Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1891-08-06
FARM MORTGAGE FACTS.
ERRONEOUS STATEMENTS OF
FREE-TRADERS REFUTED.

FKEE-I HADEh5 HEF ~ tEDs3
Dem ocratic qualification in Ohio--The
Prospects for . McKinIey Victory Ex-
ceedingly Good--Pointed Political Conn
ment-- Convincing Tarifr Pictures
Three years ago, In the heat of the
Presidential campaign, Aug. Z, 1888, Mr.. I
Frank Wilkeson wrote, and the New /
York Times pub ished, an estimate OF |
the mortgage Indebtedness of ten States
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wis
consin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska,
| Kansas, and Missouri. These states |
contained, in 1880. 1850, 533 farms; In
| 1883, say 100000. aThese farms are
mortgaged, as closely as can be ascer-
| tanned, /" said this precious estimatician,
"for about $3, 800, 600. 900. For the sake
OF preserving impartiality OF statement,
say they are mortgaged for SO, 700, 000,-
900. At the lowest estimate one-half of
these farms are mortgaged. Say that
| the interest which these mortgages bear
/ is z per cent then the annual interest
! that must b. paid on these mortgages
amounts to $ISa. 600. 900. The farmers
4 who till the encountered acres annually
produce to the aggregate value of $5O2,
419,O42 Out of this sum they have to
i pay $3.50, 100000 as interest on their
mortgages. The average amount OF
money which they earn by working lour-
teen hours per day for $40 (stc) days in
the year is S313. They earn outside Of
| the interest money which they pay SO
cents per day. The price of every ar
ticle which they consume is enhanced
by the protective tariff / unhesitat-
ingly assert that the farm mortgages of
the West have been created direct y by
the operations OF the protective tariff.
This lie had tremendous run in the
campaign of 1883. 1t was heard from
every stump and was in every news
paper. The enlightened free-trade fab
ricator-by which we mean the paper in
which it appeared-and its evening du-
LEX, the New York EUeqljIlg Post, used
it just enough to give it credence and
4 currency. They knew it was fraud.
But once set afloat, the unenlightened
free trader gulped it complete, 1876 days
in year" and all, and it was heard
from the rising of the sun on presum-
ably mortgaged farm ON the Atlantic to
the going down of the same on the like
on the Pacific.
Mr. Frank Wilkeson guessed. The
census and other inquiries enable us to
give facts. AS usual, facts knock tho
free-trade tabricator Michigan, Illinois
farms i'm these ten States This was
over one third in 1880. They hold fully
one-fourth to day. Mr.. A. Ii. Heath,
Labor Commissioner, made careful
inquiry into mortgage indebtedness in
1885, and he reached the conclusion that
the total mortgage Indebtedness would
come to $65, 600, coo. In Iowa the Fed
eral Census Bureau published return
: three months ago, and the @total exist
ing real estate mortgage Indebtedness
> OF Iowa" on farms was found to be
S14S,Sl4,645. The Bureau of Labor Sta
. tistics in Illinois has just made a report,
, and finds the farm mortgages In that
State $123, 1888, COS. This is a total OF
1897, 547,743 for three States holding
. from one third to one fourth of the
farms included in Mr.. Frank Wilkeson's
estimate"
3 The ton States he picked have not bV
these facts 81, $50, 600, 600 farm mort
r cages, or half his wild guess, and they
: have not probably over $1,000, 600, coo.
Y Mr.. Wikeson took over one-third the
product to pay interest. In Illinois it is
: found that the annual product is 60 pei
cent of the principal, or nine times the
annual interest. The Iowa farmer pays
! off his mortgage on the average in five
: years; the Illinois farmer in three years
D An officer of the Farmers Alliance re
; Gently talked of 100000 mortgage:
q found by the census on "farmS anC
homesteads." This is the total number
recorded In the last ten years On thu
Iowa average there are to-day only hal
l. this total, on the Illinois one-third In
d Iowa one fourth of the mortgages arr
on town lots. The proportion for thu
f county Is probably lower. Taking 4, 500,
, 600 as the total number. if they are paiC
= off as fast as in Iowa, and deductint
- one-fourth, as On town lots, and Their
are left 3,375.000 separate mortgages OIL
farms for the entire country, on tn
u Iowa basis. On the Illinois basis Their
are not over 100000 mortgages stand
ing to-day ON the, about, 5000, 900 farm
}" In the country.
MIR. Wilkeson placed the ownership o
these mortgages in the East Th
I american Wool Reporter, Jan. "a, 1885
published list of all the mortgage fore
II closures in seventy Iowa counties an
- out of 542 only eighty-four were held b
~ investment companies, @all Of the re
le naming being mainly by local capita
lists. Mr.. Wilkeson saw in his figure
a change of "Western farmers from free
~ holders into tenants" The mortgage
/ in Michigan are 371 per cent. Of tn
Id value, and Illinois, at forced sale, les
than half. Taking all farms, mortgage
,o are So per acre in Illinois, and one-f fit
,e the value In Michigan.
@For the sake of preserving tmpartia
IL ity of statement" we will not say M
40 Wilkeson is deliberate falsifier, but "
do say that great and wonderful est
J.. maticians like him are almost inyariabl
, free traders. htLGdelphia Press.