Missouri Country Life Conference. 



255 



investor so far as we could learn. However, I do not believe the 

 need of the American farmer is so much for a low rate of interest 

 on his mortgage loan, if he is furnished a reasonable one, as for 

 a method that will give him a sufficient period to work out of 

 debt by amortization. 



Through operation of the long-term amortization loan 

 system the European countries have revolutionized the land 

 ownership, passing titles from large tracts of landlordism into 

 small tracts belonging to the individual- farmers, making per- 

 manent home owners out of former tenants. They have assisted 

 in making farm life more inviting and in improving farm prop- 

 erty to a high state of cultivation, thereby increasing the pro- 

 duction of the land and, as a natural result, enhancing the value 

 of the land itself. 



If it is possible to devise some safe system for financing the 

 American farmer on some safe plan, which contemplates the 

 long-term amortization principle, I feel sure it would be much 

 easier to build up our rural interests, ultimately placing more 

 farm owners on our lands. In other words, if we can make 

 easier the ownership of farms farmers will multiply. We would 

 thereby assist the successful tenant to become a landowner, and 

 the more landowners within a state the more stable and per- 

 manent its population, and the more stable and permanent its 

 population the safer and more certain is invested capital and the 

 happier and more contented its citizens. 



