The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1914-04-01

row money advantageously and eco
nomically is an important question.
1t may not be 30 important as good
marketing but it is important enough.
His loan should be on terms which
meet his occupation and his financial
resources. If he cannot get these
terms from his banker he will
naturally try to get them elsewhere.
The question Is will the banker force
him to seek loans elsewhere, or will
he meet the needs of the farmer.
There is little doubt that the banker
could give longer time on safe per-
sonal paper. There is little doubt
that he could arrange for long time
real estate mortgages. When a farmer
borrows to buy a farm and gives a
mortgage for the loan there is no rea-
son why it should not be a long time
amortization mortgage permitting re-
payment in annual or semi-annual
payments extending over ten, twelve
or twenty years.
Gilt Edge Security.
A good first mortgage on real estate
running for a considerable period Of
time Is recognized the world over as
a gilt edged loan. Financiers are &C
customed to advise It as the safest In
vestment for trustees, widows and
others who are not able to pass upon
the character Of miscellaneous invest
ments.
The president Of one Of the great
life insurance companies makes the
statement that his company in Its his
tory of forty-six years has loaned
s133,S3S,5 49.44 to 1902 farmers, Sc
cured by mortgage on 11,462,363 acres,
the average loan being $1,7S2. The
net loss after paying all costs, fees,
assessments and penalty interest
rates was fourteen-hundredths Of one
per cent. This is substantially the
history Of all properly organized farm
land mortgage business. Some $780,
100000 in farm mortgages are carried
by our life insurance companies-an
amount equal to IS per cent of the
total farm mortgages shown by the
census.
If a farm loan for three years is a
good loan, one for ten or fifteen or
twenty years Is good, too, but no
American bank makes these long
loans. Why? We have eve been
able to get any adequate answer to
this question. The general response
is an unsatisfactory one, 1T isn't good
banking to make such long farm
~loans," which is. another way Of say
ing what we have said before, that
the city banker will not meet the
needs Of the farmer borrower.
There seems to be therefore nc rea-
son why this fact that a long time
farm loan is a gilt edged loan should
not be taken into account in fixing the
interest. 1t is not possible that the
interest on these loans should be near
the rate which Is received upon bonds,
either municipal or industrial. The
city banker will investigate fully the
integrity and earning capacity Of
every factory that wants a loan. Is
there any reason why the American
banker should not put himself in a
position to Investigate the honesty and
earning capacity of the farmer who
needs money, thus permitting him to
capitalize his character as do bankers
abroad? On the whole after looking
over the situation at home and abroad
it is not surprising that the farmer
sometimes suggests that bankers
might we'll study their own activities
rather than to be butting in upon the
farmers business.
Over here in Germany the bankers
were formerly as slow as those Of
America are now to meet this demand
for rural credit. So cooperative
credit came and it came to stay. 1t
does the work and it does it we'll.
The question that is up in America
is simply a question as to whether or
not the American banker is going to
insist that the American farmer solve
his own difficulties or whether he,
the banker is going to solve it for him
and be his financial hacker.
Mortgage Loans in Germany.
A cooperative loan on long mort
cages Is M new experiment. One
hundred and forty years ago the
Landschaftan were organized in Prus-
erately fashioning metrical fragments