American Agriculturist, December 22, 1923 
Let’s Hear About The State Police 
Other Letters on the Federal Land Bank and the Country Church 
I HAVE always been whole-heartedly in favor 
of rural police protection, because it consti¬ 
tutes a much-needed innovation. The theory 
is certainly excellent and the present State 
troopers should solve the problem. But some¬ 
how it proves to be a theory, like many others, 
that fails to work out in actual practice. It may 
be that the force is inadequate in numbers but 
that fact could in no wise affect some of the 
adverse criticism to which it is open. Perhaps 
we hear of the failures rather than the successes, 
too, and there may have been extenuating cir¬ 
cumstances, of which no one hears, that would 
in a measure excuse the faults of the system. 
But the fact remains that, for the purpose for 
which rural people supposed it was originally 
intended, our institution has fallen 
far short. 
We expected them to serve in coun¬ 
try places rather than in large cities, 
where their activities seem to have 
been confined largely to quelling 
strikes. Last Hallowe’en, in a place 
where much damage had previously 
been done and trouble was expected, 
it is reported on the best possible 
authority that a trooper stood by 
while the lawless element threw 
stones through windows and com¬ 
mitted various other depredations, 
and not only did the representative 
of law and order neglect to make any 
effort whatever to prevent these 
things but he told the law .breakers 
that he w'ould “wink at them,” he 
wasn’t seeing anything. It is rare 
indeed that we manage to get a 
trooper when he is needed and I have 
yet to hear of a case where his ser¬ 
vices, when they were obtained, were 
not against rather than for the rural 
population. 
A case is on record where one of the 
troopers arrested an old woman over 
eighty years old, who lived entirely 
alone, and the court fined her $50 
for having in her house a revolver that 
had belonged to her husband and had 
not been a usable weapon w r hen he 
died twenty-nine years before. No 
doubt the story “gained some in the 
telling” but it indicated the general 
trend of rural thought toward or 
about these protectors of country 
life and property. The law that pro¬ 
hibits the revolver is in itself an ab¬ 
surdity, since it is a self-evident fact 
that it would in no wise disarm the 
criminal while it leaves the law- 
By A. A. READERS 
Federal Bank can let you have the amount of 
money you need. There are always a good many 
different factors to be considered. If your farm 
is fairly good land, reasonably level and free from 
stone, with fair buildings and favorably situated— 
by that I mean not far from a railroad station 
and improved road—I think it likely that it would 
be appraised for as much as $4,400, in which case 
the Bank might loan $2,200. If your farming 
appeared to be well conducted and on a paying 
basis with a proper amount of live-stock, it would 
be a factor greatly in favor of a liberal loan. 
Where the buildings are poor or the farm lies 
remote from lines of transportation, the Bank 
(i.e. its borrowers) it must try to never make 
loans in excess of the prompt and certain sale value 
of the farm. This is the reason why they or¬ 
dinarily loan only 50% of the appraised value. 
Occasionally at least good farms when thrown on 
the market in foreclosure proceedings go un¬ 
believably low. 
No matter what an appraiser may think, a 
recent bona fide sale is the very best measure of 
actual value, so if you have paid only $2,200 for the 
farm and have paid only a little in cash, it would 
seem unlikely that you could get enough from the 
Bank to take care of the mortgage. Then, too, the 
Bank can take nothing except a first mortgage 
and if your mortgage is not yet due and the 
holder declines (as sometimes happens) to accept 
payment, you might not be able to 
arrange the matter. You see there are 
many things to be taken into consid¬ 
eration. Personally I wish that the 
Bank might be able to help you and 
every other worthy man but knowing 
nothing as to conditions it is not wise 
for me to make anything more than 
a vague guess.— Jared Van Wag- 
"enen, Jr. 
All Set For the 
Annual Operation 
v. 
A Country Church Centennial 
^~^NE hundred years ago a little 
group of Scottish 
immigrants 
Courtesy, New York Tribune 
abiding citizen entirely at his mercy by removing 
his only means of self-defense. 
