1916 Volume 41 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

26 THE SCROLLpioneer in the movement. Representing as he does an agricultural State, hekeenly felt the injustice which the existing banking laws allowed to fall uponthat most important class which farms the land and produces the fundamentalsupon which all other classes of the community depend.After a vigorous agitation of the evil, the Southern Commercial Congress,under the leadership of Senator Fletcher, appointed a commission to studyEuropean methods of financing the farming interest. The Congress of theUnited States took like action, and the commissions, both appointed by PresidentWilson, toured European countries in 1913, making a very careful investigationinto the rural land credit banks which form so great a part of the financialsystem of Continental countries.The immediate result was the Fletcher-Moss bill, which, after variouschanges, both in title and in substance, by later Congresses, furnishes theessential features of the present law.Senator Fletcher may, therefore, rightfully claim the honor of being theauthor of this great step forward and this progressive provision for relievingfarmers from a situation which was really one of extortion practiced under thecountenance of the law.A three-column article relating to the act, written by the Washingtoncorrespondent of the conservative Ne-to York Evening Post, saidthat "a momentous thing has happened—epochal would be a betterword"—For the very fabric of agricultural life in the Un;ted States is to bechanged—to be strengthened and vitalized. It is doubtful whether many peoplein the densely populated communities of the United States really know what theRural Credits law just passed means, what relation it must eventually have tothe prosperity of the nation as a whole.The Rural Credits law, technically known as the Farm Loan Act, whichbecame effective on July 17 last, is designed to put the farmer financially onan equal basis with the business man. It is a system of agricultural credit noless carefully worked out and no less advantageous than the system of commercialcredit recently provided by the Federal Reserve Act.While the bill may not be perfecti it is regarded on all sides as a splendidstart. Amendments, no doubt, will be made from time to time as circumstancesseem to require. The important fact is that the United States, for the firsttime in its history, has a rural credits system.The law is being received with enthusiasm by the farmers throughout thecountry. Letters by the hundreds are pouring in daily inquiring how thenational farm loan associations may be established. There is no question thatthe most important stimulus to American agriculture in the history of theUnited States is about to be derived by the nation from the Federal FarmLoan act of 1916.An article of twenty pages relating to the act, by Walter B.Palmer, Vanderbilt, '80, appears in the (Quarterly of the AmericanStatistical Associaticn for September, of which association CarrollW. Doten, Vermont. '95, is secretary.•ASTONISHING FEATS IN PSYCHOLOGYKARL TINSLEY WAUGH, Ohio Wesleyan, '00Those who attended the last t'wo or three national conventions of$ A © will remember Dr. Karl T. "Waugh, who represented the petitionersfor a charter for a chapter at Beloit College. Brother Waughis head of the.department of psychology in Beloit. The newspapershave recently had accounts of some remarkable performances in hyp-