Part II.] FEDERAL LAND BANK. 37 



inquiries here at Worcester and I find, if I am correctly in- 

 formed, that it would take in the neighborhood of $100 for 

 the applicant for the expenses of getting the loan. In the first 

 place, you have got to join this local association and become 

 responsible for the two shares, at any rate. Then three ap- 

 praisers from the local association must appraise the property. 

 Then the other appraiser comes from Springfield and he has 

 got to appraise it. If it is distant, and he has to travel — 

 for instance, if he went to Maine' — it would be quite an 

 expense to pay his expenses down and back. And then the 

 examination of the title and the papers that the lawyers would 

 make out would cost $50 or $60 more. So I assume a man 

 could not get a loan under $100, probably, for the expenses 

 of the loan. 



Mr. Robinson. It is pretty hard to say just what the cost 

 would be to a man to get a loan; but there is no expense in 

 the examination of a man's farm by the loan Committee. In 

 many associations no charge was made whatever, and the loan 

 committee served gratis. In some associations the loan Com- 

 mittee makes a nominal charge, which doesn't amount to very 

 much, for the expenses. Now, the appraisal made by the 

 Land Bank is borne by the bank, not by the borrower; so 

 that disposes of that part of it. The real expense, the large 

 expense, is, of course, the examination of title, and that varies 

 with the practice of the part of the country where the farm 

 happens to be. I know that in Massachusetts — certain parts 

 of Massachusetts, at any rate, and in the northern tier of 

 States — the cost is normal, but not very large. On the other 

 hand, say, take certain parts of New York and New Jersey, 

 and it is high, unfortunately. We are doing our best to keep 

 these attorneys in check, and we are planning — and I hope 

 in time we will be able to do it — to have our own staff of 

 attorneys on salary to look after the titles, so that we can 

 reduce the cost of examination of titles to reasonable pro- 

 portions. I must admit that in some cases we found that 

 there were exorbitant charges made by attorneys, and put our 

 foot down on them. We wouldn't let those attorneys do any 

 more of our work, but we are trying to stamp this out as 

 rapidly as we can. 



