Arizona republican., 1913-07-19

A France- With many the con
 A fused idea persists that Paris IS
 O all Of France that counts for
 anything. But that is not so. Paris
 is neither all France nor. fortunately
 for the Republic. is all France, Paris.
 Paris may be the head and a rather
 apoplectic head it is, which would not
 fare so well were it not for the sound
 body of the provinces. kept lean and
 muscular with toll, and healthy with
 thrift and. in the peculiar French way
 abstinence. As it is with all nations
 the strength of France rests in the
 peasantry upon the soil. They work,
 they save. and they utilize. Was there
 ever a person who could utilize the
 utterly useless like the French peas
 ant? It is the peculiar genius of the
 French people that whatever they do,
 they do better than anyone else. And
 so even on the farms they are artists
 Italy produces a good grade of wine,
 but practically the only Italian wine
 that you will see in export trade Is
 that which has been bought by the
 French. "prepLred" for the market,
 and resold. Whether it be straw and
 ribbon for hat making or grapes for
 wine making. 1t is not what the
 Frenchman has to work with, but his
 methods that ena ble him to excell in
 
 It is not strange, when these facts
 are considered, that the French should
 have wrung such wealth out of their
 soil. It is not the fertility of the
 French land nor the climate so much
 that gives France it's agricultural
 wealth as 1t is the talent of the French
 farmers to make that land produce
 the utmost in quantity and quality
 which is possible. There Is not the supply of labor in the United States to make it possible to copy the French methods of intensive cultivation which is profitable only for the most costly crops. Such cultivation has It's severe drawbacks since it divides the earn | ings among many workers and though the profits taken out of a single acre of land in some parts of France are little short of astounding to American l minds, still none would wish to see rural America made rural France 1 and the women and children placed at ! work in the fields.
 But the methods employed by the l French to lure to he farmers the vast l sums of money necessary to the de- 1 Veiopment of farms where such in- tensfve cultivation is to be practiced | hold a lesson of the greatest value to | American farmers. The French pos | sess the most highly perfected flnan- cfal machine to serve their landowners In the world It is the Credit Foncier of France. So economically is this national land bank conducted that 1t Is a ble to pay profit to it's stockhold- CTS sufficient to keep it's stock well above par on 2. margin of profit of only 4 per cent. Less than one half or one hundredth and still a satisfac- tory profit is shown. Moreover much business T1G Tlo ] is conducted on even a small er margin.
 The Germans were the first people 10 tiystematize the sale of their farm mortgages so that a collective secur- ty Of the value of many farms was paced back Of each mortgage instead 'f the value of a single farm as Is done even now in the United States. The 7rench Credit Foncier Is copied in , principle from the German system. but , 'adIcal changes in organization and l practice were made. f
 In brief the Credit Foncier of 'rance is an association or company # private stockholders which lends honey to landowners on mortgage and ssues bonds based upon those mort e ages to secure the money for the { Thus no money is loaned { n an individual mortgage in France. f ut the investor buys instead a bond . IT debenture of the land bank. The I honey paid for this bond is loaned z a Iapdowner on a mortgage given | the land bank. A slightly higher interest rate is charged the landowner z han Is paid on the bond and this con- q titutes the profit of the bank. As a Imple as this practice sounds, the h enefits which it brings to the French c lndoWners are almost incalcuIable hen contrasted with the method of + orroW1ng on an individual mortgage s practfsed by American farmers. V
 The mark ret commanded by an indf- b idual mortgage is limited to those fl ersons who are able to judge of the D alue of the land on which the mort 2 age is issued. The market com f. landed by a bond of the Credit n oncier is as broad as the reputa- O on of the company. And since the O redit Foncier has capital of $40. C. DO, 900 and has been successfully op- O -ated without losses to bondholders tC nee 1852. its reputation is interna- D onal. The wider the market obtain it ole for security the lower the in- il rest rates which must be paid upon n Thus the interest rates at which al le bonds of the Credit Foncier sell O. @ far lower than are the rates of any sf -ivate mortgage. Moreover the com 1T any can take it's profit out of the d ansaction and still loan the money to a, rmers at far lower rates than they ol