30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



The needed reorganization of our farm mortgage machinery 

 came none too soon. After an agitation of several years 

 Congress passed the Federal Farm Loan Act. It was signed 

 by the President on July 17, 1916. This act has appropri- 

 ately been called the Magna Charta of American agriculture, — 

 the charter that has liberated the American farmer from 

 bondage. This act has been subjected to much criticism both 

 by friends and enemies. It has been called a Wall Street 

 measure. It has also been called socialistic, paternalistic and 

 what not. But to-day sentiment has changed very considerably 

 in favor of the Federal Farm Loan Act. Excepting in circles 

 which are clearly irreconcilable, all doubt that may have been 

 entertained as to the Federal farm loan system has by this 

 time given way to the realization that the system is here to 

 stay. 



Bankers who had felt that the system was unnecessary, at 

 least in their own vicinity, have since found it most vitally 

 necessary to their own stability, and to the prosperity of the 

 communities which they serve. Country bankers, who feared 

 that the Land Banks would interfere with their business, find 

 them, on the contrary, most helpful, and are only too glad to 

 co-operate and assist in the extension of the system in their 

 territory. The President of a national bank in a city in 

 western New York came a distance of over 500 miles to see 

 how his bank could assist in organizing a National Farm Loan 

 Association. Another bank in southern New Jersey is actually 

 expending about $300 in boosting the farm loan system among 

 the farmers in its country. I could recount numerous other 

 instances of the whole-hearted co-operation the Land Bank of 

 Springfield is receiving from national banks. State banks, trust 

 companies, and private banks. 



It was not, however, until our entry into the war that a 

 keen realization of the true functions of the Federal farm loan 

 system was brought home to our country bankers. When the 

 Land Banks started, late last spring, financial conditions were 

 never more favorable. To-day it is the very reverse. In so 

 far as mortgages are concerned, especially farm mortgages, the 

 situation has seldom been so uncertain. There is scarcely a 

 national or State bank in the United States which is not a 



