defending instincts. No nation or civilization can endure on any other basis. No fact of history is clearer than this; and if the church today is unconcerned about it, then its leaders lack the spiritual insight and the courageous practical statesmanship of Isaiah of old.-L. G. Wilson, a N. C. Club Study, 1921-22. Sources of Information The N. C. Club Year-Book, 1919-20.-Extension Division, University of North Carolina. The Church and Tenancy, University News Letter, Vol. V, Nos. 14, 15, and 21; Vol. VI, No. 46; Vol. III, Nos. 36 and 39. Rural Survey Bulletins.-Department Church and Country Life, Northern Presbyterian Church, Dr. W. H. Wilson, 156 Fifth Ave., N. Y. Orange County Church Survey, 1915, in Mss.-Department Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina, E. C. Branson, Chapel Hill. Syllabus of Country Church Studies.-E. C. Branson, University of North Carolina. Contains an extensive bibliography. Country Church Attendance, by Boisen.-American Journal of Sociology, September, 1916. Vogt's Introduction to Rural Sociology, pp. 301-2.-Appleton and Co., N. Y. Six Thousand Country Churches, Gill and Pinchot.-Macmillan Co., New York. The New Era, by Josiah Strong.-Baker and Taylor Company, N. Y. The Challenge of the City, Josiah Strong.-N. Y. Missionary Education Movement, N. Y. The Challenge of the Country, Fiske.-Association Press, N. Y. My Neighbor's Landmark, by Verinder.-Andrew Melrose, 3 York St., Melrose Garden, London. The Southern Country Church, by Branson.-Christian Observer, Louisville, Ky., March 12, 1913. The Greensboro Church Survey.-An address by E. C. Branson, Central Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, N. C. (in Mss.) Home-ownership and Democracy, by E. C. Branson.-University News Letter, Vol. III, Nos. 36 and 39. Sociology of Rural Life.-Proceedings American Sociological Society, Vol. XI, 1916. Life of John Frederick Oberlin, by A. F. Beard.-Pilgrim Press, Boston. REFERENCE READINGS Bulletins and Pamphlets 1. Country Life and the Country Church, Biblical Recorder, Raleigh, N. C., Jan. 10, 1917.-Branson. Status of Our Country Church, Christian Observer, Louisville, Ky., March 12, 1913.-Branson. The Church, a Country Life Defense.-Branson. The Country Church: Its Ruin and Its Remedy.-Morris. The Rural Church Problem.-King. The Country Church, an Economic and Social Force.-Galpin. The Church and the Commonwealth.-Twombly. The Rural Church.-Henry Wallace. Country Life Institutes.-N. C. University Bulletin. Current Opinion, Feb., 1916.-Woodrow Wilson. Everybody's Magazine, May, 1916.-Gladden. American Journal of Sociology, Sept., 1916.-Boisen. Reading list on the Church and the Rural Community, by Vogt.-Board of Home Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church, 1701 Arch St., Philadelphia. Reading list on social subjects for ministers.-Federal Council Commission, 105 E. 22nd St., New York City. Rural Survey (1) Benton County, Ark., and (2) Gibson County, Tenn.-Presbyterian Country Life Board, 156 Fifth Ave., N. Y. City. Books 2. The Southern Country Church.-Masters. The Home Mission Task. -Southern Baptist Home Mission Board, Atlanta. The Church in the Open Country.-Wilson. The New Era.-Strong. The Challenge of the Country.-Fiske. The Country Church.-Gill and Pinchot. Report of the Country Life Commission. The Day of the Country Church.-Ashenhurst. Rural Christendom.-Roads. The Rural Church and Community Betterment.-Association Press. The Country Church and the Rural Problem.-Butterfield. The Rural Church Message.-Association Press. The Rural Church Movement.-Earp. Using the Resources of the Country Church.-Groves. Life of Oberlin.-Beard. The Church and Country Life. -Vogt. The Social Teachings of Jesus.-Jennings. The Social Significance of Jesus.-Jenks. The Church and the Changing Order.-Matthews. The Social Task of Christianity.-Batten. The Social Task of the Church.-Ward. Gillette's Rural Sociology. Vogt's Introduction to Rural Sociology. Sociology of Rural Life.-Proceedings of American Sociological Society, Vol. XI, 1916 (indispensable to people interested in country-life as an asset or a liability.) FEDERAL AID FOR LANDLESS MEN P. A. REAVIS, JR., Franklin County I The Federal Farm Loan Bank and the Tenant Farmer In the discussion of the Club tonight, it is the purpose as has been said before to outline certain plans for aiding the farmer in financing his business. There has been in the last four or five years a very strong demand on the part of agricultural interests for better and "longerperiods-of-time" loans, so that the tenant farmer may be able not only to keep at the business of farming, but also to secure land in his own name, thereby relieving him of the present-day economic and social serfdom. Property ownership gives a man prestige in his community, it makes him have an interest in the affairs of the community, and of the state, and of the nation. It is a well-known psychological fundamental that when one has an interest in anything there will his heart and his attention be centered. I do not know of any way that such an interest can be stimulated, and better Americans can be made, than by giving every tenant a chance to own his own home. It is a well-established fact that tenants do wish to own their own property, but due to the presentday system of finance it has been impossible for them to secure the large amounts necessary. The banking system has been built up around shorttermed loans and high interest rates, and under this system it has been far easier for the tenant to remain a tenant instead of pushing out on his own hook and purchasing large tracts of land. But in 1916 the demand for a better and easier system grew to such proportions that the Federal Farm Loan act was passed by Congress. The act briefly stated provided for: 1. The organization of 12 Federal Land Banks in 12 districts. (This district the 3rd, Bank at Columbia, S. C.) 2. The formation of local Farm Loan Associations with subscription of stock in same by the members desiring to negotiate a loan from the Federal Land Bank. 3. Not more than 50 per cent of the value of the land (appraised by expert government appraisers) offered as security plus 20 per cent of the value of the buildings, nor more than $10,000 in any case, will be loaned to a single borrower. The money must be used for the purpose specified, such as the purchase of land, improvements, equipment, fertilizers, or livestock, or for the payment of existing indebtedness. 