I may not see these things in their proper light 
and if I do not I should be very glad to be cor¬ 
rected, but it looks to me as if the rural police 
had failed sadly to comprehend its true mission. 
I should say “more and better protection,” yes; 
but more State troopers of the present type 
E. M. A., Chautauqua County, N. Y. 
built a church in the open country. 
Their descendants, who recently cele¬ 
brated the centennial of the founding 
of the church, gathered in a beautiful 
edifice of stone, which many years ago 
took the place of the original plain 
wooden structure. The church build¬ 
ing of to-day, like that of the past, 
faces the sunrise, a symbol of the for¬ 
ward look of those who worship here; 
while the spire, which rises high into 
the blue, is not only a landmark but 
the architectural expression of the 
aspiration of the countryside. 
Five or six score of members is the 
most that the old church has ever had 
at any one time, but it has always been 
a kind of community fireside about 
which the scattered farm dwellers 
could gather as a big family. Here 
they have discussed their problems, 
shared their experiences, inquired 
after the sick, voiced their sympathy 
for the bereaved, and here with deep 
feeling they have sung, “ Blest be the 
tie that binds our hearts in Christian 
love.” 
But, most important of all, during 
no. 
Editor’s Note —Here is what one farmer’s wife thinks of 
the .State Police—What do you think? Let’s have a few 
short letters. 
* * * 
Loans Depend Greatly on Location 
I have bought a 100-acre farm. It has 12 acres of good 
is unwilling to make loans except upon a basis of its one hundred years this church has kept alive 
low valuation. If you had given me an idea of and quickened that sense of responsibility to God 
the general character and lay of the land together which Daniel Webster, country born and country 
with the exact location or distances from railroad bred, declared was the greatest thought which 
and stone road I might have been able to give you ever filled his mind. Those who have here bowed 
at least some idea of the value. the head in prayer, week by week, who have 
In regard to the woodland I may say that the studied the Book of books, and who have rever- 
Bank has no hard and fast rule, but in a general ently listened to the message of a man of God in 
way they are willing to allow lumber to be cut and the pulpit, have come to realize that the world 
sold providing a part of the proceeds—say one- has a sky and that the height of life is of even 
half—is turned into the Bank for the purpose of more moment than its length and breadth, 
reducing the loan. I do not think you would find Young people who have here gained inspiring 
them unreasonable in this regard. interpretations of the faith of their fathers have 
If the loan is to be used for permanent improve- greatly resolved, that, whether in the country or 
hemlock timber, but I am not allowed to sell any wood or 
lumber until paid for. I paid $2,200 and it needs quite a lot 
of repair on buildings and needs a granary and hog pen. I 
wonder if I could gest any help from the Federal Land and 
Intermediate Banks. Please write and let me know what you 
can about it, because I would like some help if I could get it.— 
W. W C., New York. 
ment which would add to the sale value of the 
farm the loan might be more liberal than if it was 
to be used merely to pay off indebtedness. I may 
add that sometimes loans are made only upon 
condition that at least a part of the loan is so used, 
and not infrequently such money is held in trust 
by the Secretary-Treasurer of the local Associa- 
in the city, they would live their lives like young 
John Milton, “as ever in my great Taskmaster’s 
eye.” 7 
From far and near men and women came back 
to the centennial of the church of their childhood 
and youth. They came back as the alumni of a 
college return at Commencement. They felt that 
Y OUR letter to the American Agriculturist 
has just reached me. I am sorry that you 
do not give data enough to enable me to make 
even an intelligent guess as to whether or not the 
tion and is paid over only as it is actually applied the old church w^as their spiritual Alma Mater, 
to such improvements. Gladly they confessed that all that was best in 
Unfortunately the Bank can not be wholly a their lives came from their God-fearing fathers 
philanthropic institution. If it is to continue in and mothers and from the old home church.— 
business and be fair to its present stockholders J. E. R., Broome County, N. Y. 
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