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Show Boom in Farm Prices and Rapid Turnover Prompts Fears Collapse Will Follow Peace Memory of Bust After World War I Still Is Vivid to tlie Farmers When GI Joe comes back to his farm home from the war he may find a lot of new faces around the neighborhood. And he may miss a lot of the old familiar ones. The family up the road may have moved bag and baggage to Oregon. A new owner may be tilling ! the bottom lands on the back eighty. Rural America is on the move. Farmers, like their city cousins, have been shifting their base of op-j op-j erations at an ever-increasing tem-: tem-: po in the months since Pearl Harbor. Har-bor. More farms are changing hands this year than at any time in the past generation. They are changing I for scores of reasons, but back of J almost every sale is the chance to strike pay dirt to realize a profit J on the old homestead. Many farm folks are frankly con-! con-! cerned over this trend. They are , troubled not so much about the mi-i mi-i gration as they are about the steady increase in farm real estate transactions. transac-tions. They fear that the long threat-' threat-' ened land inflation is under way. ! And they are asking themselves: j "Will the old cycle of boom and bust be repeated?" j Every previous war has brought ' its own land boom that left a wreckage wreck-age of deflation behind. The collapse col-lapse of the speculative era following follow-ing World War I is painfully fresh in the memory of many a farmer. s considered fairly representative, it is estimated that farm land prices have risen about 17 per cent between be-tween April, 1943, and April, 1944. From the beginning of the year until April 1, the advance has been about 2 per cent. The increases have been largest in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, in which states the per cent of purchases pur-chases by city investors was largest, larg-est, being 30 to 37 per cent of all sales. It is true that farmers have been using much of their larger incomes to buy bonds and to pay off debts. The steadily decreasing volume of farm mortgage debt is evidence of this trend. But now reports indicate indi-cate that heavier debts are frequently fre-quently being assumed when farms are bought. This is especially true of tenants who are buying on con-tiact con-tiact or with relatively small down payments. AH Sorts of Buyers. Surveys by county banks indicate that all types of farm buyers are now in the market. Tenants are acquiring their own farms. Owners are expanding their present units or are taking on additional acreage, perhaps for sons now in the service. Even large commercial farms in some instances are changing hands at increasing prices. Local business busi-ness and professional people and city investors bent on hedging against inflation or higher income taxes are buying land. War plant workers, too, are making purchases, expecting to turn to farming when their munitions jobs are ended. All these conditions are reminiscent reminis-cent of what occurred in World War I, for that too, was a story of agricultural agri-cultural upsurge. Farm income rose from 6 billions in 1914 to 14Vz proposed in the future before endorsing en-dorsing them. "The land boom of the first World war and its awful consequences throughout 20 years have been credited cred-ited by some to unwise land ownership owner-ship policies," he declared. "Upswings "Up-swings of prices with the second World war have engendered the fear that another boom was in the making and that its consequences would be the same as the first. "Buyers have been warned repeatedly. re-peatedly. Still, reports of advancing advanc-ing prices multiply. Some belief holds that voluntary action would be ineffective. So legislated remedies reme-dies are proposed." Most drastic proposal is the permit per-mit system advocated by William G. Murray of Iowa and others. It would require a prospective purchaser to appear before a board and show reason why he should be allowed to buy a farm. If the board found him an unfit person to own land, or didn't like his attitude, it apparently could turn him down. No permit would be awarded before the land had been appraised. Limited Loans. j Another proposal is credit control. First provision is that no loans should exceed 50 per cent of the value of the land. Presumably value val-ue would be established by appraisal. apprais-al. Such a regulation might be legislated, and it might stick. Presumably, Pre-sumably, also, lending agencies would establish a policy of refusing to lend to men who paid long prices. , An approach to this is already in effect. The land banks, mortgage, trust and insurance companies have been discouraging borrowers both from paying too much and from bor-rowine bor-rowine too much of the Durchase price. But they don't have any con- ; trol over folks who are prepared to pay cash, or the private money lender lend-er who is willing to take a long chance for a high interest rate, or the owner who can finance his own sale. Mildest of these proposals is to impose a stiff federal capital gains tax. Such a bill was placed before be-fore congress by Senator Gillette of Iowa. It is directed at speculators by providing a tax amounting to 90 per cent of the profits if the land is resold before the end of two years. Each year thereafter the tax would be decreased until the end of six years, when none would be levied. There is no doubt as to the class of transactions which the legislation is intended to curb. But would a farmer farm-er who was obliged to sell within the limits specified be subject to the tax? All the schemes thus far advanced seem to be pointed toward keeping the buyer from making a fool of himself, him-self, but of course every sale must have two parties. So the man who wants to quit farming; the man who wants to retire on proceeds from sale of his land; the fellow who wants to sell and move elsewhere; the widow who has been hanging on until she can get the family I equity out intact; the non-operator who is sick of wrangling with tenants ten-ants and who has been longing for the time when he can get out and ' save his shirt all these welcome the upturn of prices. Now lots of farmers who have, no desire to sell, who think their troubles trou-bles are caused by folks they don't believe should be allowed to own land, applaud these proposals. And they may be riht, but it will be well to look into them, their implications, impli-cations, what rise may be proposed in the future before endorsing them. This country can have control of land s;tlrs and purchase in two ways. First by doing nothine:; sec- ; end by whooping it up for the pro- j pnsals. Fanners will he more vitally vital-ly affected than any other group, i If they want a Federal agency em- powered to say who may own land, ) they can have it. If thoy don't rare, they can have it anyway. Forces sponsoring the change in land policy will sec to that. Hut if fanners don't want it, they may bo able to forestall it by piotcst. |