The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-09-06

family long enough to carry through any
projected deal. They are everywhere
lighting one another with q flerceness that
exceeds their denunciation of the common
enemy. Discord has broken out in their
midst, and already in the Minnesota com
mittee, there are mutterings Of wrath and
the prospect of lively war between Don
nelly and Lucas, over the appointment Of
newspaper as officially representative Of
the party. which promises to grow into an
open rupture and which really voices the
hope of Donnelly and Owen for q senator.
ship that will never be within reach OF
either. A brilliant public man once made
very bright epigram about s'the cohesive
power of public plumber" There is an ex
tenslve and disintegrating power Of public
plumber far more universally operative.
Were it not so brigands would put down
governments, instead of the government
uniformly putting down brigands. This
disintegrating force will play the mischief
with the Peoples Party, and its pro-
gramme, long before election day comes
around.
The census Office has just completed its
official bulletin on real estate mortgage
statistics, which is important as bearing
on a subject much discussed by the
Peoples party orators, and
A Matter OF Serious Thought to the
Farmer.
There are some statistics in this report
that should be familiar to all. They snow
q very large increase of mortgage indebt-
edness, but they show at the same time
that such increase has uniformly accom-
panied the largest increase in wealth or in
1T, oil n ~. o1c ook-
that the larger share of this burden falls
not upon the acres of the farmer, but
upon the lots of the city resident. The
whole number of mortgages made in one
year in the United States increased from
643, 143 in 1880 to 1,226, 1923 in 1889, or 9O.68
per cent; and the yearly incurred indebt-
edness increased from $71O, 1856, 5O4 in 1880,
to 81, 752, 56S, 274 in 1889, or 1853 per cent
But while the number of mortgages on
acres increased 41.54 per cent, and the
amount of debt increased 7O.98 per cent
the mortgages on lots increased in numbe
1876 per cent, and the amount represented
increased 216.SO per cent. The mortgage
debt per capita for the whole United
States at the end of the decade was $50;
the largest averages being found in New
York, with $268, Colorado with $2O6, and
California with $780, The smaller per cap
ita debts were mostly found in the South.
The average rate of interest on mortgages
is found to be steadily declining from year
to year.
Taking now, the statistics of Minnesota,
in which we are most interested, it is
found that the number of mortgages re-
corded in any one year rose from q, 427,
representing SIS, O93, O76 in 1880, to &C, 1853;
representing $40, 500, 337 in 1887; and then
declined to 47,676, representing $50, 781 ,538
in 1889. The relative proportion between
the beginning and the end of the decade is
about the same as in other states.
The distribution Of this mortgage debt,
however, is exceedingly interesting The
mortgages placed on acre property in 1880
amounted to SIC, 603, O23 and in 1850 to $1S,-
76O,651, an increase of about 80 per cent.
The mortgages on city lots, which were
only 3, 49O,053 in 1880, had increased in
1889 to the enormous total of "a, O3O, 1887,
or between 800 and 900 per cent. It thus
appears that if the cities of the state have
increased in size and wealth out of
proportion to the rural districts, they have
had to pay roundly for it; and the burden
OF mortgage debt put on city property in
1890, which is nearly ten times what it was
ten years before, was also 2 173 times the
debt assumed in that year by all the
farmers in the state.
The total mortgages in force on the first
of January, 1890, numbered 195, $50 and
represented value of $197, 745.9s9. OF this
great amount, only SIS, OO0, 900 was burdens
upon acre property; $122, 600, 900 rested on
city lots. Moreover, the ratio of debt to
the actual value of the property encum-
bered is much higher in the city; averag-
ing over IS per cent, as against 1881 per
cent, for the country districts. The in
crease of mortgage Indebtedness in the
State Of Minnesota in the last 10 years
has been notably small instead Of notably
large, as compared with other Western
communities. In the newer states, where
large proportion of mortgages listed are
made to covex 9 part Of the cost Of the
property, or represent permanent improve
ments, the increase is naturally
Much Larger Than i'm Older Countries,
where real estate has already received all
the burden it will bear. So in this bulle-
tin, it is the newer Western states where
mortgage Indebtedness has increased most
rapidly. The percentage for Minnesota
for the last ten years is 206; but it is S81 in
Nebraska, 40 in the fourishing state of
Texas, 491 in Colorado, and rises to $50 in
Idaho, III in South Dakota, and 1888 in
Washington.
These figures are sufficient to show that
an increase of mortgage debt may be con-
sistent with very active growth and
prosperity. Taken all in all, they demon
strate conclusively some important propo-
sitions. First, that the growth Of debt
charges on this community has not been
disproportional, considering the recent de-
velopment of the state.
Second, that the rate of increase has
been smaller in Minnesota than in other
states under somewhat similar conditions
Third, that the increase of debt is an in
cident of the increase of wealth and has
only fairly kept pace with it.
Fourth, that by far the largest share of
this load has been assumed by the dealers
in city property, and that the increase in
farm debts is not above the normal.
| There is one other point in these sta
tistics that should be brought out en-
phatically. Every Populist speaker en-
deavors to impress the farmer with a
sense of the outrage committed upon him