76 THE FOOD CRISIS AND AMERICANISM 



total farm mortgage indebtedness of the State $450,- 

 000,000. This is, in my opinion, a low estimate. 



Bulletin No. 210 of the Nebraska State Department 

 of Agriculture, dated November 25, 1916, shows that 

 the total value of all permanent improvements, all 

 the cattle, horses, mules, sheep and hogs on the farm, 

 is, in the aggregate (and this on a very liberal basis), 

 worth $353,933,047. So that the Nebraska farmers 

 have earned, as a result of more than fifty years' labor, 

 since Nebraska became a State, to say nothing of the 

 work done during territorial days, a meager living, and 

 at least $90,000,000 less than the mortgage indebted- 

 ness for their labor. To this deficit should be added 

 indebtedness to banks, etc., for implements, store debts, 

 etc., which would amount to millions more. 



If the pauper peasantry of Russia, occupying an 

 area equal to that bounded on the north by a parallel 

 drawn through the southern borders of the Great 

 Lakes, on the west by the looth Meridian, on the south 

 by a parallel through the Ohio River, and on the east 

 by the Alleghany Mountains, could borrow an amount 

 equal to the mortgages now resting upon the farms of 

 that area the very heart of the Corn Belt it would 

 have sufficient money to duplicate every house, barn, 

 granary, crib and fence; to buy all the cattle, horses, 

 hogs and sheep now upon those farms; and have hun- 

 dreds of millions of dollars left with which to buy 

 Ford cars, Victrolas and see the " movies." 



Such a loan made to them by the Allies would tem- 

 porarily suspend the Bolshevik movement now devas- 

 tating Russia. But should the Allies at the same time 

 impose upon these peasants the same labor and mar- 



