THE FOOD CRISIS AND AMERICANISM 75 



while the farms operated by owners are larger, and 

 they hire much help, this means that 60 per cent, of 

 the people on the farms of Iowa own no land and little 

 other property. Iowa is undoubtedly the best agricul- 

 tural State in the Union, if not the best agricultural 

 area in the world, its people the most intelligent 

 (having only one per cent, of illiteracy) of any com- 

 munity of its size in the World. If with all these 

 favorable factors, the above lamentable conditions ex- 

 ist, what must be the condition of the farms and farm- 

 ers in other States less favored by soil, climatic condi- 

 tions, and especially those who after more than a cen- 

 tury of use have only an impoverished or exhausted 

 soil? 



Again, Nebraska, one of the most fertile agricul- 

 tural States in the West and perhaps the most ex- 

 clusively agricultural State in the Union on a parity 

 with Iowa as to soil, climatic conditions, and character 

 of its farmers, containing approximately 150,000 

 farms during ten years six of them included in 

 the eleven mentioned in interview with packer re- 

 ferred to increased its farm mortgage indebtedness 

 at least $180,000,000. (Exact figures are not obtain- 

 able, as during each of those years from three to nine 

 counties, evidently not pleased with the showing made, 

 failed to report. Without these, the aggregate in- 

 crease shown in those reports was $162,274,364.30.) 

 The highest estimate made by those in position to 

 know, is that this $180,000,000 constituted only 35 

 per cent, to 40 per cent, of the mortgages then resting 

 on the farms of Nebraska; but assuming that it is 40 

 per cent, the highest estimate, that would make the 



