Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1916-09-01

like mining than farming. Every
thing has been taken from it. Moth
ing has been restored. That is why
the owner. grown rich from soil ex-
haustion, has sold out and moved to
town.
The bare purchase of the farm has
taken nearly all of Browns savings,
The buildings leak; fences are down;
machinery is lacking; some of the
land needs draining; the rest needs
fertilizer.
Browns neighbor is prosperous.
He has treated his land like farm,
not like a mine. He has used good
seed, bought good stock, laid drain
pipes, and purchased commercial fer
tilizer by the ton. At the end of the
year his barns are full and his crops
are safe from the weather, while
Browns crops are meager, and fur
Their reduced by frequent wettings.
Brown Needs Money.
1t is plain that Brown needs cash
capital, but he has been brought up
to save, not to borrow. He looks
upon mortgage as disgrace. The
only time he borrowed, he was unable
to pay at maturity. He was charged
a commission and an eXtOrtionate
rate of interest for renewal. That
loan was burden for years, and al
ways a nightmare.
Then Browns Cousin Joe comes to
visit. Joe is a storekeeper in an
Eastern city, doing business largely
on borrowed capital. He tells John
that every prosperous merchant and
manufacturer borrows money. He
asks John what he supposes banks
are for if it is a disgrace to borrow.
Brown is half convinced. He gath
ers courage one day to go into the
nearest bank. He feels shabby and
out of place in the midst of so much
marble and brass and mahogany. His
courage oozes, his voice shakes, he
is clearly overawed, and the bank
official decides that he is cheap fell
low.
Brown is glad to escape with his
hat. He scarcely recalls why his loan
is refused, but there was talk of dear
money, and the risk of tying demand
deposits up in long term loans. The
real reason is that the banker does
not know Brown or his farm.
Hears of Federal Plan.
And then Browns friend Robin
son turns up one day, fresh from at
tendance on a hearing by the Fed
eral Farm Loan Board, recently APP
pointed by President Wilson under
the rural, credits bill. The board is
touring the country to ascertain the
farm loan needs of the various dis
tricts. Browns interest is aroused.
Here is help to which he is entitled
as a farmer and an American. He
writes to the Federal Farm Loan
Board at Washington, and this is
what he learns:
The United States will shortly be
divided into IL Land Bank districts,
each containing a federal land bank.
One of these will be established in a
city not far from Brown, for the sole
object of loaning money to farmers
for productive purposes on the Sc
curity of their farms. The farmer
will borrow, not as favor, but as
a right.
Every borrower will take per
cent of his loan in stock, and thereby
become a partner in the enterprise.
He will get his money at cost. Any
profit will be returned to him in div
idends. The interest rate cannot eX-
coed 6 per cent. The law fixes that,
But the rate may be as much lower
as cheap money and good manage
ment will warrant.
Brown learns that the land bank
will not deal directly with him. but
through a national farm loan associa-
ton composed of 10 farmers who
wish to borrow. So he puts in a
few evenings visiting his neighbors.
He finds nine of them who need cash
capital He invites them to meet
ing in his kitchen.
Organize Association.
Brown and his friends organize a
farm loan association. From the
Farm Loan Board they receive clrcu-
lars and blanks. The benefits are so
great and the plan so simple that
they would be suspicious II the pa
pers had come from Wall street rath-
err than from the government.
They elect officers, fill out the
blanks, sign their names, giving the
amount of money required by each,
and send their application to the land
bank of their district. The land bank