The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-04-18

OF FARM
FINANCE:

Chicago, April Establishing facili-
ties and agencies should be made use
OF by any system OF farm finance II 1t
is to be practical, according to a plan
outlined today by Gerard M. j. Badow
of Chicago, correspondent from the
United States to the Archive and Blu
reau or International Land Credit
Statistics Of Germany, speaking before
the National Conference on Marketing
and Farm Credits In session with the
Western Economic society. MI. Ba-
dow said: .
"A practical American system of
farm finance to be a system in fact,
instead of a makeshift, should be a
scientifically n logically arranged
whole Of essential principles and facts
related by the law of credit 10 the
subject Of farm finance, as existing In
the United States.
In the first place, it should be a
system that is capable Of making use
Of existing facilities and agencies. in
stead of creating artificially a great
number of institutions, that would
have to start doing business without
the most necessary asset in the loan
business, that of experience.
ut should be a system providing for
two types Of land credit, that, which is
needed by the going concern. the vet
eran farmer Of many years of success.
and that Of the beginner, the tenant,
branching out for himself. the immi-
grant, whose funds are not sufficient
to pay so per cent of the purchase
price. The farmer Of long experience
should be enabled to borrow money, no
matter in what state he happens TO
farm. for the improvement Of his land,
be it by doing more extensive, inten-
sive or diversified farming or even for
drainage or irrigation work.
"The beginner. as long as he is
sober, industrious and knows his bust
ness, should be enabled to acquire
land. with as little as one-fifth Of the
purchase price in his hands. While
the established farmer would not need
credit for more than ten years, this
beginner should be allowed credit for
at least twenty years. I do not think
he would ask for longer. credit, and
see no reason why a law should pro-
vide for thirty or more years credit
facilities. An American farmer, par
ticularly of foreign birth. who needs
more than twenty years to repay a
60 or 20 per cent loan, has either too
much land or too little brains, and is
not a good risk for a loan. Fifteen
years Is about all the time q half ways
good farmer needs to pay off a loan OF
so per cent Of the value Of his land,
from the arnings of such land, and
LIldL bdhSS 1lLO COI1SlOtL dLAO4 poSSADLC
crop failures.
To burden a bill establishing a lane
credit system with provisions govern
ing the organization Of cooperative
societies, for the granting of short
time credit. or the purchase and mar
keting Of products, Is to my mind a
mistake. Short time credit Is grant
ed today, and I am convinced in as
good terms to farmers as to urban
borrowers.
"A canvass, made among some o.
600 borrowers Of certain localities all
over the country, showed that real
estate owners living in towns, paid
In 1912, in only ten cases out Of 100
less than farmers, while in thirty
cases they paid more, and the, rest
paid equal rates. This concerned
purchase money loans. For short
time loans, town people paid less in
eleven cases, more in twenty-one
cases. and in s!xty-eight cases they
paid the same rate as farmers paid.
These figures had something to do