The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-18
ii' the south have the commissions beer the greatest.
 PAYING BY INSTAILMENTS

PAYING BY INSTALLMENTS
 3. Perhaps the next benefit in the order of importance is the amortization plan or the playing of the principal by install- ments. In the settled sections of the mid dle west for example, where the supply. rates and commissions have been more stable, the farmer borrower could re fund his debt at it's expiration and dur ing the time of it's approaching maturity could with greater reliance use his funds for development, improving his farm buildings or his herds out of the increment of his labors with the result that the section in which he lives be- comes a better and more valuable com munity
 The five-year loan in the south too frequently has had to be met or the funds which might have been used for capitalizing a better farm have been spent in the expenses incident to new plan of financing the old loan.
 4. My fourth point of advantage may yet remain a theoretical one, but it seems not a far step to expect that the south may steadily be changed from an overburdenng condition of absentee landlordism to one of greater home own- ership.
 If our ferefathers in other sections have become owners of farm lands through the fruits of their toll, as has been the case where diversfication has keen the order of the day for many years, without the aid of the longtime first mortgage, how can it be argued that the tenant farmer of the south, many of whom are intelligent and in- dustrious, may not in increasing num- bers with the installment plan of a long period and the second mortgage in the hands of the seller, become the happy owner of his own vine and fig tree.
 COOPERATION AMONG FARMER
 B. Next I would place the feature of cooperation. the spirit of the age, among farmers as exemplified in the national farm loan associations, for which the act makes provision, and which is com pusory that the privilege of the insti- tuition may be enjoyed.
 This may be slow to maturity, but the principle has grown already and this ne- cessity will but furnish further incen- tive for it's development. Farmers unions, neighborhood clubs and selling organiza- ticns now voluntary in membership will furnish the nucleus for sound belief in the efficacy of the national farm loan associa tions, for other things than sim ply the vehicle for borrowing money.
 You bankers and the citizenship gener- ally may cry red tape, as will bs done, but you need only to reflect upon the operation of the national currency asso- citations under the Aldrich-Vreeland law for proof of the readiness with which men will learn to adapt themselves to the workings of a new order of things under the leadership of the best informed when the urgency of the situation points the way for an improvement in an existing condition.
 LIABILITY OF MEMBERS
 While upon the question of these na- tional farm loan associations and mem bership therein, allow me to dispel the erroneous impression which seems to pre- vail that each member is jointly and severally liable for the indebtedness of all members. The liability does not ex- tend beyond 10 per cent of his own loan. That comes about through his double lia- bility upon the stock which he must take in the farm loan association, and is fash toned after the double liability of stock holder in a national bank, who as you know, is liable for an assessment of 100 per cent of his holding therein to make good the obligations of the institution
 AS you will observe, I have confined the points of advantage to those which seem to apply most favorably to the con ditions here in the south The bringing of money from other fields which may be used in the development here, the reduc- tion in commission charges, the install ineHt payment plan, thus rendering Sta- ole the plans of the farmer for improv- ing his farm, the possibility of a greater degree of home ownership among small farmers and the intensifying of co-opera- ton in the south where it has been lack ing.
 In addition to this, of course, the gen. eral benefits which may accrue to the country generally will be proportionately beneficial to this section. The great de- velopment of agriculture, including the greatly discussed question of diversified tion as a saner and safer method, the es- tablishment of a standard form of invest ment resting upon farm mortgage will appeal to our investors who are growing in nlirpheES