272 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



field, in Taylor county, Iowa, oast of Clarinda a little way. The sec- 

 retary of the association happened to be a local limnker. He got his 

 papers up in pretty good shape; the applications were in perfect form; 

 he had been careful to have them appraised by his loan committee 

 and approved by his board of directors. He came over to see me, and 

 told me he spent about a week getting those thirteen men together. 

 There w^ere six men who wanted their loans on the first day of the fol- 

 lowing month, in order to meet some options of payment on their mort- 

 gages and take them up, and he asked if we could make a special case 

 of it and hurry those thru and take care of those men. We said we 

 would do the best we could. We sent an appraiser over the next day. 

 He appraised the property in about two days, came back, and made his 

 report. We called the executive committee and the board of directors 

 together, and it took us about two hours to grind out those loans and 

 approve them, and those men had their money in nine days from the 

 time we got the papers in the bank at Omaha. They were so pleased 

 about it that they put a little item of commendation in the local paper, 

 and the next day the president of a local trust company in Omaha came 

 down to our office and called our attention to the gross error which had 

 been made as to the time in which we were closing loans. We said it 

 was true, and showed him the papers. "Well," he said; "I have been in 

 the farm loan business for thirty years, and I can't do it." 



At the present rate of business, we expect to lend at least $10,000,000 

 on Iowa farms between now and the second day of March next, for 

 January 1st and March 1st expirations. That is the most conservative 

 estimate we can place upon it. We expect to close all of that business 

 promptly and on time. We are already having papers signed up for 

 March 1st closing, and are bending every effort to give these men the 

 maximum of prompt service. This institution has on its books about 

 $20,000,000 of loan applications, and we are doing a business which from 

 point of efficiency and. promptness in service is a revelation to the men 

 who have been in the farm loan business all their lives. 



Now, friends, there is a lot of red tape sometimes in governmental 

 affairs, and we think Uncle Sam moves altogether too slowly; but I 

 want to tell you that we have the best government that ever existed 

 on the face of the earth, and that altho it sometimes takes a long time 

 to get Uncle Sam in motion, when he starts he goes thru on the right 

 line. I haven't very much patience with the man who criticises the 

 government of which he is a part. I haven't very much use for the 

 man who sits around on the corner and whittles pine dry goods boxes, 

 and finds fault with the government that he ought to be trying to make 

 better. I haven't any use for slackers or seditionists or traitors, and I 

 want to say to you, my friends, that in the midst of this world cata- 

 clysm that we face, when the gulf of infinite despair is staring civiliza- 

 tion in the face, and the armies of free men all over the world are bat- 

 tling for human liberty thru all the generations to come, there is no 

 meaner man on the face of the earth, no more despicable slacker or 

 traitor ever lived, than the man who, for the sake of increasing his own 

 bank account, will rob the farmers of this country to the extent of even 



