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Show tittle Evidence Seen of Farm Land Speculation Rural America Seen as Bulwark Against Post-War Depression; 'Nervous Gentlemen' Admit Possibilities of Speculative Wave. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. XVNV Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. If you see a cheerful glow along the horizon of rural America these evenings, you'll know what it is not a prairie fire or the neighbor's barn, but the happy light of burning mortgages. mort-gages. The farmers of America have had their lesson. They aren't throwing their money around this time. They are paying their debts. They are becoming the solid citizens of the nation. They are building a bulwark bul-wark against a post-war depression tbat can save the nation financially, unless . . . Right now, the financial health of rural America is better than it has been in many a long decade. But certain nervous gentlemen are beginning be-ginning to worry. Will the farmer keep to the straight and narrow or will he be tempted to put down an as new foreign markets are opened or the United States begins to help feed a starving world. In some places, there is evidence of the tendency toward speculation now. Lenders in Iowa are offering money against Iowa farm land as low as 2 per cent. Speculation in livestock is going on in some places. But there is no trend now toward the wild buying of World War I. "And," says Mr. Wilson, "if the tremendous gains in the farm indebtedness in-debtedness situation can be held, the capacity of the great agricultural areas of the nation to absorb the flood of products that will come to all markets after the war will be tremendous." The financial fate of post-war America is pretty much in the hands of the farmers. Let's hope he won't let it (and his spare cash) slip through his fingers. Two-Way Attack On 'Beveridge Plan' When the administration's "Beveridge "Bev-eridge plan" for increased social security se-curity and post-war adjustment was made public, congress proceeded to make it plain that they intended to pigeon-hole it The general impression impres-sion was that it was laid away because be-cause it was too "socialistic" to suit the right wingers or even some of the middle-of-the-roaders. option on distant hills which are beginning be-ginning to turn an alluring green? Listen to what one of those cautious cau-tious gentlemen in Washington, Frank Wilson of the department of commerce, has to say. Why, you may ask, does the department of commerce, whose job it is to look after the welfare of the city man, worry about the farmer? Well, when the farmer goes broke, the city man closes up shop. But, a word from Mr. Wilson: 'While the level of farm values throughout most parts of the Middle West has increased 10 to 15 per cent in the last year, and the transfer of farm properties has been greatly accelerated, ac-celerated, there is, as yet, no evidence evi-dence of the recurrence of the destructive de-structive speculation in farm lands which followed the First World war." So far so good. But here is Mr. Wilson's postscript: "Farm lending authorities throughout through-out that area, however, admit that conditions are in the making from which a speculative wave might result re-sult unless price control measures can be effective in holding farm prices at or only moderately above present levels." Mortgage Survey The department of commerce But do not think that all the opposition op-position came from one direction. The first adventure of the new social security program was, in reality, very much like the "Charge of the Light Brigade" for there were "cannons "can-nons to right of them" and also "cannons to left of them" which volleyed vol-leyed and thundered. As I said, the offensive from the right was taken for granted. But the attack of the left wing, while not as vocal, seems to be just as vehement. There is proof in a press release which probably prob-ably was released by very few papers. pa-pers. It comes from the "People's Lobby" in Washington, an institution which believes in "public ownership of natural resources, basic industries and essential processing and distributive distrib-utive agencies." But the "People's Lobby" thinks maae a survey 01 me iarm mortgage situation in 19 states where the bulk of the food production for war is being made. The federal land banks and the Farm Credit administration which has been watching this situation like a hawk has plenty of data. One out of every ten or more than 100,000 farmer-borrowers from the 12 federal fed-eral land banks and land bank commissioner com-missioner repaid his loan in full in 1942. In the 19 states the department of commerce studied, according to the 1940 census, there were more than three million farms, more than half of all the farms in the country. Their total value is well over half the total value of farm lands in the country. The survey of this territory, just made public, shows that in 1940, '41 and '42, indebtedness of farmers to the Farm Credit administration dropped a quarter of a billion dollars. dol-lars. This includes the drouth area in Kansas, one of the states hit hardest hard-est by the drouth, 10,000 fapmers got out of debt and Kansas borrowers kept right on paying until they had deposited a million dollars in the "future payment fund" to anticipate labor installments. Similar statistics could be reeled off for other areas. One thing that has helped the debt payment is the inability to get into further debt for automobiles and other commodities which just aren't the President's plan is nowhere near socialistic enough. In fact, it is just "another trick ... to try to lull the people into a sense of false security while economic royalists continue, through ownership, to dictate the standards of living of the American people." Wash ington Geometric City The other day, I heard on a radio broadcast the statement that Washington Wash-ington was a geometric city. We have so many squares and circles and other geometric figures Dupont circle that I pass every day, Lafayette Lafay-ette square with its historic memories memo-ries (not to mention its squirrels) where I spend my extra seconds; the Octagon house, built by a wealthy friend of George Washington, where society was lavishly entertained in the early 1800s, now preserved by the American Institute of Architects which bought it to preserve its stately state-ly beauty as well as to house their offices; the sprawling Pentagon building of the army, "a city with a roof over it." With this in mind, I was suddenly impressed with the new patterns imposed im-posed on Washington since the war, the human figures, two of which I watched over my lunch in a restaurant restau-rant the other day. At the next table were, not circles nor sauares lor sale. ' Will that memory fade? Will the farmer's money begin to burn a hole in his pocket? Will those green pastures pas-tures just over the hill begin to lure him beyond his means? i As I said, the cautious folk in Washington are a little worried. I These are some of the danger signals sig-nals they see: A possible rise in values which cannot be exactly predicted or explained. ex-plained. But which is always a possibility, pos-sibility, if not now, after the war. Then there will be an accumulation of cash; there will be a lot of war bonds in the safe deposit box or in the old sock. There will be a lot of husky young sons returning from the war for whom fathers will want to buy farms, there will be perhaps an increased demand for farm products but human loops and bulges. One was a slim man in eyeglasses. His nose was a loop, his smooth hair was looped back over his forehead. His gestures were looped, the back of the wrist bent and higher than his fingertips as he dangled his cigarette ciga-rette I could only think of the paws of a lackadaisical pup begging for a sweet. His partner was Mr. Bulge. The bulge began below the wrinkle in his vest and it was the only thing that kept him far enough away from the table to save his bulging nose from reaching the soup I could hear him j inhaling. His hands bulged like the padded arms of an overstuffed chair in a hotel lobby. His cheeks were pink and bulging hams. Washington is learning new lessons les-sons in human geometry. |