULD ATTRACT CAPITAL
"The formation of iuoh rural groups, offering
their collective bond as security, would attract the -attention
of capital at its principal center, of. .
rod1v The familiar 'six cents cash and twelve
rents credit' would be replaced with money fronv.
London at 3 or 4 per cent a year. The grower of
Son would secure a larger net return for his
outpul though he should sell his crop for .
SWaTrhPerpHnciple underlying all rural credit is
the same, in essence. , Co-operativeyndication of
the securities the f armers have to offer centralizing .
into one general .security, into one negotiable bond,
arm securitiehic individually are too trivial
to attract the capital whose size permits it to be
invested at low interest rates, is certain to be a ,
Sctor in the money markets of the world Capital
vould very readily .establish one of its banks to
let as intermediary tween ..different sets 'of such .
Groups The banks could honor grafts of indmd-; "
Si members on certification of the officers of the .
rural co-operative syndicate, and the bankers would ,
be relieved of the necessity of estimating as an
asset the character of either the mdindua s or tU
rural syndicate. The security offered by the syndi. .
;-xta w0uld be the element considered by the bank;
the character oi w . T
questions of rural credit and co-operation in' the the United States will .be 'first into groups of
umvcu kji.oi.co, aim ucuiucu oil it jarsi-nana inves- larmera lui-uieu- yiimnnw x-ut, jjuj.iubc ui.;w
tigation of the European systems, which ha7e' opefative' credit;, but .they, -will', then .pattern
wrought so many changes in the financial status themselves , after, the "mergers kjnown here .53
01 tne European--xarmer? especially in uermany. trusts, Dccoming trusts ttnem&eives ana acting as
distributers as well as'.makers of farm products. cern T Ml:,ra 'xpa n which narticulars thig
jtrtatrspetTOCy-Hprw eneraju4oaa. piaa-
- ;rPo m American rural couuuuiwuca.
Pa lto mmnrliotA fiitnrn however, thfl ces . . .1 j 4 t.
( v. . iWV .i Mul.. - , ; v 1 "Prpdit now IS mainly Kranieu iu uiw luuivmuai
Nashville conference contented itself with decid, . f ccoperativo credit associations," he
' representstive men from every state, who shall ; (Continued On inside face) 1(
r