RURAL CREDITS JOINT HEARINGS BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEES OF THE OF THE SENATE AND OF THE CHARGED WITH THE INVESTIGATION Sixty-third Congress, Second Session PRINTED FOR THE USE OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY. WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1914 SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY, UNITED STATES SENATE. HENRY F. HOLLIS, New Hampshire, Chairman. BLAIR LEE, Maryland. COE I. CRAWFORD, South Dakota. SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Breitung, Edward N., mining engineer, Marquette, Mich.. LIST OF WITNESSES. Ady, Abel, Klamath Falls, Oreg.. Alexander, H. Q., physician and farmer, Matthews, N. C.. Bathrick, Hon. Ellsworth R., Member of Congress from Ohio Brooks, Prof. T. J., Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi.. Page. 429, 964 280 969 260 570 858 319 240 Coulter, John Lee, secretary United States Commission to Investigate and 151, 830 Cunningham, John, farmer, Granville, Ohio. 599 Doak, W. B., farmer, Clifton Station, Va.. 662 Daniel, T. Cushing, financial writer, Washington, D. C... 764 Fletcher, Duncan U., Senator from Florida Hill, John Sprunt, Durham, N. C........... Fischer, George, secretary Northwest Land & Home Builders' Union, Redfield, Hulings, Hon. Willis J., Member of Congress from Pennsylvania. Lennox, John, Colorado Springs, Colo.. Mobley, H. S., farmer, Prairie Grove, Ark.. Morris, Arthur J., lawyer and banker, Norfolk, Va.. Moss, Hon. Ralph W., Member of Congress from Indiana.. 134 1 442 947 784 608, 682 557 940 928 305, 313 686 717 69, 889 Myrick, Herbert, president Orange Judd Co., Springfield, Mass Norris, Hon. George W., Senator from Nebraska.. Norton, Hon. Patrick D., Member of Congress from North Dakota 513, 965 915 952 405 799 Ryan, William A., comptroller, Reclamation Service, Washington, D. C. Robinson, Leonard G., general manager Jewish Agricultural Industrial Aid Scudder, S. D., banker, New York, N. Y........ 537 932 217, 438, 825 Shibley, George H., director American Bureau of Political Research, Washington, D. C... RURAL CREDITS. FEBRUARY 16, 1914. UNITED STATES SENATE, The subcommittees assembled in joint session at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Henry F. Hollis presiding. Present: Senator Lee and Messrs. Bulkley, Brown, Stone, Seldomridge, Weaver, Hayes, Woods and Platt. Present also: Senator Robert L. Owen, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency. Senator HOLLIS. Senator Fletcher, will you state your connection with the subject of rural credits up to this time, for the record? STATEMENT OF HON. DUNCAN U. FLETCHER, A SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA. Senator FLETCHER. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee: As president of the Southern Commercial Congress, I had some correspondence with Mr. David Lubin, the American delegate to the International Institute of Agriculture, with headquarters in Rome, Italy, and Mr. Lubin brought this subject to my attention, and I invited him to come to our next convention in Nashville, Tenn., in April, 1912, to discuss the subject there. Mr. Lubin replied that if we would get the consent of the State Department granting him leave of absence and assemble representatives of the different States, and give him a week there, he would be glad to come; that he did not feel like he could cross the ocean merely to make a speech at the convention. It was a good-sized undertaking, but we started into do that, and finally we got leave of absence, throught Secretary Knox, for Mr. Lubin, and we succeeded in assembling representatives from 27 States in Nashville; and Mr. Lubin came and brought all the data that he had been collecting for years, practically ever since he succeeded in establishing that international institute of agriculture, which was in 1905; and they spent six days in Nashville, studying the subject there under the guidance of Mr. Lubin. And at our convention Mr. Lubin delivered his address, and a resolution was adopted calling on the Southern Commercial Congress to assemble a commission, to be composed of two qualified and representative men from each State, if possible, for the purpose of going to Europe and studying the various systems in operation in those countries for the benefit of agriculture primarily. It was a good, big contract, but the resolution was adopted by our convention, and we went to work to carry it out as far as possible. I rather protested at the time that the commission was too large. 37031-14 -1 1 |