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Show NATIONAL FARM LOANSSOCIATION f Continued from Page One) us is set opposite our respective names. In witness whereof we have here- ' unto set our hands this ! day of 191 i Note. At the time of signing the articles of association, each member should fill out, sign and deliver to the Secretary his application for loan. ! Fill out this blank, follow instruc- tiou and you have taken the first steps in the formation of a National j Farm Loan Association, j As soon as you can get together j ! ten or more farmers or prospective I j farmers who wish to borrow on first farm mortgages, hold a meeting and I adopt these articles of association, j filling in at the top the name of your ' association and outlining the bound-' bound-' aries of the territory in which the ! association desires to do business. Then have each borrower sign the ar-i ar-i tides of association and have your j secretary-treasurer make affidavit thereto. i Your association should elect its directors at the first meeting. Election Elec-tion should be by ballot, each mem- j ber having one vote for each share j of stock held. But no one member can vote more than twenty shares. 'Not less than five directors may be chosen. Many associations are electing elect-ing nine directors, for the reason that with a board of nine there is no ! danger of a tie vote, and It is easier ' to compute the two-thirds vote re- quired to admit new members. ; As soon .as your directors are elected, have them meet and elect a ' president, a vice-president, a secre-) secre-) tary-treasurer, and a loan committee ! of three members. Your loan committee should pro- ceed at once to prepare a written re-; re-; port appraising the value of the land ! to be mortgaged by each of the mem- bers of the association. This report must be unanimous. A blank form for the report will soon be sent out by the Federal Farm Loan Board. Your secretary-treasurer should ( address a letter to the bank of your i district at Berkeley, California, and ask for the necessary blank forms including an application for charter, f Fill out such application and mail it i to the Federal Land Bank of your district, and send along with It the i signed articles of association and the I report of your local loan committees. DO NOT SEND ANY OF THESE '! PAPERS TO WASHINGTON. ! Just a word about the election of i a secretary-treasurer. It is. not nec- essary that he be a borrower or a ' member of the association. He may be the cashier of a bank, a school teacher, a lawyer, a merchant, or anybody who is competent to trans; act the business of your association in -its relations with the Federal Land Bank. The secretary-treasurer is in reality the business manager of the local loan association, and is. required re-quired to be under bond. A word also about the size and the territorial limits of a National Farm Loan Association. You are permitted under the law to pay your secretary-treasurer secretary-treasurer a salary. If you have a small association it is likely that one of your members will act as secretary-treasurer without pay. So it may be more economical to have smaller associations and have more of them than to have a very large association and pay your secretary-treasurer a salary. Or, if it be deemed advisable, all the associations in -one county could employ one secretary-treasurer located at the county seat. It might ! be possible to secure the services of ! an attorney who would act as secretary-treasurer without compensation on condition that each borrower of that county engage him to prepare abstracts of title at a stated amount per abstract. It is important to keep ! down expenses. Remember this is a ! co-operative banking system. ! There are no territorial limits for ! a loan association, except, that it can-! can-! not operate across state lines. An j i association may accept members from any place within the territory outlined out-lined in its articles of association. Remember, it takes ten or more to organize an association, and the as- I sociation must start .business with applications for at least $20,000 of loans. If some of your members can . not use the money at once, but you j need them to make up your local, i let them join now, sign the articles I j of association, and get the money any j i time within six months. We would i i advise you not to accept for member-', ship anyone who cannot use the money within six months. Remember, only actual farmers : may borrow, and only borrowers may i become members. A borrower need i ' not actually live on his land, but he i must farm it either directly or with hired help. If he leases it to a ten-1 ant he cannot borrow, because he j i ceases to be an actual farmer. Cor-1 porations and partnerships cannot borrow. i J |