Ellsworth American., 1912-10-16
TAFT WOULD
AID FARMERS.
Wants United States to Adopt
Cooperative Credit System.
RESULT OF INVESTIGATION.

State Department, at the Presidents
Direction, Has Looked Into the Sys-
tenn In Vogue In Europs-lt Would
Mean Low Rates and Easy Terms
For Repayment.
The state departments investiga-
tion of European systems of co-opera-
tive credit has now reached the second
stage in which study Is made of the
mortgage bond societies and the mort
gage banks. 1t Is expected that this
Is the form Of cooperative credit
which. under one plan or another. will
be proposed for adoption In the United
States In connection with President
Taft's efforts to extend this assistance
to the American farmer.
AS compared to the present Ameri-
can system of farm land loans this
form Of cooperative credit would ac-
complish two things for the farmer:
First--It would permit him to repay
his loan through an easy system OF
amortization extending over long Pc
riod of years and would remove effec-
lively the menace Of foreclosure or
renewal which hangs like the sword
of Damocles over the head of any bor-
rover from a private individual under
a short time mortgage.
Second.--It would unlock the door.
of the great money centers to the
farmer of the remotest regions and
York, SO that he would need have no
concern with knowing anything of the
sort of security offered by the farm in
Texas or Oregon on which the money
he lends is to be spent.
This means to the farmer low rates
of interest and easy terms for repay
ment What it would mean in more
specific terms to the American farm
er can be easily seen in comparison
of conditions in Germany or France
and In the United States. Here is the
statement of a dealer in land mort
cages in our southwest. made at a
meeting In New York city. The
speaker was describing the business
of a company financed by British cap
ital which makes mortgage loans on
farms in the southwestern states:
I'VE have been loaning money at 8,
0 and 10 per cent. loaned money in
the Panhandle twenty-seven years ago
and for the first three or four years
never got less than per cent month.
That is incident to new country.
Now our bank rate is 10 per cent. Our
land loans that we have been making
the first year or so through that sec
ton Of the country have been made
on an 8 or 8 per cent basis. However,
the rates ought to come down and
that we ought to be able to get money
from that section of the country at
or per cent"
In comparison with this statement the
Credit Foncier of France Is able to
loan money on farm lands at 4.3 per
cent and the German societies and
banks at about 4 or 4.5 per cent. AS
the speaker quoted above says. the
high rate of interest in this country is
probably to large extent due to the
fact that 1t is a new country and that
money here Is more actively employed.
1t is doubtful whether, even with the
adoption of the European machinery.
the interest rates on mortgages could
be brought down as low In the United
States as they are in either France or
Germany. 1t Is the opinion of no less
an authority than Charles A. Conant.
however that they could be brought
down to 5 per cent. A mortgage at
per cent with the advantage to the
farmer of repaying his loan little by
little through an unburdensome plan
of amortization might be accepted as
the sum total of benefit to be expected
by the American farmer from the
adoption of some such system-as, for
instance. the German mortgage bank
Ia.rN