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Rh falling market. The Federal Reserve Board was in no way responsible for the conditions. Nor were the bankers, who were on the contrary as lenient in the matters of forcing liquidation and carrying frozen credits as they could possibly be. The farmers as capitalists, suffered from this general collapse like all other capitalists, and as did wage earners also in their turn. The copper producers of the United States fell into a far worse position than did the wheat farmers, but no sympathy for them was expressed.

During the war the farmers of the United States did very well, probably better than any other great industrial class. Prices for wheat, hogs, cotton and other produce rose to unparalleled figures and the owners and operators of farm property realized great returns. Their returns were so large and attractive that there followed a wild speculation in agricultural land, the prices for which rose to extravagant figures. There were misguided speculators and investors who bought at top prices and subsequently suffered huge losses. But precisely the same thing happened to investors and speculators in the shares of copper mining companies. There is no help for the farmer at the present time in granting new credits to him, which would mean simply putting new capital into an already over-expanded industry and would induce increased agricultural production and still lower prices for farm products. In the words of Dr. B. M. Anderson, Jr., “the farmer’s present difficulty is partly due to the fact that he has had too much credit and too easy credit in the past. Greater difficulty in securing credit in the past would have lessened the evils of land speculation, and would have compelled the farmers to save more of their