Over a hundred strong and representing over three-fourths of the
states and Canada, the American Commission for the Study of the
Application of the Co-operative System to Agricultural Production,
Distribution and Finance in European Countries sailed from New York
on April 26. This commission is to visit certain European countries
under the direction of the Southern Commercial Congress. According to
the officers of the Congress it will take special note of
1st. The parts played, respectively, in the promotion of
agriculture by the governments and by voluntary organizations of
the agricultural classes.
2nd. The application of the co-operative system to agricultural
production, distribution and finance.
3rd. The effect of co-operative organization upon social conditions
in rural communities.
4th. The relation of the cost of living to the business
organization of the food-producing classes.
The work of the commission was given standing by the joint resolution
of the Senate and the House of Representatives authorizing the
secretary of state to bespeak for the commission the diplomatic
courtesies of the various European governments. It was further
strengthened by the appointment by President Wilson of a commission
composed of seven persons to accompany and co-operate with the
American commission, and through the appropriation by Congress of
$25,000 for the expenses of this federal commission. Senator Duncan
Fletcher, of Florida, president of the Southern Commercial Congress
is chairman of the federal commission. The other members are: Senator
Gore, of Oklahoma; Congressman Moss, of Indiana; Clarence J. Owens,
of Maryland, managing director of the Southern Commercial Congress;
Kenyon L. Butterfield, of Massachusetts, president of Amherst
College; John Lee Coulter, of Minnesota, the government’s expert
on agricultural statistics; and Colonel Harvie Jordan, of Georgia,
president of the Southern Cotton Growers’ Association. Sevellon Brown
accompanies the federal commission as a representative of the State
Department.
The American commission will return to New York on July 25. The
federal commission will as soon as possible thereafter render its
report to Congress. A committee of nine governors appointed at the
last conference of governors is awaiting the report of the American
commission in order to draft appropriate state legislation in regard
to farmers’ credit and co-operative organizations. Few commissions
have gone abroad with the backing and the enthusiasm that accompanies
this one. Representative of national and state public authorities,
business men, and farmers, its report promises to hasten practical
measures for the relief of the financial burden of the American
farmer.