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Show ("NEWS" REPORT j ON FARM LOANS Because of the great delay In action upon the Government "Farm Loans appliedfor by the Milford Valley and Minersville Farm Loan Associations, the News wired to the president of the Federal Loan Bank at Ber- keley, California, last week and received a brief telegram the "following day stating . in sub- stance that the delay had been unavoidable and that a letter would fully explain the situa- tion. We herewith publish the letter which was duly received and which will give some encouragement to those who are depending upon the Government 5 -per cent money with which to make needed improvements and to pay off indebtedness. Following is the letter from Treasurer Treas-urer Elles of the Federal Loan Bank. Mr. Elles is a Utah man: Berkeley, Cal., Oct. 18, 1917. Milford, Utah. Gentlemen: We today wired you as follows In answer to your telegram of October 17th, which was received this morn-! ing. and now confirmed: "Telegram received. Most Utah applications in hands of field appraisers ap-praisers now. Within next two weeks additional appraisers -will be assigned to southern Utah. Writing." Perhaps a brief statement of conditions con-ditions will explain the situation to the applicants in your 'section of the State. When the Farm Loan Act was passed by Congress it had been agitated agi-tated for a number of years through farm papers and the public press generally and a great many of the farmers throughout the United States were all ready for loans as soon as the Bank here opened its doors. We were immediately flooded with two or more thousand applications and we hardly had time to organize the Bank before we were overwhelmed with applications for loans. Then unfortunately un-fortunately a disagreement arose among the Board of Directors and this delayed action on a great many of the applications. Finally, the new Board was appointed August 20th. 'Up until August 20th, there had only been $327,000 in loans closed. Today, we have over $1,000,-000 $1,000,-000 in closed loans and have also organized . the Bank on a businesslike business-like basis and are now taking care of applications much faster than they are coming in, although they are still coming in to the Bank at the rate of from fifty to seventy-five a day. Under the old administration Utah had received something like $12,000 while the total now already closed in Utah will run close to the $200 -.000 mark. The officers of the Bank have been working night and day to expedite the business of the Bank and will continue to do so until the enormous amount of accumulated work is disposed dis-posed of. The Bank has been put to a great deal of expense in this way: Associations Associa-tions have "been organized having only ten members, and the Farm Loan Act provides that where an Association As-sociation is organized with ten or more members, the Bank should send an appraiser to investigate the solvency sol-vency of its applicants and to appraise ap-praise their lands. This has been done in a great many instances in all four states of this district. Then when the applications reach the Bank, it has been found for one reason rea-son or another that some of the applicants ap-plicants could not qualify. They had either valued their lands too high, beyond all reason, or were not in a position to pay off their prior Indebtedness In-debtedness and could not accept the loan offered by the Bank. The solicitor so-licitor of the Treasury, Judge Becker, Beck-er, ruled that the Bank could not make loans to any association that did not have ten borrowers, and whose aggregate amount did not to- j tal 20,000 or more. Tbe result of I this ruling has been that the Bank ! has spent a great deal of money appraising ap-praising associations and then find that they could not qualify. You can assist the farmers In your locality by advising as many as you can to make application in an "association "asso-ciation so that the appraiser will have a sufficient number to appruiae on his first visit to insure the getting of an association in the district. We will have one and possibly two additional appraisers working in Utah within two weeks and shall endeavor en-deavor to appraise all applications now in the Bank before winter sets in. One reason for the delay in handling hand-ling applications in Southern Utah was because the Appraisal Department Depart-ment here thought that the winter would prevent appraising in the northern part of the State much earlier than it would in the southern part, and for that reason the appraisers ap-praisers were set to . work on the northern and central associations before be-fore they were on the southern. We realize that the farmers need their money Just as soon as they can get it, and we want to assure you that we are doing our utmost to see that they do get it. We also realize that the farmers in your section of the State havn been very patient and we appreciate their attitude although we feel that the applicants generally have not understood the conditions this Bank has had to struggle with from the start. While I am a member of thu Board from Utah, I expect to Berve the entire district endeavoring to see that all applicants receive attention atten-tion In turn. I shall thank you to write me, or the Bank, at any time about matters pertaining to farm louns and will appreciate ap-preciate any suggestions you may have to offer. Yours very truly, W. D. ELLES, |