Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-09-11

f $1,000, 100000 And the farmers
As might have been expected, the
records Of the Farmers Home Ad-
ministration show that this farm
ers' home-loan program has been
more extensive in the Southeast
and the Southwest-indeed, in the
area which suffered most from the
Civil War and which has struggled
hard to make a great comeback.
But its operation has not been
confined to those areas by any
means. Farm workers and share
troopers have been helped in ali
other sections, too.
In the deep South, for example,
in the delta country Of the Mis-
sissipi, the farmers home-loan
program has been Of enormous aid
to both white and Negro. Thou
sands of these men, capable farm
workers and hare-croppers, who
did not have the capital or could
not borrow it from local banks
and from insurance companies,
have been aided. And the records
they have themselves made have
been tremendously encouraging.
They have worked their land sue
cessfully, have lived in new and
better homes, have been able to
buy tractors and other farm ma
chinery. They have been able to
save money. to buy radios and
typewriters, to send their chill
dren to schools longer-and to
college. They grow their own
food, they own and feed their own
cattle. They have become them
selves capitalists. One Of the in
teresting and particularly sane
things about the operation is the
rule that once one Of these farm
ers owns, actually owns, IS per
cent of the investment, he is IN
his own and any further loans he
makes must be made through
regular private channels, the
banks and other lending agencies.
The banks, instead Of being
hostile to the program, have well
coined it. Not only has 1t made
prosperous clients for the banks,
but it has spurred the banks them
selves to make loans to purchase
farms. In the South, the opera
ton of the plan has tended to
better racial relations, and 1t has
helped to raise the standard OF
living and of education for the
Negroes as well as for the whites.
The loans made by the Farmers
Home Administration to improve
farming operations or to make
possible the ownership Of farms
are supplemented with individual
guidance, where necessary. IN farm
and home management.
Operating Costs Cut
For farmers who cannot obtain
the credit they need, at interest
not exceeding 5 per cent, from
banks and cooperative lending
agencies in their communities, the
Farmers Home Administration
may make operating loans for
buying livestock, seed, fertilizer
and farm equipment. for f1nanc-
ing chattel Indebtedness and fam
lily subsistence. It Is authorized to
give farm mortgage insurance for
loans advanced by private lend
ers for the same purpose as direct
farm-ownership loans. In prac-
tice, the insurance of mortgages
means insurance Of 80 per cent
Of the loan. A farmer who buys a
$4,000 farm, for example, puts
up 81 900 and the balance of the
loan price is insuranced. This Is
a type of business that the Farm
ers' Home Administration Is en-
couraging wherever it can.
Loans are made, too. in the II
Western States for water facilities.
Disabled veterans may obtain
loans for farms smaller than the
economic family-type units If
earned farm income plus the
veterans disability benefits will
provide adequate living for the
family while the loans are being
repaid.
The Farmers Home Administra-
ton was established in 1946
through the merger Of two former
agencies-the Farm Security Ad-
ministration and the Emergency
Crop and Feed Loan Division of
the Farm Credit Administration.
The record Of its loans and opera
tions, therefore, embraces those
of earlier years under the two
former agencies. Today interest
payments almost pay for the en-
tire operation of the Farmers
Home Administration. To be ex-
act, the interest payments re-
ceived amounted to about ST.
100000 and the expenditures of
the agency to $23.000.000. This
agency of the Government, which
is doing an excellent job, is cost
ting Uncle Sam and the tax
payers very, very little. Further,
through the merger of the for
mer loaning agencies, it has been
possible to cut the overhead ex-
pense until it is practically only
60 per cent Of what it was before.
Lasseter the Chief
The interest charges made by
the Farmers Home Administra-
ton on its loans vary. On disas-
ter loans the rate Is 3 per cent
per annum on real estate loans
it is 4 per cent and on crop
operating loans it is 5 per cent.
At the head of the Farmers
Home Administration is billiard
B. Lasseter, a native of South
Georgia, who has from his early
days known the problems of the
small farmer, the single-crop
farmer, the farm worker and the
share-cropper. Mr.. Lasseter, how
ever, has had wide experience.
For years, he was in the foreign
service, with posts In China and