THE FOOD CRISIS AND AMERICANISM 57 



tended and money to be loaned was only to farmers 

 those actually cultivating the land mortgaged. 

 This construction was logical, and the one put upon 

 the law prior to a meeting of the presidents of the Fed- 

 eral Land Banks at St. Louis recently. Returning 

 from that meeting, the president of the Omaha Fed- 

 eral Land Bank is quoted in the press as saying, among 

 other things, " They have decided to place no limita- 

 tion on the sale of farm lands; in other words, our 

 borrowers have a right to sell when and where they 

 please; the purchaser may run the farm or rent it or 

 do anything he likes with the land." ..." It gives us 

 a freer hand in making loans, and it takes off limita- 

 tions that have frightened borrowers." All of which 

 are a tremendous advantage to the speculators, invites 

 fraud, " straw " borrowers, etc. and indicates, as I 

 have suggested, that the system is giving an added 

 impetus to the " land boom," and that those interested 

 in land speculation were a potent factor in securing 

 the enactment of the law. 



