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Show 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. Midwestern Land Prices Climb 18 in Year m Rise in prices of farm l0 lands in the Seventh 7f Is Federal Reserve District. -MJSi 15 J T ,-f r V . 1 hT-TS-f'' which includes Iowa, 10 " Wisconsin, Michigan, 85 and northern parts of xd Indiana and Illinois. April 1, 1943 July) Ocl. 1 Jan. 1 April I, 1944 Limited Loans. 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 borrowing bor-rowing too much of the purchase price. But they don't have any control 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 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 whq 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 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 right, but it will be well to look ,into them, their implications, impli-cations, what else may be proposed in the future before endorsing them. This country can have control of land sales and purchase in two ways. First by doing nothing; second sec-ond by whooping it up for the proposals. pro-posals. Farmers will be more vitally vital-ly affected than any other group. If they want a Federal agency empowered em-powered to say who may own land, they can have it. If they don't care, they can have it anyway. Forces sponsoring the change in land policy will see to that. But if farmers don't want it, they may be able to forestall it by protest. Symptoms are already evident suggesting sug-gesting that history could repeat itself it-self in World War II, unless brakes are applied to the fast-movirig upsurge up-surge in farm land buying. For instance, land values have risen ris-en 38 per cent above their 1935-39 average and are already up to 100 per cent of their pre-World War I levels. Farm sales during 1943 were at a record volume, surpassing even the previous ihigh reached in 1919. Sales in 1944 are forging ahead of last year's record. Plenty of Money Floating. Three factors are believed to be immediately responsible for the urge to acquire additional holdings: 1 Both farmers and nonfarmers have large and increasing funds available for land purchase. 2 Present high income and the rosy prospect of more yet to come make the purchase of farms seem especially attractive not only to farmers but city-dwellers as well. 3 Long term credit at low interest rates makes it easy to acquire land. Speaking of income, nearly 20 billion bil-lion dollars $19,764,550,000 to be exact ex-act flowed into farmers' pockets from the 1943 bumper harvest. Last year's total was more than four times the low-ebb depression income of 42 billion dollars in 193S. It was about $3,750,000,000 in excess of the 1942 total. When operating costs, including taxes, interest, wages for labor, machinery and other items billions in 1919. High prices and a ready market for agricultural products, prod-ucts, plus easy credit facilities, encouraged en-couraged farmers to bid up land prices. ' Farms were bought on speculation specula-tion with the expectation of a quick sale at a profit. Land values were inflated from an average of $40 an acre in 1914 to $70 in 1920. Within those six years farm real estate rose in total value from 39 billion dollars to 66 billions. The sequel was a history-making crash. Land prices fell from an average of $70 an acre to $28. More than a third of the nation's six million mil-lion farms were foreclosed by the end of the depression. All farm land and buildings declined in value from 66 billion to 31 billion. It is natural that people today fear that the same thing will happen all over again. As a result some agricultural leaders already are urging legislative controls. Some of these are drastic, some milder. Proposals Pro-posals range all the way from restriction re-striction of land-owning privileges in some cases to credit control and heavy federal capital gains taxes. Dangerous Remedies. Lest the remedies be as fatal as the disease they are designed to cure, however, farmers were recently re-cently urged by Ray Yarnell, editor of Capper's Farmer, to look carefully care-fully into these proposals, their implications im-plications and what else may be are deducted, farmers were left with a spendable income that was almost al-most double that of 1939. Meanwhile, Mean-while, the cost of living had advanced ad-vanced only one-fourth. U. S. department of commerce estimates of individual savings indicate indi-cate an increase of 7.5 billion dollars dol-lars for 1940 to 36 billion dollars for 1943. A very large part of these savings is in highly liquid assets of currency and bank deposits. Whenever an industry does as well as farming has done, there is a tendency ten-dency to speculate. Those already in the business seek to expand their operations. Others seek to. get in on the good thing. And thus a spiral-ing spiral-ing boom can be born. In the midwestern area, comprising compris-ing the Seventh Federal Reserve district, for instance, which may be |