Full text of Mimeograph Letters and Statements of the Board : Press Statement, re Copy for Series of Advertisements Sent by Federal Reserve Banks to Their Member Banks, Number X-103, Volume 5, Page 2279

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PRESS STATEMENT*
Member banks of the Federal reserve system have received
from the Federal reserve banks of their districts, copy for a series
of advertisements intended to run through the year*

Included among

this series is one which sets forth the facilities of the Federal
reserve system, for enabling the farmer to carry his crop until a
fair price can bo realized for it*
When Governor Harding, of the Federal Reserve Board,, was
asked about this advertising to-day, he said;
nThe advertising matter was not prepared by the Board,
but was drafted and sent out from the several Federal re­
serve banks, to their member banks, for the use of the lat­
ter should these banks care to place advertisements in lo­
cal newspapers as a matter of business policy-* As the ad­
vertising is intended to meet the needs of banks throughout
the country, *copy* for all parts of the country is included,
and 1copy' suitable for different seasons of the year is
likewise indluded* It is necessarily left to the judgment of
the member banks whether and when to use the various adver­
tisements* The Board, as is well known, has authorized a socalled 1commodity rate1 designed to assist farmers in borrow­
ing money upon their crops during the past two years * There
has been no change in this policy, although the rate is
higher now than at the beginning; as a matter of fact* very
little in the way of rediscounts based upon this rate has been
&sked for* The Federal reserve banks, as is we11 known, do
not deal directly with the individual, but with the member
banks, and the judgment of the latter necessarily governs the
conditions under which funds are advanced. The Federal Re­
serve Act is clear and positive in its attitude adverse to
speculation and the Board has consistently adhered to this
point of view in its policy and regulations.
nThe effort to make capital out of the proposed advertis­
ing is not warranted by any of the facts in the case, as the
advertisements referred to are not intended for use under un­
suitable conditions any more than are the rates of discount
established by the Board.11

April 2k,



1917,