Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1895-04-09
Redemption Of Farm Mortga
geS.

Thos. c. llodgson has a com.
munication in the last issue OF
Farm, Stock and Home on the
above subject. After referring to
the unsatisfactory methods OF
collecting statistics he says:
''Now, | venture to say that
neither the department at Wash
ington or st. Paul can answer
the following questions:
(D How many men who mort
gagged their farms for all they
would bear ever paid the mort
gage themselves?
~ OF these, how many paid
the mortgages out Of the prod
ucts of the farms so mortgaged::
(3) What proportion of farm
ers so mortgaged were Obliged
to sell the farm for what
they could get over the mortgage
and move west, or somewhere
else:
Now. | submit that exact sta
tistics ON these lines would fur
nish a basis for some sound doe
trine in political economy. OBJ
servation during twenty-one
years OF pioneer life in southern,
and during that many years i'll
western Minnesota, constrains
me to say that very few farmers
who mortgage for all theseculity
will bear ever succeed in lifting
them: perhaps not one in ten.
Yet it is more than likely that
not one in ten of these are ever
foreclosed. AS a rule, onl, y those
are fOreclosed which will not sell
for as much or more than the
amount Of the mortgage. | adj
init that farmers who mortgage
for only a small amount and for
a temporary purpose will often
be successful in redeelning. But
when a farmer turns his farm
over to the mortgages by agree
ment, where the latter sells to a
man who has money and can
and does pay off the mortgage,
it goes upon the record as re
deemed,' and the fact of such re-
demption is cited as a sign that
farming pays" and that farm
ers are prosperous. \ large
proportion of the farms in South
ern Minnesota have been redeem
ed in some such way as herewith
indicated, always resulting in
the dispossession Of the original
mortgagor, who was usually
succeeded by a man able to adopt
a "diversi6ed svstem'' OF farm
ing, and by Keeping out Of debt
attained a fair degree of pros
perity. There is no doubt that
the same men with the same
amount of money could have
gone to Russia or China and
done fully as well or better. II /
am right in this then all that has
been done in the work of gather
ing mortgage statistics counts
for little else than to obscure the
economic principle involved.'
BY a somewhat careful stud y
OF this question the editor OF the
Tribune has come to precisel y
the same conclusions as Mr..
Hodgson. The readers of the
Tribune know that we have al
ready set forth the subject in
much the same light. We are
pleased to have an old and intel
ligent man like Mr.. Hodgson
corroborate this ' Jew from prac-
tical experience. We have as
serted time and again that a
man heavily in debt on his farm
is not likely ever to be able to
pay it. If this has been true in
times past, in good times com
paratively speaking, what shall
we say now III these hard times.
We want to give good conscien-
tiOus advice to our poor debt
ridden fellow men. 1t makes
ones heart bleed to see these
men and their families work on
year after year against the noun
tain Of debt, wearing themselves
out paying interest, and yet
finally succumb to the inevitable.
Now, as we have said before, we
do not advise any man in debt
with a fair prospect OF getting
out, to sacrifice his property il,
order to get out. But we do say
that our farmers must as a rule
get out OF debt to make this sec
ton OF country prosperous Our
farmers in debt must sell off their
surplus land to somebody that
can pay for it. We are also sat
listed that land here is held at
prices low enough compared
with other sections, that this
4 selling off is possible without
great loss to the present owner.