4. The repayment of the loan over a period of from five to forty years in annual or semi-annual installments at a rate of not more than 6 per cent and not more than 1 per cent above the interest rate paid on the bonds of the Federal Land Bank, which are exempt from taxation. Thus if the interest paid on the bonds issued by the Federal Land Bank (issued on the first mortgages held by it as security for the loans) is 4 per cent the interest charged the borrower could not exceed 5 per cent. The Land Bank will not accept any sort of mortgage except the first, for it is held that only first mortgages are sufficient security to issue bonds on. From this we see that the borrower does not borrow from the government but from the Federal Land Bank just as the business man borrows from the Federal Reserve Bank. The money loaned is secured through the sale of Federal Land Bank bonds. This is in brief the outline of the system, divested of all its details of organization and operation. They are only the main principles which are of direct importance to a study of this nature. Now due to the short length of time and to the further fact that the subject is of such a broad nature, and there are so many details involved in an intensive study, I have seen fit to limit my discussion to only two further illustrations, after which there will be a free-for-all discussion. The first concrete example is of the purchase of land under the system by the tenant, and is taken from an article entitled "How the Farm Loan Act May Aid the Landless," in the Borrowers' Bulletin of November, 1917, a publication of the Federal Farm Loan Bureau of the United States Treasury. Suppose John Smith wants to buy a hundred acres of land valued at $50 per acre. The total purchase price would be $5,000; but let us say that Smith has saved but $1,000. Under the Farm Loan Act Smith would be entitled to borrow only one-half of the appraised value, or $2,500 if this appraised value should be the same as the purchase price. He would pay this to the original owner, adding to it the one thousand which he has saved. He would have given a first mortgage to the Federal Farm Land Bank and there would therefore be a balance of $1,500 left to be handled with the original owner on a second mortgage. The original owner, having received the $2,500 borrowed by the tenant and the additional savings of $1,000 of the tenant, would undoubtedly be willing to accept a second mortgage for the balance divided into ten annual installments. Here is the way it would figure out. The first mortgage for $2,500 given under the farm loan act would draw 5 per cent interest and would be paid off on the installment plan through a period of 36 years by making annual payments of $150. Now let us say that the second mortgage of $1,500 would draw 6 per cent and could be arranged so as to be retired in ten years. The interest on this fifteen hundred dollars at 6 per cent would be ninety dollars the first year. One-tenth of the $1,500 would be $150. Adding the interest and the one-tenth payment would be a payment of $240 the first year on account of the second mortgage, including interest and principal. The second year payment on the second mortgage would be $231 and the following annual payments throughout the ten years to retire the second mortgage, both principal and interest, would be, respectively $222, $213, $204, $195, $186, $177, $168, and $159. On top of all these annual payments would be the $150 interest and amortization payment on the first mortgage to the Federal Land Bank, making the total payments, interest and principal, on both mortgages begin with $390 the first year and dwindle down to $309 the tenth year; thereafter only $150 each year for the remaining amortization period. If the term of the second mortgage could be arranged for a longer period than ten years the required annual payments would be correspondingly reduced. These payments are smaller than the average tenant pays for rent. Assuming as above that the purchaser had saved $1,000 to invest in a $5,000 farm of 100 acres, his first-year payment would amount to approximately $3.90 per acre. This would gradually lessen until the tenth year he would be paying $3.09 per acre, and each year after that he would be paying only $1.50 per acre. Instead of paying this money as rental he would be applying it on the purchase price of his land. Even if the farmer could rent land worth fifty dollars per acre at an annual rental of $3.85 per acre he would still be benefited under the farm loan act. In the case of the renter he would have paid the land owner at the rate of about 8 per cent on his land investment and still be a renter, while under the farm loan act he would have come to the realization of his efforts and be an independent owner, free of mortgage, with the satisfaction and content which come with ownership. For our consideration then we have the Farm Loan Act acting as an agency for the buying of land for the tenant, and thereby allowing him to become a land owner and a home-builder. Even with this one aim the Federal Land Bank would justify its existence. But it goes further. It allows a person to borrow to pay off an old and existing land debt which stares him in the face and makes his life a burden. For instance, take the following case, an illustration given in an article in the Sanford Express of July 1, 1921: A owes the local bank $5,000 secured by a first mortgage on his farm. The Federal Lank Bank approves a loan for say $4,000 on the same security and this being insufficient to take up the entire first mortgage, the bank agrees to take $4,000 and a second mortgage for the remaining $1,000. The result of this arrangement is beneficial to both parties for the following reasons: The borrower by paying 6 per cent interest and 1 per cent on the principal can carry four-fifths of his indebtedness for thirty-five years, thus taking an exceedingly long period for the repayment of four thousand dollars. In other words except for the insignificant payments mentioned, he can just forget that he owes the four thousand dollars and bend every energy to pay off the remaining $1,000 due the local bank, and this he can very probably do out of his next season's crop. The local bank thus gets its money much more quickly than if it waited for the farmer to pay the full $5,000 in the usual way. And the legal aspects of this plan are equally interesting. The local bank can sell under its second |