Edgar Rickard to Woodrow Wilson
Title
Edgar Rickard to Woodrow Wilson
Creator
Rickard, Edgar, 1874-1951
Identifier
WWP19465
Date
1918 July 18
Description
Edgar Rickard responds to Woodrow Wilson’s letter about the Honorable Jouett Shouse’s request of a loan for the Grain Corporation.
Source
Hoover-Wilson Correspondence, Hoover Institution, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924--Correspondence
United States Food Administration
Language
English
Text
Dear Mr. President
Referring to your letter of July 16th, and the letter of the Honorable Jouett JShouse of Kansas to you of July 11th, answering your inquiries I beg to say:
(1) I am informed by Mr. Julius H. Barnes, President of the Food Administration Grain Corporation, that his estimate of the amount of money necessary to loan to farmers in Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska in order to meet demands which would probably be made for buying seed wheat is about the sum of Fifteen Million Dollars ($15,000,000). If other States make a like request for loans, in his opinion it would take at least Fifteen Million Dollars ($15,000,000) additional to meet their demands.
(2) There is no legal reason why the Grain Corporation could not make the loans for you as your agent, the money being furnished out of the fund at your disposal for the national security and defense, and not being taken out of the appropriation under the Food Act.
Permit me to suggest, however, that the Grain Corporation has no organization perfected for the investigation of the credit of individual farmers, the propriety of loans to them or for the collection of loans which may be made, but as I am informed the Federal Farm Loan Bank has such an organization and could make the loans suggested by you, as your agent, and without embarrasssment by the restrictions in the Act creating such Bank.
I herewith return the letter of Mr. Shouse above referred to.
Yours faithfully,
[Edgar Rickard]
Referring to your letter of July 16th, and the letter of the Honorable Jouett JShouse of Kansas to you of July 11th, answering your inquiries I beg to say:
(1) I am informed by Mr. Julius H. Barnes, President of the Food Administration Grain Corporation, that his estimate of the amount of money necessary to loan to farmers in Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska in order to meet demands which would probably be made for buying seed wheat is about the sum of Fifteen Million Dollars ($15,000,000). If other States make a like request for loans, in his opinion it would take at least Fifteen Million Dollars ($15,000,000) additional to meet their demands.
(2) There is no legal reason why the Grain Corporation could not make the loans for you as your agent, the money being furnished out of the fund at your disposal for the national security and defense, and not being taken out of the appropriation under the Food Act.
Permit me to suggest, however, that the Grain Corporation has no organization perfected for the investigation of the credit of individual farmers, the propriety of loans to them or for the collection of loans which may be made, but as I am informed the Federal Farm Loan Bank has such an organization and could make the loans suggested by you, as your agent, and without embarrasssment by the restrictions in the Act creating such Bank.
I herewith return the letter of Mr. Shouse above referred to.
Yours faithfully,
[Edgar Rickard]
Original Format
Letter
To
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Files
Citation
Rickard, Edgar, 1874-1951, “Edgar Rickard to Woodrow Wilson,” 1918 July 18, WWP19465, Hoover Institute at Stanford University Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.