The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., 1911-04-08

wants TO get his candidate for the Legis-
lature pledged to the Torrens System of register
ing land titles, and asking us to publish further
information about the plan for the beneht OF farm
ers in other sections We hope other readers will
follow this farmers example. If Mississippi will
bestir itself it may get the credit of being the first
State in the South to adopt this great reform The
bill passed the Lower House of the recent North
Carolina Legislature, but in the Senate there
nearly a two-thirds majority of lawyers, and of
these lawyers a majority of four preferred
to put their selfish interests above the interests
Of the State and so killed the bill But the people
of the Old North State are determined to carry the
measure through next time, and this is Missis-
sipps only chance to be first in getting the law.
We are publishing elsewhere in this issue brief
catechism on the Torrens System. The truth is,
the statement of its purposes is all the argu-
ment that is needed in behalf of the reform.
AS it is now, every time piece of real estate
is transferred, some lawyer must examine into
the legality of the title Old records running
back sometimes for hundreds of years-must be
searched at great labor and EXPENSE and the next
time the property is sold, and the next, and the
next, the same work must be done over again, the
Sisyphus stone in each case rolled up hill only to
roll straightway down again, and each case means
new delay expense, and fees.
Now, the Torrens System proposes that instead
of this perennial investigation of the same thing,
this perpetual marching backward and forward
over the same ground with no purpose save that
of supporting lawyers who might better serve their
fellows in some other way-instead of all this,
the Torrens System proposes that the State shall
examine the title once for ALL guarantee it and
register it-and henceforward it may be transfer
red as easily share of stock in corporation
or bond issued by State or municipality. The
original cost of getting Torrens deed will be
little, if any, more than the present cost of one
investigation of title, and with the Torrens deed
once secured the title may be transferred at
from one-fourth to one-tenth the present expense
and with immeasurably less worry and uncer-
tainty.
AT present. moreover, deed is only a register
ed certificate of claim; the State does not guaran-
tee your right to the property described and
even after the lawyers have pronounced the title
sound, you can not be absolutely sure deed
under the Torrens System, on the other hand is
an absolute guarantee from the State of your right
TO the property mentioned.
lawyer said to us the other day that he knew
pieces OF property several times transferred on
which at least one-fourth the total value had been
spent for investigating the titles-and the next
time the property is sold, the same ground will
nave to be gone over again. Under the Torrens
system, at fraction of this cost, the owner would
nave guaranteed title requiring no further nves-
tlgation and his property as easily negotiable as
United States registered bond
Easily negotiable, we say-and right here is
one single advantage of the Torrens system that
ought TO insure its adoption even if it had no other
attractions. AS things are row. land-whicb