No. 4.] RURAL CREDITS. 141 



they are established for assisting indigent and ignorant peasants, 

 or else for carrying out some national policy. None in recent 

 years has been established in a foreign nation for any other 

 class. 



The solution of the land credit problem lies in the introduc- 

 tion of the Torrens system for facilitating the proving of titles, 

 in the simplifying and standardizing of the laws for recovering 

 defaulted loans, and in the enactment of proper legislation for 

 bond and mortgage companies and for Landschafts. The 

 latter institutions are entirely agricultural, and are considered 

 to be the best means for finding long-term credit for farmers. 



You know, after this land mortgage craze in the west some 

 years ago, to ward off the eastern mortgage holder the equities 

 of redemption were deferred, and some two or three years were 

 allowed by which the man, if he got the money, could come 

 back and redeem his farm, and all sorts of obstructive laws 

 were passed which tended to prevent the foreclosure of mort- 

 gages. Those laws ought to be wiped out. It is necessary to 

 clean up the real estate situation in many States before it is 

 safe to operate in this large way with a large incorporated 

 institution. Some fourteen States have the Torrens system. I 

 think Massachusetts is one of the States that has that system. 



In other words, we are just at the beginning of something in 

 this country which is of such importance — of such tran- 

 scendent importance to all of the people — that while we are 

 considering the questions of the day we must not permit this 

 one to go wrong; and it has been very greatly in danger of 

 doing so. Had the HoUis-Buckley bill passed in the last 

 Congress I believe it would have been a great detriment to this 

 country. If we can only wait long enough to appreciate the 

 meaning of starting right in the organization of these institu- 

 tions we shall accomplish something very great for the United 

 States. Those institutions which have worked out and have 

 performed the service in Europe for which they were created 

 have been those which called for the development of individual 

 initiative and resources along these lines of co-operation. It 

 has been said that we cannot do these things as they can over 

 there, — that we cannot establish these institutions. That is 

 tantamount to saying that with the high order of intelligence 



