390 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



into public policy. A hope exists that tenant shifting may 

 be much decreased by a simple knowledge of the social forces at 

 work, and an application of methods of social control. 



There is a suspicion, moreover, that instability in rural family 

 life may be related somewhat to the ideal of " getting on " 

 materially, or as the farmer views it, " getting out of debt." 

 The mortgage on the farm is the strong bond of household 

 partnership. Every one works to burn the mortgage ; every- 

 one, moreover, overworks ; and even if an actual obsession does 

 not completely control the whole family, too often so large a 

 preponderance of attention is given to production, profits, 

 savings for the mortgage, that the home spirit is driven from the 

 fireside. Deep sentimental attachments to the house as a human 

 habitation, to the farmstead as a spot sacred to the anniver- 

 saries and traditions of the family, frequently do not develop. 



When the mortgage is burned, the work bond is broken, the 

 compelling motive is withdrawn, and the family is susceptible 

 to new ideas of speculation or of a premature retirement from 

 an overcrowded economic life. If it has not been completely 

 smothered in the days of debt paying, the home spirit may 

 arise from the ashes of the mortgage, and new life may come to 

 all the inmates of the home, and life as a goal may be counted 

 more valuable than the material basis of producing. The new 

 spirit will gently lead the human beings where the old ideal 

 whipped the toilers to the field. When the mortgage bogie 

 is once driven from the American farm household, a calmer spirit 

 of stability, a firmer attachment to the spot where life is lived, 

 will ensue. 



The mortgage bank with long-term loans, fair interest rule, 

 and very gradual payment of the principal, will do much to 

 drive away the " get out of debt quick " specter from the soul 

 of the farm home. Life, human life, then will more and more 

 become the motive of country living. 



The problem of the farm household will not be solved until 

 there appears among its members an appreciation of the finer 

 things of life. This needed appreciation will come increasingly 

 as the farm housewife is freed from drudging toil, as the farm 



