The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-19
Gambling in Farms Alarms ]
Bank Officials in the West
By JAMES b. MORROW.

the nation that eight officers
of the Government have been sent
into the middle West to make what is
called a survey Of the situation.
Farmers and their tenants, bankers
and merchants, commercial travellers
and old men long retired from bust
ness are buying land on narrow mar
gins and giving enormous mortgages.
Wall Street, that nefarious abode of
speculation, requires a margin of 10
per cent. commonly on its unholy
purchases.
In many regions of the West a
down payment Of per cent. in cash
will swing, temporarily, at least, a
transaction amounting to 100000
Ordinarily the land gambler pays
81, 900 in money, promises to pay, say,
$40, 900 on the first day of next March
and gives mortgages for the large bal.
ance of his indebtedness
So immense has become the total
sum payable on March !, 1920, that
State banking commissioners in the
West are much alarmed, and 1t was at
their suggestion, perhaps, that Secre-
tary David +. Houston of the Depart
ment of Agriculture ordered eight In
vestigators into the field.
Where Delirium RACES.
Specializing in farms is going on in
all parts of the country. 1t has turned
into delirium, however, in Iowa, GEN.
trail Illinois northern Missouri, east
nd
North Dakota, southern Minnesota
and western Indiana. Corn at ~ a
bushel and pork at twenty cents a
pound on foot are the figures that
have turned sober men into the wild
est type of plungers.
Seemingly no one is asking, How
long will war prices of grain and
meat continue?" Nor, it would APP
pear, is any one inquiring, Who will
meet the cash payments due next
March,"
The man who buys a farm to-day
at the price of $500 an acre conf
IDENTIFY expects to sell 1t next week or
next month for S425 or $3.50 an acre,
When he sells, his obligation, to be
met in the spring of 1920, passes with
, the land.
Who VIII Lend the Money!
And it passes, always. Therefore
a day of settlement is coming. In
| many cases, no doubt, the final owners
Of farms that are now in the whirl-
! pool of speculation will be prepared
| to meet their payments. Banks then
will simply debit one Idepositor and
| credit another. No money will be
used.
In hundreds of other cases, possibly
| in thousands of them, funds will have
| 10 be negotiated. The Farm Loan
Board in Washington has notified the
land banks under its jurisdiction not
to advance more than 800 an acre to
borrowers. That amount goes but a
short part of the way in a purchase
that was made on a basis of four times
the sum just named.
VIII the local banks, then, give the
loans? And if they do not, what will
happen? And IL they do. what will
happen? These are the questions that
are giving thoughtful men a grea'
deal of anxiety. There will be owners
on March /, 1920; just as many as
there are at this moment. Will there
be cyclone? If there is a cyclone
will the last owners come through II
safely? And if they are swept away
how many other men will keep them
company?
Corn. oats and pork are the CHIEF
products cf Iowa. Some land in thai
State is of wonderful fertility. But
all OF the land is not alike. The gam
bling is being carried on in the richest
agricultural regions. What is elias
sified as a good farm will yield from
As or so bushels OF corn TO the acre
The Iowa average, however. is only
80 $40 bushels to the acre. In the
United States as whole the average
is rs $40 bushels.
AS to oats, the Iowa average II
SO $40 bushels; in the entire coun