EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VH 371 



with tliG te:Liant, by which they jointly share in the profits of that en- 

 terprise, upon some form of partnership contract that makes the owner 

 of the laud wholly responsible for the payment of the obligation as- 

 sumed when he executes the mortgage. He does not have to live on 

 the land. I won't more than get thru with this speech before some 

 fellow will tell you that you can't borrow money from this bank unless 

 you live on the farm for thirty-six years. He is the ordinary, common 

 variety of liar. These stories are being industriously spread abroad 

 all over Iowa by the men who are interested in getting a commission 

 on the loans that they are going to negotiate for you in the future. 

 "Whenever you hear anything about the great chances that the farmer 

 takes when he borrows money from the land bank, scratch under the 

 skin, and see where the personal interest lies of the fellow that is tell- 

 ing you the story. They will tell you that you can't sell the farm or the 

 mortgage will be foreclosed; there is nothing to that, either. You 

 have to give notice to the land bank. If the man who buys the farm 

 v«?.r,t5 c as-urue the mortgage, he can do so, if he is eligible as a bor- 

 rower ■ \ th3 beginning. Every possible legal equity that the borrower 

 can have in the holding of his land and the protection of his interest 

 is extended to him under the federal farm loan act precisely as under 

 any other form of law ever passed for the conveyance of real estate. 



This local organization must be composed of at least ten men who 

 are eligible as borrowers; men who own land and who are personally 

 responsible for the operation of that land. A retired farmer who lives 

 in town, and whose sons are farming the place, or who has a tenant 

 on the farm, would be eligible. These men form an association and 

 elect their officers precisely as you do, and elect a board of directors 

 to represent them for the current year. Then they send their articles 

 of incorporation to the land bank at Omaha, and a copy of them is for- 

 warded to "Washington, and a charter is issued, which makes of this 

 local organization in the community a perpetual legal corporation, with 

 the right fo receive members who are satisfactory to you, whom you 

 will recommend as good men to whom to lend money, and to whom you 

 would be willing to lend your money, and whom you want associated 

 with you in this co-operative organization. A loan absolutely can not 

 be made to a man in your community unless he is received as a mem- 

 ber of your association, and the loan is recommended by the directors 

 of your association, and the property appraised by an appraisal com- 

 mittee of three selected by the directors of your association from its 

 members. Then an appraiser is sent from the federal land bank to 

 examine this property and make his separate confidential report. When 

 those conditions are complied with, this loan application is passed upon 

 by the executive committee of the directors of the land bank, and the 

 loan is allowed for such amount as their judgment suggests. 



There was a statement printed in the Drovers' Journal a few days 

 ago, which is being copied and circulated broadcast, to the effect that 

 the land bank at Omaha has so much business on its hands that the 

 man who files an application for a loan now need not expect to get it 

 under two years. The other day we had an association formed at Clear- 



