in
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The Commoner
SEPTEMBER, 1916
15
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' teachings -was due the passage of much-of
?.7n reculatory legislation which the great com
nes even down- to this time, are unwilling t&
nhiv Bryan was years in advance of his own
"":;' years in advance of the opposition party,
in his advocacy of "political and economic re
forms It is a matter of common knowledge
hit much of what is called the progressive legis
lation Placed on the statute books of the nation
Kince 1896 has been based partly or wholly upon,
his ideas. As he recommended and advocated
t of course, it was pronounced "radical" and
'dangerous"; as Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Taft pro
nosed and even urged it, it was "advanced" and
"necessary." Mr. Bryan has seen the credit go
to others and he has simply smiled. The'Bryan
theories" at which many sneered in the past
have been "borrowed" and "adoptedJ' by others
who have not been denounced as "dreamers" or
"cranks." William Allen White, who can not
be numbered among Mr. Bryan's "infatuated and
deluded followers," touching upon the defeat
of the ex-secretary of state in the recent Nebras
ka primaries, has this to say:
"He went down partly because he was right;
he defended prohibition. He got
ahead of the main body of the troops and he was
sniped. But the main body of troops
will catch up with him on the prohibition issue
within a decade."
The main body of troops has caught up with
him on other questions and on other issues. If
he had not been so far ahead of the grand army
in the march of progress he might have been
president long ago. We hold no brief for Mi.
Bryan, nor will we be committed to indorse
ment of all his theories or doctrines dr issues,
but we can' not refrain from recalling that it
was he who stood against the combined money
and Tammany influence at Baltimore four years
ago and succeeded in having nominated for the
presidency a man whom neither of them could
control dr claim as its own. What we ask for
Mr. Bryan is common justice.
Former Congressman Bartholdt of St. Louis
announces that he 'will make a campaign of
Missouri to how that "President Wilson was
responsible 'foV tu'e Worth Sea blockade; that
the North Sea' blockade- justified the German
submarine war and the policy of the administra
tion was the cause of much of the disaster in
Europe." If Mr. Bartholdt pursues his investi
gations further there lie will also be able to
fasten the responsibility for the killing1 of the
Austrian archduke and the failure of the cam
paign against Verdun" upon the President. There
is no limit to the ability of a political campaigner
to prove whatever he wants to believe.
The influence of the great financial institu
tions which have made millions out of their
practical control of the farm loan business of the
United States prevented the republican party
from proving itself to be the friend of the farm
er it has always pretended to be. Farmers will
not forget the fact that it was the Wilson admin
istration which enacted the rural credits law
which provides a system of banks which will do
for the men who operate the farms what the na
tional and state banks have been doing for years
for the men who operate the stores and the factories.
The republican orators are all being groomed
to tell the people that if it had not been for the
war, this country would not now be luxuriat
ing in the depths of a prosperity greater than
it has ever before known, The only danger that
js apparent from this line of reasoning is thai
in order to become convincing it will be neces
sary to charge the democratic party with start
ing the war in order to hide their supposed de1
nciencies as administrators.
A circular recently issued by the First Na
tional bank of Boston, which helps in financing
uie woolen industry of the country through the
stnf LUanfe of Boston as ' a wool market,
lates that "wool producers are realinzing some
2t n,dsome returns, in some cases almost
uoubie what they received two years ago." And
we were solemnly told that free 'wool would kill
"ie industry in this country. ' ' '
1
Cash for the Farmer
:i
Merely to nrovf lmw munii i tiwnVo r.e tu
progressives, the republican no-tonal committee
lint, ,
inViAneaas a member of. -its, advisory commit-
- itior UOSewater Of NohrnRt-atlift TnVn wir If
ioia? ?tlng chairman of-the national committee in ifan agent to investigate
.;' tne dew that wrecked the hopes of
tinn n RressIves t0 control the national conven
tion that year.
By Henry F. Hollls, United States Senator .
from New Hampshire, and author of Rural
Credits law.J
John Brown lives on a farm in the middle
west. The soil is heavy and black, but it has
been exhausted by a process of cropping which "
is more llko mining than farming. Everything
has been taken from it. Nothing has been re
stored. That is why the owner, grown rich from
soil exhaustion, has sold out and moved to town.
The bare purchase of the farm has taken
nearly all of Brown's savings. The buildings
leak; fences are down; machinery is lacking;
some ot the land needs draining; the rest needs
fertilizer.
Brown's neighbor is prosperous. Ho has
treated his land like a farm, not like a mine. He
has used good seed, bought good stock, laid
drain pipes, and purchased commercial fertilizer
by the ton. At the end of the year his barns
are full and his crops are safe from the weather,
while Brown's crops are meager, and further re
duced by frequent wettings.
It is plain that Brown needs cash capital, but
he has been brought up to save, not to borrow.
He looks upon a mortgage as a disgrace. The
only time he borrowed, he was unable to pay
at maturity. He was charged a commission and
an extortionate rate of interest for a renewal.
That loan was a burden for years, and always a
nightmare.
Then Brown's Cousin Joe comes to visit. Joe.
is a storekeeper in an eastern city, doing bus!-'
ness largely on borrowed capital. He tells John
that every prosperous merchant and manufac
turer borrows money. He asks John what he
supposes banks are for if it is a disgrace to bor
row. Brown is half convinced. He gathers courage
ono day to go into the nearest bank. He feels
shabby and out of place in the midst of so much
marblo and brass and mahogany. His courage
oozes, his voice shakes, he is clearly over-awed,
and the bank official decides that ho is a cheap
fellow. j,
Brown is glad to escape with his hat. He
scarcely recalls why his loan Is refused, but
there was talk of dear money, and the .risk of
tying demand deposits up in long term loans.
