Show esK 1 1 11 t- t FARM LOIN N ACT VI Its Social and Economic Effect r rBy By Frank R. R Wilson Nilson federal loan bureau bureau bureau bu bu- bu- bu reau Washington D. D C. C The main points of ot the federal farm loan act have been set forth in the preceding Installments The reader reader will readily see that this act is a n new thing In this country and und Is liable to have an Important effect on our social and financial life Ufe Let us briefly suggest some of Its possible effects The rapidly Increasing cost of ot raving living has hns of late given American thinkers a n great deal of uneasiness The fact Is everywhere recognized that our city population has been Increasing more rapidly than the rural population Every Ev- Ev Every Ev Ey ery day there are some more mouths to feed but there Is only a slowly increased in increased in- in creased acreage upon which this food Is produced Two Important facts are therefore patent First more farms must be established to provide homes for more producers and second the land under cultivation must be farmed more carefully and with more and better equipment to meet meet the growing demand for food The farm furm loan act will have a n strong Influence toward a realization of both bothof bothof of or these Ideals Will Reduce Tenantry Farm tenantry Is a curse whose worst worst effects are lowered fertility and Inefficient farm methods The tenant Is not a normal farmer The transient nature of ot his living mak makes s maximum production Impossible He is often not a 1 meat ment producer er because he Is Is- not on one firm farm long enough to build buildup up a herd of ot live stock He Is a 11 grain farmer and a grain farmer Is a sapper of fertility He Is engaged In the past past- time of hauling the ot his landlords landlord's landlords landlord's landlords landlord's land land- lords lord's soil to market With approximately approximately one half of ot the farm lands of ot the country In the hands of ot tenants America is Is' cashing I h In her land fertility fertility fertil fertil- ity at an amazing rate The farm loan act has hns for tor one of ot Its Important purposes the placing of ot land Into the hands of ot owners who will farm It with the Inspiration that comes from ownership The owner of ot land treats it so as to conserve Its fer fer- He Is a permanent fixture In Inthe Inthe inthe the neighborhood He markets his crop through his live C stock returning the fertility to the soil A nation of ot land landowners landowners landowners owners means a nation with a constantly constantly con con- Increasing capacity to produce food for Its people But the farm loan act will do more for agriculture than merely supplyIng supplying supplying supply supply- ing cheap money The act actually specifies how the money money borrowed shall be spent It says that unless u used ed to pay debts it shall be sp spent nt on things that will contribute to more production on the same acreage So the farm iJan act means menns a higher and better type of agriculture The financial saving to the farmers of ot America would alone be enough to justify this enactment On a volume volume vol vol- ume of ot four billion dollars our farmers farm ers are arc paying now nearly 9 0 per cent annually all of which is a tax tar on all the people because It limits consumption consumption tl tion Ii by handicapping the producer If this rate should be reduced by 4 per percent percent percent cent It would would- mean mean an actual annual saving of ot But tills this estimate estimate esti esti- mate of ot the money to be saved does not take Into consideration the fact that the normal volume of farm loan business will greatly Increase with an advantageous Interest rate The success of ot the farm loan bankIng banking bank bank- Ing system is now up to the farmers themselves They have been given the tho operative co-operative machinery to finance without profit to any They have been given the thc machinery machinery ma mo chinery for governing their own finan financial cial Institutions and maintaining control control con con- of ot them So carefully Is their ownership guarded no matter who buys stock In the federal land banks that eventually none but the farmers may have voting power Yes the federal farm tarm loan act Is somewhat revolutionary It upsets all past practices in farm finance It puts the interests of the majority 1 above the Interest of ot the few less It gives the under a chance It writes Humanity First across the ledger of ot modern business |