FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



of as good results as those found in any other part of the 

 world. 



In this connection, a word from the late Hon. Henry 

 Wallace, of Des Moines, Iowa, is very much in place. He 

 says that the big need of Rural America is not so much 

 greater facilities for getting in debt, since a plentiful supply 

 of money at low rates gives rise to land speculation, which 

 leads both to a transfer of land to the rich and to a rise in its 

 value, thereby causing a decrease in the number of poor land- 

 owners, but greater facilities for getting out of debt. The 

 facilities for getting in debt are abundant. If the opportuni- 

 ties for getting out of debt show an equally great increase, 

 then the young man who wants to become a tenant and the 

 tenant who wants to buy a farm will be given the kind of 

 help that is most needed in Rural America. The former can 

 be best aided through a long lease, which must be made the 

 rule instead of the exception if this nation is not to become 

 a nation of city dwellers and peasants, and the latter can be 

 best aided through loans extending over a long period of 

 years. Both would thus have plenty of time to build up the 

 land and the danger of a nation of tenant farmers would be 

 removed. 



The strengthened condition of the thousands of rural banks 

 of the country due to the passage of the Money Bill of 

 December, 1913, has already proved to be a boon to many 

 sections of Rural America. So if the law can be reinforced 

 by the passage of a workable rural credits law by Congress 

 and by supplementary laws in the several states, the chief 

 cause that has militated against tenants' getting hold of the 

 land will have been removed. 



At the National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits 

 (November-December, 1915) many plans for improving the 

 credit conditions of Rural America were suggested by speakers 

 of national reputation. Some of these will be briefly con- 

 sidered. The Hon. Harris Weinstock, member of the Cali- 

 fornia Rural Credit Commission, advocated, as a remedy for 

 absentee landlordism, that the several states buy and improve 



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