The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-07-16
MORTGAGES IN KANSAS.
From the Kansas Civ star

/ FROM tne hanSas City Star.
| Every new state begins business by
running in debt. 1t is necessity of the
situation. The pioneer, as rule. is not
man of means. His capital consists
| largely of a brave heart and strong
arm and willingness to endure the
hardships which must be encountered In
making home on virgin soil. But it re-
quires money as well as pluck to develop
| new country, and settlers who have no
! capital of their own must borrow it of
| others. They are compelled to discount
the future and to assume obligations in
the hope and belief that they will be able
to discharge them with the fruits of their
industry and the products of their toll
The early history of every state Is dis
tinctively a debt-making period. The
habit not infrequently exceeds the limits
of prudence and good business sense, but
borrowing and lending are processes
which are inseparably associated with
the establishment of all new common
wealths. Thus it is that debt, in state
which is passing through the formative
stage, is not an indication of adversely
and depression, but rather of activity
and future prosperity. 1t Is, IN short,
pledge of the confidence which the Dor
rover feels in the resources Of the soil
which he offers as security for the pay
ment of his obligation.
The mortgage Indebtedness of Kansas,
of which SO much has been said and
written, is the result of conditions which
are common in every state in the new
west. The money which these securities
represent was borrowed to obtain imple-
ments to break up the soil, to build habi-
tations, to purchase live stock and to
carry on the various operations which
attach to successful agriculture. The
ease with which capital could be secured
in Kansas during the flush times led a
good many farmers into the indiscretion
of borrowing too freely, and trouble has
followed as the result of such needless
ness. But in Kansas the mania for bor-
rowing has practically ceased and has
been succeeded by general impulse to
pay up. The reports from the registers
of deeds in the different counties of the
state, as embodied in quarterly state
ment recently made public, are highly
gratifying. They show that in nineteen
counties in eastern Kansas the excess of
farm mortgages released over those re-
corded is 36 per cent, and that in central
and western Kansas the percentage is
still larger. There is also a notable re-
duction in city mortgages, showing that
the towns are responding to the improved
condition of agriculture.
1t is significant that this decrease in
the mortgage Indebtedness of Kansas
was maintained steadily during last
year, when the crops were short, and the
resources of the farmers were curtailed
beyond the usual limit. If such a show
ing was possible with the limited yield
of farm products last season, what may
not be expected IN view of the bountiful
harvest and the excellent prices of this
year? Nature surely has done every
thing to help the Kansas farmers this
year, but what is more encouraging still
is the growing disposition of the farmers
to pay their debts, to cultivate habits of
to husband their resources and
market them to the best possible advant-
age, and to make agriculture a subject
of careful and intelligent study. This is
the situation in Kansas today as shown
by reliable statistics, and nothing could
be more hbelous than the stories which
PETER and other peanut politicians of his
stamp are hawking about the country to
the prejudice of a state which is paving
the way to splendid destiny and which |
is beginning to feel to its remotest |
borders the pulsations of quickening
prosperity.