The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-08-24

They are the farms on. which the mort
cages were Cancelled last year." Making
further inquiries, found that these
farms were, in all human probability,
among the thousands on which the
mortgages had been foreclosed, possess
sion passing from the mortgage to the
money lender, who having no use for
them and having taken them at the
amount loaned on them, is able to sell
them at a price much below their real
value. That these farms are numerous
is proven by SO many of them being Of
fered and remaining unsold
Any one who desires to reap where
others have sown, and in perfectly le-
| gltimate manner, may do so by going to
Kansas and buying one of these farms.
| He will be able to get good many of
them at price that represents only a
| fraction of the value of the labor that
| has been put on them in improving
| them; he can sit down ON the improved
farm and begin to enjoy the benefits of
the labor of his predecessor without
having paid cent in money or an hour
! in labor for the privilege
l asked another question: How
was this state of affairs made possible?"
The answer was to this effect: When
money loaning assumed the magnitude
or craze, people in the East became
lmbued with the idea that the best pos
slDle investment was in Western mort
! cages. They were really more anxious
to loan than the farmers were to bor-
row; they, through the loan agents,
forced money on the market and made
1t a commodity rather than a medium of
exchange. Money was hawked about
the streets in a way that seems incredi-
Die to one accustomed to the conserva-
tive methods of the East, where the
man who goes borrowing must hunt
Tor the money. In those days, If
Kansas farmer desired to borrow, say
SoOO, the brokers soon scented their
prey and hunted him up. They offered
to make it 81 900 or 81 500, or any other
sum on which they could get security.
No matter how small the sum the bor-
rover wanted, there was broker ready
to negotiate a loan for him ii his farm
was large enough to make the Eastern
money-owner feel secure Men were
tempted to borrow beyond their needs,
not because the broker had any interest
in either borrower or lender, but be-
cause the larger the loan the greater the
amount received as commission from
the lender, and the more he could charge
the borrower for negotiating the loan.
The amount paid the broker by the bor-
rover was clear gain, for the money
owner paid the broker for placing his
money. This was "bleeding'' Kansas
with vengeance.
Money being offered in the public
market places, many were tempted to
borrow who might have got along per.
fectly well without doing so. Pioneers
in an older day had builded homes for
themselves under far greater discour-
agements than the Kansas farmer of the
boom days was called to encounter. If
Smith wanted to borrow for a needed
Improvement, the brokers bid against
each other, not a lower rate of interest
or more favorable terms, but higher
loan, until he borrowed two, three or
five times the amount he intended to
get IN the first place With this money
he made more extensive improvements
than he had been contemplating. Brown
wanted to be up with Smith, and he
borrowed when he had no actual need
to do SO, and Robinson, in order to keep
up with his neighbors, borrowed also,
for was not the money-lender standing
on the street corners begging farmers to
take money in almost any quantity and
pay it back when convenient? In the
meantime, he could build houses and
barns, and buy machinery and carriages,
and after a while sell his highly i'm
proved farm for a big price, pay the
insignificant mortgage and retire on a
fortune, for was not Kansas the garden
! of the gods and the place toward which
all the world was looking with longing
eyes?
The iridescent bubble OF the great
boom f1oated high in the transparent
air under the blue skies that bend over
Kansas. A small bank in Chicago closed
| it's doors. Through it's connections in
| Indiana and Ohio it drew other banks
| into the whirlpool of bankruptcy Soon
there came time when money became
| scarce, and banks went to the wall as a.
| daily occurrence. Prices fell; unfavora-
| BILE seasons brought crops that were be-
| low the average. The man in the East
who owned money wanted it where he
could see it. Seven per cent ceased to
| have any charms for him, and he called
| on the broker to collect on the mort
| cages he had negotiated and send him
the money. The shock Of this disrupted
| the bubble and it grew into a black
cloud of despair. The mortgages must
be Cancelled, and they were in thousands
| of cases, but the man who gave the
mortgage found himself without money
| and without farm The carload of
| mortgage. all of them canceled, were in
| evidence, but we have not heard SO
much about the farm-cwner who became
tenant to the man who lent him
money.