The Montgomery Advertiser
- BARTEL’S CABINET RESIGNS WHEN DIET CUTS CREDIT ITEM
- URGENT PLEA MADE FOR ADDITIONAL AID IN STRICKEN SECTOR
- FEDERAL AID READY TO RELIEVE COTTON CRISIS—JARDINE
The Montgomery Advertiser's front page for October 1, 1926, carried three reports of crisis. From Warsaw, the AP reported that Premier Bartel's cabinet resigned after the Diet cut the government's credit request for the last quarter of 1926. President Moscicki, reportedly at Marshal Pilsudski's prompting, accepted the resignation instead of dissolving parliament for a January election, which economic ministers warned peasants would not turn out for in the cold. From Miami, Red Cross official James L. Fieser called the $3,000,000 raised for hurricane relief wholly inadequate. He blamed the belief that wealthy Florida could look after itself and insisted that wage earners had borne the burden. From Alabama, Agriculture Secretary W. M. Jardine told Farm Bureau president Edward A. O'Neal that organized cotton farmers could get 65 percent of the market price from the Intermediate Credit Bank in New Orleans. O'Neal urged that the surplus be handled through the farmers' own organization.
Translation
BARTEL’S CABINET RESIGNS WHEN DIET CUTS CREDIT ITEM
Independent VOLUME XCVIII—NO. 274 BARTEL'S CABINET RESIGNS WHEN DIET CUTS CREDIT ITEM Polish President Surprises Public by Accepting Resignation to Avoid Holding Winter Election PILSUDSKI CONSIDERED POWER BEHIND THRONE Leaders Advised Against Dissolution of Parliament; Expense Budget Slashed
WARSAW, POLAND, Sept. 30.—(AP)—The cabinet of Premier Bartel presented its resignation tonight after a defeat in the diet, and, much to the surprise of the general public, President Moscicki accepted it.
The comment is made that Marshal Pilsudski, who remains as the power behind the throne, suddenly changed his mind, and, instead of permitting the president to dissolve the houses of parliament, asked him to accept the cabinet's resignation following upon the decision of the diet to reduce the credits asked by the government to carry on affairs for the last quarter of 1926.
It is learned that the four ministers of the Bartel cabinet representing the economic offices of agriculture, commerce and industry, land reforms and finance also advised against dissolution of parliament and elections in January, as was contemplated, stating that such procedure would interfere with the present work on improving Poland's economic situation. They also pointed out that January would be a bad month for elections in an agricultural country, as the peasants would not come to the polls in the cold weather.
These views evidently influenced War Minister Pilsudski, who decided to preserve the present diet instead of the cabinet. This decision undoubtedly will be met with satisfaction by the country at large, as no one appeared desirous of entering into a pre-election period with its many uncertainties. [?]
URGENT PLEA MADE FOR ADDITIONAL AID IN STRICKEN SECTOR
[?] MIAMI, FLA., Sept. 30.—(AP)—Additional financial aid today was deemed necessary by Red Cross officials if the rehabilitation program of the organization in the hurricane stricken area here is completed.
James L. Fieser, vice-chairman in charge of work here, termed the present amount of $3,000,000 raised for relief operations as wholly inadequate, and urged subscription of the original $5,000,000 quota.
Mr. Fieser said that he was advised the national organization had been retarded in its present campaign by persistent reports that the need for relief funds has passed. The belief has been disseminated, he added, that Florida has made millions of dollars and should take care of its own losses unaided.
"The general impression also prevails that the wealthy class rather than wage earners or persons in moderate circumstances is affected. On the contrary, the wage earners really bore the burden. Literally thousands of families have no hope of recovery from the disaster, even to the point of establishing themselves within reasonable circumstances, unless the relief fund now being raised by the Red Cross is virtually double its present amount."
"With approximately 18,000 families reported as potential subjects for relief consideration by the Red Cross, with four thousand people injured, and with the problems of restoring each family to normal responsibilities and citizenship, every effort is being made to hew close to the line of speedy relief, with maximum intelligence." [?]
FEDERAL AID READY TO RELIEVE COTTON CRISIS—JARDINE
[?] Organized cotton farmers can secure sixty-five per cent of the market price of cotton from the Intermediate Credit Bank in New Orleans, W. M. Jardine, secretary of agriculture, advised Edward A. O'Neal, president of the Alabama Farm Bureau, Thursday.
The statement was in reply to an inquiry of Mr. O'Neal to determine what aid was available for the cotton growers in the South.
