The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-06
IN AID OF FARMERS=|
(By Our Staff correspondent.)

A nation wide movement to interest the American rural population along financial, business and social lines, as
 a means to strengthen the position of the farmers, increase their income and their production and to lower the cost of fOodstuffs- to the consumers, was
 announced here recently in letter
 to the governors of the States, to
 the farmers organizations, agricultu-
 ra1 institutions and farmers of Amer ica from the American Commission
 on Agricultural Cooperation which
 arrived from Europe on the s. s. Ced-
 ric.
 The Commission found that Euro -pean agriculture was organized along
 cooperative lines and also found that
 the European farmers have apparent 1y secured a financial, business and so-
 cial strength equal to that of the or
 ganized urban classes of capital and
 labor.
 !. Dr. c. J. Owens, of Maryland, Di-
 rector General of the American Com
 mission and Managing Director of The Southern Comm erctaI Congress-
 has given out the following letter ad- dressed to the governors of the States. the farmers organizations, agricultu- fal institutions, and the farmers of America: -
 ''The American Commission on Az riculturel Cooperation has completed its tour of European countries and has perfected plans to digest and com pile the information obtained with re- gard to cooperation and the organi- zation of rural life in European coun- tries along financial, business and so- cial lines. It is believed that this task can be completed before the end of the present year, when the final report of the Commission will be sub-
 mitted.
 '"The Commission is deeply impress ed with the vital importance of a thoroughly organized and united ru- ra1 population. Tn this respect the countries of Europe offer a lesson which may not long be disregarded in America without serious consequences.
 ENThe agricultural interests of most of the European countries visited by the Commission are organized along ote or more of the following lines: credit, production, distribution and so- cial organization for the betterment of country life.
 Organizations for the provision of credit facilities for European farmers follow the natural division into short time personal credit and long time 1and-xnortgage credit. The organiza.- ttons for the provision of personal credit facilities are as highly develop ed are the systems of commercial banking. The prevailing rate of in terest paid by the farm merst for short time loans, is from four to five and one-half per cent. The terms offer ] ed European farmers are generally better designed to meet the peculiar requirements of agrtculturists than are the terms obtainable to-day by the American, farmers. :-.
 '"The personal credit organtZati onS | have the form of cooperative socfa- | bility for the debts of the society while | in other cases the societies take the | form of limited liability. As ruHe in European countries, the law makes little or no provision for exemptions | of any kind. These short time oFed- | it societies furnish cheap, safe and elastic credit to their members by reason of their control by farmers and are organizations exclusively in. the interest of farmers who operate them at nominal cost and without seeking dividend profit to such societies.
 Land mortgage credit has been organized so as to place a. collective | security back of bonds issued by land mortgage societies in contrast with the system of marketing individual loans upon individual mortgages. Without discussing the form of organ ization employed for this purpose, it may be stated that these land-mort- gage institutions bring to European farmers low interest rates; the pFivil- eges of repaying loans in small fixed annual miscellaneous extending over a term of years-in some cases as long as seventy-fve years under the amor tization plan, although provision for earlier payment is made if the bor rower so desires; protection from ads vance in interest rates; and the prac tical elimination of commission char ges. Many of these personal credit so ocieties and land mortgage aesocia- tions are fostered by government grants, loans or special provisions of law. Mortgage bonds issued by com mercfa1 banks and by private joint stock land-mortgage banks sell sub on the same basis with like securities issued by government fa- vored institutions and both classes of banks are recognized as needfuI in the development and conservation of az riculturaI resources. In many instan- ces private and mmercial banks pur- chase the securities of '1and-mortgage associations. Experience has demon strated that such land-mortgage ponds are liquid assets.
 f"The systems of land title regfstra- ion in countries possessing such mortgage institutions practically pre-