The Press., 1888-02-09

ODllQ iT1t)iS O1 ttIS CIh6DA QuE- ing the past 100 yearg have fxcpeded S2Oo ,O0O, 900, or about $l 900 O0U,0O0 of which obligations every bond and every coupon has been paid in full as it matur- ed.' Again. in h1s Dictionary of Politi- cal Philosophy" Henry D. Mcleod, Esq i, 'B.AF.S.S, in speaking of these laud- credit companies after ansexhaustive ex- amlna'ion of their history, says ''Their obligations have maintalued through all crisis, monetary, war, anu revolutionary, a stea diness of value far beyond any other public securities " whatevfsr, either govern ment or commercial" From past expert ence, then, and thls array of facts, are we not entitled to conclnde that land-credit bonds are to, be, and have right to be, considered second to no other security in this country?
 The average rate of interest now It ceiv- ed npon frst.c!ass railroad bonds, consid- ering the price pa d fer them, cannot vary much from 4 per cent, while that derived from farm mortgages, pr debentures based upon tn. m, is per cent when issued by strong tinaEciaI companies with bone-fide cash capital, or nearly 30 per cent. more than the amount received from railroad bonds, and, when issued for ten years, will average with the life of the railroad bond you purchase. All things consider ed, then, absolute safety, rate of interest, and time to run, these securities are en- titled to fret pl,ce
 Iu The Evening Post of November l, one calling himself by the friendly name of "'Pnilo, related his experience with 8 farm loan, aud a day or two after his friend "Americus" uttered with unction a. Amen" to all he bad said, as if he, iko ouH fnVs n high rate and a. imprud1nt or unfortunate IS "Philo" had been in his selection of B channel for the investment of his money. In the New York Times of December 27 we are called upon to Aslen 10 the expert encs or observation of an individual case by one Frank Wilkeson. We have none of the facts concerning these particular loans, and therefore they should have no weight with the reading public. The bor- rower may have been out of health he may have had no ability; he may have had no experience as a farmer; he may have been a drunkard; he may have had nothing to farm with in the way of imple- ments the land may have been actually poor In any ol these cases, the loan should not have been made, and would have been refused by an, experienced loau c pany, only to be taken mp by some loan ageut and palmed off on 'Americus" or "Amicus" because they wanted high CT rate than any conservative institution would give them. Thesagent, having got ten his commission, in all probability is in some other locality, ready to pick up the same kind of loans; because he can get some "Philo'' or ''Americus" another loan of the same character, with good con- mission, that being all he cares for, inas- much as hls interest in every case ce .srs with the transaction. These individual ''ases only illustrate tha greed or folly, of the investor, and no mgre characterize or constitute the busin ss And- credit bonds IS carried on teEday stfssn a single citizen or cons flutes city, single countr' man 8 nation, or 8 snow flake a winter. An intelligent reader wants gen. eralization. He demands a conclusion drawn from such mass of facts as to be clearly above and beyond the influence or 4fecb of any one of them.
 But too much time has already been spent in exposing the scarecrows these correspondents have attempted to erect in this field of investm mt. They, like all c crrrAspondents, must have 8 reason, un- doubtedly, for the interest they are taking, and it must be attributable to one of the
 
 pun'ic emanate - ph,Ianthrophy, filthy lnnrA, individual enterprise, or the ruin of competition. It could not have been phi' lanthropY, because Ill of them lacked eith- CT candor or learning; and If any such lofty motive impels them to appear in print, they should first develop the former or largely increase the latter. If it were filthy lucre and their words were measured by the price paid, their statements are presumably of no value. If individual en- terprise, their conclusions should be care ful'y scrutinized. If ruin of competition, then beware of the warer they have to sell, for they simply love the public for what they n make out of it.
 If, perchance, there Is anything unsound in the farm loan business, there is no class so 'deAply interested as those who have Iarg capital in the stock of the instiru- f; ns now engaged in it, and noone should t'e anxions to learn of any threatened danger. Nor should any one be more coguizant of danger, if any there be, than those who are properly conducting their business by:having it under personal super vision and examining every loan they make before dollar has been paid upon it@>%H this rule of busin -ss, and knowl- edge of the fact that the farming lands of the United States for farming purposes are worth, according to the locality, on an average of from $2O to $30 only per acre and the consequent fixed rule of never loaning more than one-third of what, after personal inspection, the farm is consider ed reasonably worth, and under no cir cumstances, even the most favorable, ex- ceeding $15 per acre, be adopted, in no case can the risk to the investor be great or even anything, when the security he p'.rruases is made under these rules and is guaranteed by strong financial institu- tion. ss4.- .-.z e-es 2es.ss- .. 5. ". What has been, here said pertains only to improved farm mortgages therefore, since some might suppose that all western farm mortgages were included, particular pains is now taken to say that the statis- tics given do not include loans taken on city, town, or manufacturing property The one is based upon the intrinsic value of the land as established by statistics, the other upon the mechanical or commercial value, aud the great distinction should be carefully noted.
 It is to be admitted that great pains should be taken, especially ip these times, in selecting institutions whose capital is actual, having been paid up in cash, as distinguished from franchises, privileges, good will, patent rights, inflated real es- tate, and I o Us. The institution should. without doubt, be a corporation, which makes the investment of money it's busi-