The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1881-01-01
sUPPosING A CASE.
The Chances Eastern Men Take In Loan
ing Money.

80 ~-~SSs
Suppose, says 4 newspaper man writ
ing from Kansas, the case OF a man in
the East who has 81 900 to invest, and
who is not satisfied with six or seven per
cent. interest. He wants ten per cent.
Having seen the haring advertisements
issued by the firms offering Western
farm mortgages for sale, he decides to
invest in one or two, or il may be in
three, of these securities. They are sup
piled in any denomination desired.--
Some of the great loan and trust COM
panies, and many of the so-called bank
ing companies Of the Eastern States,
keep y, "a seu-..ies e. s-ip Tho in
vestor applies to one of these companies
for 81 900 mortgage, bearing ten per
cent. interest. If the mortgage is not
in stock, the company gives a receipt
for the money, and the next mail carries
the cash to its agents in the far West.
These agents are generally corporations
chartered by the State in which they
operate, and are called loan and trust
companies. They negotiate all the loans
made by their Eastern house in the State
where they have a charter.
The Western loan and trust COM
panies are the head centres OF the farm
mortgage system. Their working staff
consists of president, a secretary and
treasurer, and examiner of lands, and 4
law firm TO attend TO the foreclosure Of
mortgages in the United States courts.
These companies have sub-agents in all
the country towns. Their lines OF
waichiul men stretch from the Missouri
River far ont into the arid belt Of land
bordering on the ninety-ninth and one
hundrcdth meridian. They are always
alert to take advantage of the necessities
of the struggling farmers who are cult
waiting 4 sun-bakeG, wild swept soil, and
always active TO induce them TO borrow
money.
The 1000 to be invested arrives at
the office Of loan and trust company,
say At Topeka, Kansas. At once word
issent to one of the company 'ssub-agents
that they have 81 900 to loan. The
sub-agent knows all the needy farmers
OF the county. One OF these farmers is
intormedt that 81 600 is to be lent. The
farmer goes to town. a great sheet of
paper, partially filled with printed ques-
tions, is brought out, and the owner of
Western land formally applies for the
loan. The applicant is asked many
questions concerning his age, his wiie'S
age, the number of his children, the
amount of live stock he owns, his health,
and what he intends to do with the
money il he succeeds in getting. it; his
moral character is dwelt upon, Snd the
blank spaces on the great sheet of paper
are filled with the written answers to the
printed questions. The only item Of
interest TO the Eastern investor, that Of
the actual worth Of the land, is sighted.
The certificate to the moral worth and
true goodness of the applicant would,
il true, be 4 passport to heaven.
The application for the loan is for
warded to the company at Topeka
Three incorporated investors OF other
peoples money on commission, being
experts in estimating true goodness, APP
prove of the moral character of the needy
applicant, and send either callow
youth inclined to consumption and the.
ology, or gray bearded philanthropist,
to 20 through the farce OF examining the
land. "Wcll, God made it, and it must
be good, is the piouS conclusion reach
cd by the examiner, and he ccrtifies that
the land is ample security for the loan
applied for. The only point that should
have been considered, that of the value
OF the land, has been trusted not to the
agent of the investor, but to the agent
OF the lean and trust company.
The farmer and his wife sign huge
trust deed and lot of gilt-edged coupon
mortgage notes. These are sent off to
the head center at Topeka. The loan
and trust company keep ten per cent. of
the 81 900 to repay them for their trou-
bic, sending 5000 to the sub-agent, who
again charges his commission of from
five TO ten per cent. not on the 5000, but
on the 81 900, the farmer receiving $3.50
for his notes for $1,000 secured by 4
mortgage on his lands. have known
twenty-five per cent. commission paid
for money obtained from loan agents.
At the present time il can be had ut
from five to ten per cent. commission,
and mortgages can be renewed or ex-
tended without any commission being
paid. The money that was lent before
1879 was generally shaved about fifteen
per cent, the mortgageor receiving
eighty-iivc per cent. OF the face Of the
and paying ten per cent. in
terest on the par value. II the mortgage
has five years to run the interest the
mortgageor pays is not ten per cent,
but trfe over fifteen per cent.