THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL, SESSION 
221 
or necessity in exerting themselves too much to build it up; in fact ‘witih 
every desire sometimes to tear it down if thereby they may be able to get 
out of it every dollar .they can. They are not interested in building the 
agriculture up; in erecting churches, schools and so on, and making a sta- 
ble civilization; they do not proceed that way, for their interests are local, 
as it were, and they know that they may move on next year. Now in a 
young country like this we have got two and a third million farmers, with 
familties, who are struggling along under such conditions year in and year 
out, and another million poor farmers with heavy mortgages weighing .them 
down. I believe it is largely because we have literally noi system of land 
mortgage credit. There is not even a scheme by which a man can go and bor- 
row, and borrow for as long as five years, much less in any case as long as 
ten years. The city creates its sinking fund for gradual repayment; but 
in the farmer’s case you have the whole .thing flashed before you — “You 
must pay this* to-morrow.” The debt has not been gradually disappearing. 
What can the farmer do? He assigns his interest, and perhaps rents a little 
farm to work on shares for another five or ten years more or less; possibly 
he borrows money for his new enterprises at one, two, three per cent — and 
possibly if the money market happens to be a little tight pays even more- 
over and above the rate of interest at which he could borrow it in most 
European countries. 
Genera! European Conditions. 
This is not the condition in any one single community. My experience 
is not that of one single community. I have been forced in the last few years 
to visit every state in the great farming section, up and down several times, 
Minnesota to Texas, and from the east to the west. It is not a beginning 
of information in these various states, but it is true generally and that is 
the situation here. It is without any doubt at all the worst system in any 
nation or civilized country. It is literally the worst. Roumania even has 
a much better one at the present .time. I did not go into Roumania be- 
cause there was too much war and difficulty in getting proper passports, 
but their ministers came out to the border and transmitted copies of their 
laws and systems of their banking institutions— showing that the poor 
peasants of Roumania are able to buy a farm on a much better basis than 
anything we have in the United States of America. 
But it is not alone in the matter of buying a farm; many start with a 
farm— they inherit it or through some sort of operations buy it outright. 
Then there are a number of serious problems. The farm must perhaps be 
drained; probably it may he too wet. Or it will perhaps require irrigation 
if it is too* dry. The stone must be hauled away if it is too rough, and the 
stumps taken off maybe and more trees cu,t down for building and for heat- 
ing the buildings. These things call for a considerable amount of money, 
which he may repay satisfactorily — but not within thirty, sixty or ninety 
days. And the present financial system of .this country practically calls for 
a renewal of loans that are for such a short period. With all the financial 
Institutions of this country there is practically the same thing; no institu- 
tions which will make the needed arrangements for loaning money for 