Mr. Jardine stated that he had been advised by the chairman of the Federal Farm Loan board that the bank would extend its full facilities to handle the cotton situation.
"I realize the situation facing cotton farmers," he said, "and if I can be of further assistance please call upon me."
Mr. O'Neal, upon receipt of the message, made the following statement:
"We are appealing to the farmer-producer, the banker and the business man to join with us to do this job of handling surplus cotton. The logical way to do it is through the farmers' own organization, which, owning and controlling the surplus of cotton now in sight, is the only hope for controlling over-production in the future.
"Farmers, generally, do not know that the aid of the Intermediate Credit bank, to which the secretary of agriculture refers in his telegram, is available. These funds are available to individuals, however, only when applied for through organization.
"Officials of the farm bureau are gratified at the promptness with which Secretary Jardine has referred to the proper authorities and at his interest in helping our organization."
Officials of the Alabama Farm Bureau have sent out a letter to farmers, bankers, merchants and business men regarding the cotton situation. They admit a big surplus of cotton, (Continued on Page Three)
ADMITS PREVIOUS PLEA WAS REFUSED
Context
Why Bartel fell on September 30 rather than the Sejm
Kazimierz Bartel had been prime minister since 15 May 1926, appointed after Józef Piłsudski's May Coup, and by late September his government was repeatedly clashing with parliament. On 20 September the Christian Democrats raised a vote against two of his ministers, Antoni Sujkowski and Kazimierz Młodzianowski, and the cabinet Bartel re-formed after that vote lasted only four days. The biographical record of 30 September matches the AP dispatch in outline. A dissolution document had been prepared that required Mościcki's signature, and the Senate was pressing the Sejm to pass the budget cuts proposed by the upper house. After the Sejm passed them, Mościcki refused to sign the dissolution and told Bartel to step down. The cabinet stayed intact, and Piłsudski himself took over as premier. What the paper adds is a motive: the economic ministers' warning that peasants would not vote in a January election. That explanation comes from the AP's Warsaw sources and is not confirmed in the independent account. The public surprise the AP reported reflected an expectation that the Sejm would be dissolved. Instead, Piłsudski kept the parliament and replaced the premier, and Bartel went on to serve as deputy prime minister under him.
Why donors believed Florida could pay its own way
Fieser's complaint that people thought 'Florida has made millions of dollars' reflects the reputation Florida had earned during the land boom of the 1920s. The hurricane that made landfall near Miami on September 18, 1926, caused about $100 million in damage and is credited with ending that boom. But it struck a boom that was already weakening. Earlier setbacks, including the sinking of a ship in Miami harbor and an embargo by the Florida East Coast Railroad, had already weakened it, and the storm is considered the final blow. Newcomers left the state and emptied their bank accounts, pushing many banks toward bankruptcy, and South Florida did not fully recover until the 1940s. Fieser was therefore arguing against a picture of Florida's wealth that the disaster was already undoing. The shortfall he described, $3,000,000 raised against a $5,000,000 quota, is his own figure as reported by the AP.
Who bore the hurricane's losses
Fieser's claim that 'the wage earners really bore the burden' is supported by later accounts of the damage. In Hialeah, winds leveled hundreds of working-class homes. Across the coastal towns, the worst destruction was in the poorer, mostly Black neighborhoods, and about 43,000 people were left homeless, most of them in the Miami area. Fieser's figures of about 18,000 families needing relief and 4,000 injured were working estimates made in the confusion after the storm. Casualty counts from that time were unstable. Early reports expected more than 1,000 deaths in Miami alone, while the Red Cross later put the storm's toll at 372, including 114 in the city of Miami. Taken together, these figures show why Fieser treated rehabilitation, not only emergency relief, as the unfinished task. Many of the households hit hardest had few resources of their own to rebuild with.
How the Intermediate Credit Bank reached cotton farmers
The Intermediate Credit Bank in New Orleans that Jardine mentioned was one of 12 Federal Intermediate Credit Banks created under the Agricultural Credits Act of 1923. These banks were not designed to lend to farmers directly. They discounted farmers' short- and intermediate-term notes that had been made by other lenders, such as commercial banks and livestock loan companies. Production Credit Associations, which farmers could organize to borrow from the system, were only authorized in 1933. In 1926, therefore, a cotton grower could benefit from the bank only through an intermediary. The article shows how that worked for cotton. Jardine's telegram offered 65 percent of market value to 'organized' farmers, and O'Neal stressed that individuals could get the funds only by applying through an organization. That is why he presented the farmers' own organization, which held the surplus, as the channel for federal credit and the hope for controlling over-production. The 65 percent figure and the cooperative requirement are the article's statements and are not detailed in the institutional history cited here.
