157 



<wc nearly 150 million dollars gold among them; their 

 agricultural credit costs them annually, at the rate of 

 8 per eenl. interest per annum, $ 12 millions gold, and 

 yet tliey are prosperous. On mortgage alone they arc 

 indebted to the extent of 65 millions gold, a sum 

 equal to the total mortgages of this country annually, 

 and yet we hear of nothing but their unexampled pros- 

 perity. A recent banking return reveals that in the 

 Northern States the farmers held 48 per cent, of the 

 bank stock issued by the banks throughout the zone; 

 and besides this they have been able to put nearly a 

 million gold into erecting elevators on a t-o-operative 

 plan . 



It is not indebtedness which is the ruin of the 

 farmer, but his inability ever to pay off what he owes; 

 in the case of the Argentine farmer this is because he 

 works in such a wasteful way as to lose half his profits, 

 which would pay off most of his debts. 



The possibility of his increasing his indebtedness 

 at his creditors' expense through the facilities of rais- 

 ing money on warrants, is myth. Supposing, in the 

 worst cases of bad faith, a farmer obtains advances on 

 his warrant, he will not obtain its full value, there will 

 still remain the difference between the real market va- 

 lue and the sum advanced to repay his other debtors 

 after the bank or first creditor has settled his claim. 

 By according advances on warrants, which like all first 

 class securities, have the first lien on the security de- 

 posited, it does not mean that all other creditors will be 

 deprived of their security for payment, any more than 

 the first lien of a mortgage deprives the other creditors 

 of all security for their claims. The third objection 

 commonly heard: that the warrant will always pass 

 into anybody's hand except that of the farmer, is a 

 poor one; in any case this is the event heartily to be 

 wished for, since it is not intended to turn the warrant 

 into a permanent certificate of deposit . It is desirable 

 that the warrant shall end in the hands of the grain 

 broker, whose business it is to see that the farmers' pro- 

 duce is exported. We export 70 per cent, of everything 

 we grow, so that the fact that the warrant ends in the 

 hands of the grain exporter is not to be wondered at. 



Regarding the speculative side of the question : the 

 ^"estanciero" or cattle raiser with one hundred steers 

 ready for the market, and who chooses to seil one half 

 the number one month and reserve the remaining for a 

 later date in hope of obtaining better prices, would not 

 l>e characterised as a speculator. On the contrary he 



