The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-29
FARM LOAN BOARD IN ACTION
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By Frederic }. Haskin. Director.
Washington. ID. G.

farm loan board IS at present one VI
the busiest distributing points in the
machinery of the United States gov
eminent. Yesterday it sold about
million dollars worth of bonds, and
issued twenty-five charters to farm
loan associations. 1t already has or
ganized a thousand of these associa-
TONS approved loans of fifty million
dollars and actually placed about ten
millions in the hands of the farmers
From Washington the energy of
these millions is radiating into every
part of the nation. Back in the cut
over lands of northern Wisconsin, for
example. it has given lot of farm
ers a new lease on prosperity They
all own brush land which is worth
about thirty dollars an acre with the
brush on it. They can borrow from
the government fifteen dollars an
acre, which is enough to clear the
land. But as soon as it is cleared it
becom IS worth a hundred dollars an
acre, so that they can borrow an
other fifty dollars an acre with which
to put it in grass and corn for en-
silage. and buy livestock. With the
Chicago and Milwaukee markets only
few hundred miles away, there is
big money for them in the dairying
business, and they are moving rapidly
in the direction of said money.
The farmers are not afraid of these
large borrowings, either, because 6
per cent a year for thirty-six years
pays off both the interest and the
principal; and they know that .ney
can make a great deal more than 8
per cent on money invested in the i'm
provement of good agricultural land
with food prices as they are.
Farmers in other parts of the nation.
are equally aware of the good thing
Some of the southern planters who
own those great sprawling plantations
that are about 60 per cent woodla nd
have found that five hundred dollars
it enables them to use all of the wood
land for sheep and cattle pasture.
Advice to the Borrower.
The farm loan board knows what
every farmer proposes to do with the
money it lends him. Mr.. Herbert
Quick now proposes to go a step
further and offer the farmer 4 little.
advice. This advice will take the
form of a publication called the Bor-
rower's Bulletin. 1t will go free to
every borrower under the farm loan
act, and the first issue is just about
to come off the press.
One of the first and most significant
things that farmers all over .he coJn-
try are doing is to make Uncle Sam
the creditor for whatever they owe.
The government bids fair to BECOME
a sort of permanent and universal
protagonist in the farm mortga &c
drama. For example, in the first two
farm loan associations organized in
Montana, the farmers were paying 8
to II per cent for the money they lad
borrowed. Furthermore, many of the
loans were short term loans. BY Dor
rowing the money from the govern
ment to pay back their other creditors.
| these farmers have saved from 8 to Z
per cent year in addition TO obta in
ing most favorable terms TO; the re-
payment of the loan.
The government farm loans are put
ting a premium on good farming
methods, and this educative feature
of the act has great possibilities of
development For example, the head
of the New Orleans federal farm loan
district says that he always regards
as a good risk a man who raises his
own food, and especially a man who
raises hogs, so that he will not have
to buy meat. That man is going to
| have money with which to meet his
payments. This same district board
cut down the loan of man who was
| placidly raising cotton, and nothing
| but cotton, despite the fact that the
eastern drive of the boil weevil army
was only twenty miles from his farm
1t would seem that if the board ha6
| proper machinery for pointing out tc
| the man his danger and how to rem
edy it by diversifying his crops, its
usefulness would be incidentally null
tiplied. This function will doubles:
be performed in part by the Borrow
| er'S Bulletin.
Colored Citizens and Loans.
1t is interesting to note that the col
ored citizens in the south are getting
a full share of the benefit of the loan
| n n hair int
among other things, a provision wa.
| inserted in the law to the effect tina
no one farm loan association could
have exclusive jurisdiction over an!
given bit of territory. This would
prevent the white people, or any othe
one class or group from forming al
association from which others wer,
excluded. In some parts of the soutl
this has led to the organization o
| separate farm loan associations by tn
negroes. But in other parts the dis
trict boards have announced that thi
is an opportunity for the white mai
to show that he is real friend o
the colored man by helping him t.
the benefits of the farm loan, an,
most of the white farmers in tn
south have taken the tip
In fact an excellent communit
spirit has been a by-product of tn
farm loan in many sections Publ
not been slow to see that the NOR
government money is introduced int
their communities the better for al
concerned, provided only the none
is well used; and they have don
everything in their lower . help thei
neighbors get a share of tie boon.
Naturally, land titles have prove
the greatest difficulty in executin
the business of the farm loan board
The associations are easily formed
Then the federal district chief look
into the responsibility and standing o
the members, and with his approval
large and sumptuous looking charte
is forwarded to the new association
and is generally framed and hung o
the wall of the secretary's office.
The Necessary PreIin.inaries.
These preliminaries dispensed with
the real work begins. The govern
ment appraisers must appraise tn
lands upon which the money is to b
| loaned and the farmer must in eac