Original
BARTEL’S CABINET RESIGNS WHEN DIET CUTS CREDIT ITEM
Independent VOLUME XCVIII-NO. 274 BARTEL'S CABINET RESIGNS WHEN DIET CUTS CREDIT ITEM Polish President Surprises Public by Accepting Resignation to Avoid Holding Winter Election PILSUDSKI CONSIDERED POWER BEHIND THRONE Leaders Advised Against Dissolution of Parliament; Expense Budget Slashed WARSAW, POLAND, Sept. 30. - (AP) - The cabinet of Premier Bartel presented its resignation tonight after a defeat in the diet, and, much to the surprise of the general public, President Moscicki accepted it. The comment is made that Marshal Pilsudski, who remains as the power behind the throne, suddenly changed his mind, and, instead of permitting the president to dissolve the houses of parliament, asked him to accept the cabinet's resignation following upon the decision of the diet to reduce the credits asked by the government to carry on affairs for the last quarter of 1926. It is learned that the four ministers of the Bartel cabinet representing the economic offices of agriculture, commerce and industry, land reforms and finance also advised against dissolution of parliament and elections in January, as was contemplated, stating that such procedure would interfere with the present work on improving Poland's economic situation. They also pointed out that January would be a bad month for elections in an agricultural country, as the peasants would not come to the-polls in the cold weather. These views evidently influenced War Minister Pilsudski, who decided to preserve the present diet instead of the cabinet. This decision undoubtedly will be met with satisfaction by the country at large, as no one appeared desirous of entering into a pre-election period with its many uncertainties. [?]
URGENT PLEA MADE FOR ADDITIONAL AID IN STRICKEN SECTOR
[?] MIAMI, FLA., Sept. 30. - (AP) - Additional financial aid today was deemed necessary by Red Cross officials if the rehabilitation program of the organization in the hurricane stricken area here is completed. James L. Fieser, vice-chairman in charge of work here, termed the present amount of $ 3, 000, 000 raised for relief operations as wholly inadequate, and urged subscription of the original $ 5, 000, 000 quota. Mr. Fieser said that he was advised the national organization had been retarded in its present campaign by persistent reports that the need for relief funds has passed. The belief has been disseminated, he added, that Florida has made millions of dollars and should take care of its own losses unaided. " The general impression also prevails that the wealthy class rather than wage earners or persons in moderate circumstances is affected. On the contrary, the wage earners really bore the burden. Literally thousands of families have no hope of recovery from the disaster, even to the point of establishing themselves within reasonable circumstances, unless the relief fund now being raised by the Red Cross is virtually double its present amount. " With approximately 18, 000 families reported as potential subjects for relief consideration by the Red Cross, with four thousand people injured, and with the problems of restoring each family to normal responsibilities and citizenship, every effort is being made to hew close to the line of speedy relief, with maximum intelligence. " [?]
FEDERAL AID READY TO RELIEVE COTTON CRISIS—JARDINE
[?] Organized cotton farmers can secure sixty-five per cent of the market price of cotton from the Intermediate Credit Bank in New Orleans, W. M. Jardine, secretary of agriculture, advised Edward A. O'Neal, president of the Alabama Farm Bureau, Thursday. The statement was in reply to an inquiry of Mr. O'Neal to determine what aid was available for the cotton growers in the South. Mr. Jardine stated that he had been advised by the chairman of the Federal Farm Loan board that the bank would extend its full facilities to handle the cotton situation. I realize the situation facing cotton farmers he said, " and if I can be of further assistance please call upon me. " Mr. O'Neal, upon receipt of the message, made the following statement: " We are appealing to the farmer-producer, the banker and the business man to join with us to do this job of handling surplus cotton. The logical way to do it is though the farmers ' own organization, which, owning and controlling the surplus of cotton now in sight, is the only hope for controlling over-production in the future. " Farmers, generally, do not know that the aid of the Intermediate Credit bank, to which the secretary of agriculture refers in his telegram, is available. These funds are available to individuals, however, only when applied for thtough organization. " Officials of the farm bureau are gratified at the promptness with which Secretary Jardine has referred to the proper authorities and at his interest in helping our organization. " Officials of the Alabama Farm Bureau have sent out a letter to farmers, bankers, merchants and business men regarding the cotton situation. They admit a big surplus of cotton, (Continued on Page Three) ADMITS PREVIOUS PLEA WAS REFUSED
Source: Holding institution