The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-05-22
Total. So. 9S0.522 .
SlO.2As.574 a lnearly

4
That is to say, the farm products alone
were equivalent to 44.6 per cent per an
mum upon the value of the entire farm.
town, city and business property of the
counties named. even in the had-crOp
year 1897. In the census of 1880 the
value of all the farms in the United
States was stated at so, 1877 900, 776, and
the farm products sold. consumed and
on hand for the census year We're stated
at s.. pa. 402. 564, or about % per cent per
annum upon the value of the farms.
As to General Buffers assertion that
the payment of western mortgages is i'm
possible, we have but to select in a
similar manner the following companies
at random from among the seventv-five
which reported to the Massachusetts
commissioner this year, and we find that
they have paid off mortgages to the
amounts stated.
TOTAL AMOUNT OF LOANS PAID.
J B. Watkins Land Mortgage Coz 30 1855
JARVIS, coHkn Mortgage Trust Co, in l,''.,
kansas Loan and Trust Co. (approxi- -,
0ddIesex Banking Co ................., l.s,5alsdl
Nebraska Loan and Trust Co.. .-..-... 2C51.s2 ~
Western Farm Mortgage Trust CO.. 122I1t2 ~
International Loan and Trust Co... LltO,2lJtj
Nearly every other mortgage company
is paving off mortgages every day of its
existence. AS no complete statistics of
farm mortgage Indebtedness in the Uni
ted States have ever been collected, il Is
impossible that General Butler estimate
of 5000, 900 of such mortgages out
standing can be exact. The total amount
of mortgages outstanding IN seventy-fve
companies, concerning which statistics
are readily accessible, Is SlS2. 19S. $50. In
the state of Michigan the labor commits
siOner gathered some statistics of mort
gage Indebtedness III 1887 and found that
the total OF such Indebtedness was S37,-
456, 1872, and the total value Of farms in
the state was 1874 Sj4, 633. The per
centage of mortgages to the total assess
ed value Of the farms was consequently
1872 per cent. Applying this per centage
to the $40. 1877 ,O96, 166 stated As the total
value of farms in the United States IN
1880, and we have a mortgage indebted
ness of s., 900 600. 600 for all the farms
of the nation, north, east. south and
west. The actual total would probably
be found To exceed that amount, as there
has been q large increase in the number
and value of farms in the United States
since 1880. In a careful inquiry which
has been made into the subject Of farm
mortgage Indebtedness in Indiana and
Illinois. 1t has been shown that most Of
the money raised by mortgages
has gone into permanent improve
ments of the farms them
selves. The result Is that lands which
sold at $50 an acre before the improve
ments are now yalned at $50 and $50 an
acre. Their productiyeuess has also been
increased from ten or twenty-five bush
els an acre to sixty and even seventy-fve
bushels an acre.
Concerning Gen. Buffers assertion
that there are scarcely any mortgages
on farm lands in the east because nobody
viii take them. we have nothing 20 say
at the present time except tnat the evi-
denCe of the iuCorrectness Of his as7er-
ton may he found in every registry If
deeds in the eastern states. But a. for
the browning SANDER Of his speech that
mo honest man can invest for another
person money in these mortgages this
transCeuds even the license accorded 2
professional humOri-t There are men
engaged IN the western mortgage bust
ness who not only set Gen. Butler an
excellent example in respect To accuracy
Of the statement. but also in respect o.
the handling OF other peoples funds.
Thousands Of honest men ara engaged in
the western mortgage bu5lness-meu
who would not only -coTn To defraUd
ANYBODY Of a dollar. but who would b.
ashamed 10 utter such glarinE inaccurate
statements a. those which have char
acteriZed this last speech OF the hero II