FCS Financial: One Hundred Years July 2016 | Page 20

Articles of Association
Unfortunately, many early records have been lost
through the years, but a few remain. Among them,
one comes from Knox County. Their Articles of
Association dated September 5, 1918, opened with
the following (optimistic) statement:
The undersigned being the owners (or about
to become owners) of farm land within the
territory hereinafter defined, hereby associate
ourselves together as The Knox County
National Farm Loan Association of Edina,
County of Knox, State of Missouri.

However, creating the federal land banks
was only part of the equation. Spurred by
the high prices the government guaranteed
farmers for their crops and livestock to meet
Europe as well as U.S. demand during World
War I, farmers expanded their farms and herds,
borrowing money from local banks. When the
war ended in 1918 farmers continued producing
at the increased level, which led to surpluses.
The resulting decline in prices left farmers
unable to repay the money they borrowed to
purchase land, livestock, and machinery.

On June 7, 1921, Congress created yet another commission, the
Joint Commission of Agricultural Inquiry, to provide farmers with
some relief from the farm recession. The initial legislation, introduced
in Congress as the Lenroot-Anderson Bill, was debated and redrafted
to provide for the establishment of twelve new banks, mirroring
those of the Land Bank System. The Committees on Banking and
Currency in both houses of Congress held exhaustive hearings during
1922. They discovered what American farmers needed was lower
interest rates and payment schedules that meshed with the seasonal
fluctuations of agriculture. Beyond that, they needed short-term

President Harding signs the Capper Volstead Act in 1922, allowing farmers to form
cooperatives.
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Selected References