Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1891-04-10
FARMER ON sTANFoRD's PLAN.
He Thinks the Scheme Of Government
Two Per Cent. Loans Quite Imprac-
ticable.

ern States, but OF the country at large,
that are suffering either from short
crops or low prices, while the burdens
cf r"nt and taxation continue as before.
We quote portion Of his letter, says
the New York Evangelist:
1" | have just read with great interest
the account in the Evangelist of your
interview with Senator Stanford. No
one realizes more than / do the sad
condition OF farmers and the farming
interest. For am myself a farmer
an old soldier, too-50 years old, and
unable longer to work as l used to, and
with family to support, and small
farm, and mortgage on it for a good
deal more than half what the farm
could be sold for now.
"And right here is one point that
the Senator, and you too, seem to over.
look. He proposed loaning money TO
farmers at , per cent, to amount equal
to half the value of their farms, and
adds that this money would be used in
making Improvements. A very large
proportion of the farms here, and
think West, too. are mortgaged now
for more than half of their present
value. There is now really no market
value for land here, for there is nc
market; but occasionally a farm has
to be sold, and they bring from forty
TO fifty dollars an acre, and some have
sold for less. Fifteen to twenty years
ago these farms sold readily for from
eighty TO a hundred dollars, and some
times more. A good many farms here
are mortgaged for every cent that they
could be sold for, and one benefit comes
from this mortgages are very lenienl
as to time in the payment of interest
for they won't ioreclose, as they know
they could not get back the money
loaned, and they don't want to take
the land. So great many Of us are
beyond the reach of the benefits OF the
Senator's plan, as we could not gel
money enough of the government
half the present value of farms-tc
pay up present membranes, and
hardly any one could do more than
that. But the low rate of interest te
those who could avail themselves o.
this, would certainly be help.
"But if we all got this Government
money and paid up our mortgages
what would the present mortgages dc
with all the money thus paid in to
them? M"ch more than half of the
mortgages in this town, 1 think, are
held by Buffalo and Rochester savings
banks, and the money loaned us is
money held by them in trust for wild.
ows, orphans, and laboring men-very
much OF it, at least. Ii seems to me
impossible that either these banks OF
the owners OF this money, whose
agents the banks really are, would OF
could find safe or legitimate uses for
so much money, and the result would
be visionary enterprises and specula.
tions OF the widest kind. Whenever
there is more legal-tender money in
the country than is needed for safe and
legitimate business, it will induce ex-
travaganco and wild speculation that
must end in ruin.
"Of course, if We could get money
from the Government to pay the debts
OF us poor farmers it would help us
out, but at what a cost! As bad as
want to pay my mortgage and stop the
drain OF interest, l don't want to see
the country ruined in order to help
me out. One OF the principal things
that have put farmers where they are
is the ease with which old debts are
paid with the cheap legal tender
money, before specie payments were
resumed, and the high prices to which
land was carried by that fact.
"The Senator tells how many coun.
tries contributed the articles eaten or
used by him at one meal. l think
that we could get along with such
victuals as can be raised in our own
and manage to prepare and
eat them with articles manufactured
here. Still we should miss tea and
coffee, at least.
al fully appreciate the good inten.
tions OF the Senator, and it is q noble
purpose to devise relief of some kind
to the farmers of our country. Our
condition is indeed sad one. Several
farmers in this town, good, industrious
men, are going right off and leaving
their farms in despair this spring, and
losing all they had paid on them. They
cannot even keep up interest and
taxes, and give it up as a useless strug-
gle. This tax question is a serious
one. Taxes are very high, including
in this town payment of railroad bonds
and the farmer, who pays interest on
the full present value of his farm,
must also pay every year from seventy
cents to one dollar an acre taxes, while
more than half (probably more than
of the personal prop
erty in city and country goes untaxed.
This is wrong that has got to be
righted in some way, but every plan
that has yet been proposed, is about
like The Senator's financial scheme
as to its execution"
Neckst.
The tail giraffe with rapture glows