Middletown transcript., 1894-03-03
FARMS AND HOMES MoRrGAGED.
Statistics Showing Falsfty of Certaf
PopuIist Orators, Pet Phrases.

FARMS AND HOMES MORTGAGED
| Statistics Showing Fa1sfty of Certain
PopuIist Orators Pet Phrases.
! A stock phrase with all Populist ora
tors and Farmers Alliance platform
builders is ssthe debt-burdened homes
and farms of the people" loaded dowr
by mortgages aggregating nearly thret
billion dollars. According to these
orators the agricultural portions of the
United States are owned, pretty gener.
ally, by Eastern or alien money lenders,
who exact from the tillers of the soil a
nearly usurious interest, which is rap.
idly draining out the profits of the far.
mers, and extending constantly the
area of mortgaged lands. Against this
state of things the Populist orators
vigorously and continuously protest.
There are 4,65O,OOO farms in the
United States. One-quarter of the
farms in the United States are mort
gagged; three-quarters of the farms are
owned free of encumbrance. The total
mortgage debt resting upon the farms
of the country is not 'nearly three bill
lion dollars" but is actually So, ,040,- :
100000 The mortgages on farms are
just about one half in value Of the
mortgages on city and town lots, and
are increasing in much smaller ratio.
The mortgage debt on all land, city and
town lots as well as farms, amounts to
$40 per capita, which is less than the
national debt per capita of France,
SIG, or Peru, $145. The per capita
debt of Holland is sos, of England $S7,
Of Italy SIG, Of Spain S73 and Of the
United States S14. Mortgages upon
farming lands are always an incident
of progress in newly developing coun-
tries and are, practically, one of the
necessities of development. A farmer
opening up new land requires many
things which cannot be bought on
credit at distance, to secure which he
mortgages his land, the productive
ness of which is enhanced by the arti-
cles which the proceeds of the mort
cages enable him to buy.
Kansas stands at the head of the
States the land of which is heavily
The total in that state is
$17O per capita. In Minnesota it is
$152, in Massachusetts S144, and in
Nebraska $126, but the total in Massa-
chusetts is greatly increased, of course
by the mortgaged debts Of Boston and
other large cities. Outside of these the
mortgages are no heavier than in ada
cent States. In Maine it is $40 per
capita and in New Hampshire $50.
This is about the average in the older
states, where the farmers are well sup
piled with all the requirements of.mod-
ern cultivation. In some of the States
it is less, being $26 in Alabama and S23
in Tennessee. In some of the States
the percentage of mortgage on farms is
very small. In Wisconsin, for instance,
more than half the farms of the State
are owned, without mortgage, by those
who cultivate them.
Taking the whole country through,
the aggregate mortgage debt an all
farms is not much more than ten per
cent, of their total value, and in some
States it is much less than this. The
rate of interest varies from 81 to 8 per
cent. The average is about 7 per cent.
The rate is highest in those Stateh in
which the legal rate of interest is great
er than in Eastern communities. The
legal rate of interest is 6 or per cent
in most of the States, but in Idaho,
Montana, and Wyoming it is 10 per
cent or more. The more the question
of farm mortgages is studied the more
clearly it appears that large number
of the claims of Populist orators are
unsubstantial and unsubstantiated.
The income from land in every part Of |
the United States is materially greater
than the mortgage interest, and while
his continues to be so mortgages will |
be popular, and nowhere more so than
in the city Of New York. IN. Y. Sun.