The real reason is that the banker doesn't know
Brown or his farm
And then Brown's friend Robinson turns up
one day fresh from attendance on a hearing
by the Federal Farm Loan board, recently ap
pointed by President Wilson under the Rural
Credits bill. The board is touring the .country
to ascertain the farm loan needs of the various
districts. Brown's interest is aroused. Here is
help to which he is entitled as a farmer and
an American. He writes to 'the Federal Farm
Loan Board at Washington, and this is what he
learns:
The United States will shortly he divided into
twelve land bank districts, each containing a
federal land bank. One of these will be estab
lished in a city not far from Brown, for the sole
object of loaning money to farmers for produc
tive purposes on the security of their farms.
The farmer will borrow, not as a favor, but as
a right.
Every borrower will take 5 of his loan in
stock, and thereby become a partner in the en
terprise. He will get his money at cost. Any.
profit will be returned to him in dividends. The
interest rate can not exceed 6. The law fixes
that. But the rate may be as much lower as
cheap money and good management will war
Brown learns that the land bank will not deal
directly with him, but through a national farm
lean association composed of ten farmers who
wish to borrow. So he puts in a few evenings
visiting his neighbors. He finds nine of them
who need cash capital. He invites them to a
meeting in his kitchen.
Brown and his friends organize a farm loan
association. From the Farm Loan board they
receive circulars and blanks. The benefits are
so great and the plan so simple that they would
he suspicious if the papers had come from Wall
Street rather than from the government.
They elect officers, fill out the blanks, sign
their names, giving the amount of money re-
ciulred by each, and sena meir uiimi;ai.iuu lo ,
limd bank of their district. The land bank seride
2i agent to investigate. He makes favorable
r&ort nnd they receive a charter covering their
coWty. Brown is made the secretary-treasurer.
Brown receives with the charter blanks for
mortgages and appraisal. The loan committca
of his association fills out an appraisal-for eacii
loan. Brown forwards theso to the land bank.
Tho land bank upprnlser examines each farm
and recommends tho loan. Tho mortgage Jpa
pers arc then executed and forwarded to tho
land bankf
Tho money Is sent bnck to Brown for distribu
tion among the borrowers. Thereafter ho col
lects and forwards to tho land bank instalment
payments on each loan as they become due. Ftfr'
this Bervlce he receives a small fee.
Brown's loan may run for any period from 5
to 40 years. With each payment of Interest a
certain fixed percentage of tho principal is paid.
If tho interest rate is G, and he pays in 1
yearly on the principal, tho wholo dobt will be
paid out in 36 years, and this clearing of the
mortgage will result from n total payment each
year -of 6 of the original loan, covering Inter
est, expenses and instalments on principal.
Five per cent of Brown's loan conies to him hi
stock of his association. H tho enterprise makes
earnings, Brown will get his share in dividends
on his stock. When his loun Is paid In full, he
receives 100 on his stock in cuJh. It is a Co
operative system.
We have projected Brown's experience a few
months into the future, but the plan Is accur
ately outlined. Brown looks forward to Jan
uary 1st with confidence and entire self-respect.
He will receive on his mortgage 50 of tho
value of his land plus 20 of the value of his
buildings. Ho will make repair's, lay drains,
and buy live stock, machinery and fertilizer.
He will pay 1 a year on tho principal. Ho
may pay as much faster as ho pleases after five
years and thereby reduco his Interest payments
in proportion.
Banks will seo Brown no more, hat in hand,
llpsacquiver, courage oozing. Brown and his
associates have a charter which makes available
for them and their neighbors long term money
on easy payments and at the lowest rates. Tills
money is theirs to borrow as a right, and they
and other borrowing farmers control tho wholo
system. It Is co-operative. They own the
shares. They recelvo tho profits.
And all this has been made available to the
American farmer1 through the Federal Farm
Loan act, signed by President Wilson July 17th
last, known as tho Rural Credits bill.
"The old time republican majorities," which
was the succinct way in which the G. O. P. man
agers first reported their prophecies of the re
sults in. the, different states, will not be in evi
dence when the votes are counted in November.
The lack of an issue that interests the people in
the republican cause is fatal to any hope of success.
MY WIFK
She is my wife, and all the livelong day
I think of her,
And In the deep oblivion of the night
I dream of her.
When she is near a sweet and tender calm ."
Falls softly on my heart with soothing balm, .
Like the murmured sound of an angel's psalm
Pleading for man.
She is my life, if love is life's author,
Guardian and friend,
Guiding my feet from the pitfalls of woe '
Even to the end.
When she is far my heart Is sore oppressed?
And sadly beats against my weary breast, y
Like prisoned bird that seeks its distant nest.
With restless wing.
She is my soul, if from tle soul there leaps
That holy fire
That scorches. at its birth the poisoned glanpe
Of ba'se desire.
She lights me, as of old, o'er desert sand r
And, 'luring vales of sense was lit that band
That followed Moses to the promised land
Of rest and peace. ,r
Ah, wife of mine, my life, my soul, my all!'
Bo ever near. "5
May chilling shadow of thy loss ne'er fall
Upon me here; .
But down the openlnr aisles of future years
Be by my side to quell the rising tears u j
That flow, from hidden springs or doubts and
fears - "
t Within my breast. ' f?
William J, Dawson. ,
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