Part II.] FEDERAL LAND BANK. 29 



fortunes last year and are wallowing in wealth. They do not 

 stop to consider that what the farmer buys has risen higher 

 than what he sells. 



No. It was not the profits that induced the farmer to do 

 his utmost. It was his patriotism. The American farmer has 

 never failed in his devotion and patriotism. He never has 

 failed to respond with his services, with his resources and with 

 his life when the country needed them. His patriotism is 

 clearly reflected in the great number of j'oung men from 

 our farms who voluntarily answered the call to the colors in 

 our army and navy. It was shown in his liberal support 

 of the two great Liberty Loans. It was the same unadulterated 

 patriotism that made his response to the President's appeal so 

 effective last year. 



Apart from the serious problems I have mentioned, which 

 the American farmer is facing to-day, there is another problem 

 of age-long standing, but which in recent years has caused a 

 great deal of discussion and loose talk. I have reference to 

 the financial problem. 



When the European war broke out, in 1914, the farmers in 

 this country were given a taste of the precariousness of their 

 financial position. Mortgages were not renewed, or were called 

 in, and even those whose experience was not quite so serious 

 were kept on the anxious seat, not knowing what would come 

 next. By 1915 the money market eased up. In sections 

 where the greatest financial stringency prevailed in 1914, and 

 where farm mortgages were unobtainable or obtained only 

 with the greatest diflBculty, there was, in 1915, a plethora of 

 money, and banks and private investors were only too glad to 

 lend it out on farm mortgages. In a report published that 

 year, I said : — 



Gratifying as the situation may appear on its face, these conditions 

 are not without grave possibilities. These mortgages are largely demand 

 or short-term mortgages. Should a financial stringency such as that of 

 last year recur many of these mortgages would be called in, and many a 

 solvent farmer, whose security is gilt-edged and who meets his obligations 

 promptly, would be forced to the wall. The call loan may have its func- 

 tions, but not on the farm. It is this fast and loose financial game, to 

 which our farm industry is subjected, that makes the reorganization of 

 rural credits in the United States most imperative. 



