often, if not usually, incurring serious debt.

In the more

sparsely-settled portions of the United States a great part of the mortgage indebtedness was incurred in this way, and of this much is never likely to be paid. This is especially true of the semi-arid districts.

There is another kind of speculative indebtedness among farmers which concerns a great number of individuals, although for the most part concentrated in comparatively small and well-defined districts, which is indebtedness incurred for developing the fruit industry. The production of fruit is, perhaps, the most speculative occupation which farmers can engage in. No one who plants an orchard can by any possibility know what will be the outcome of his enterprise. He may make a great deal of money, or he may lose every cent of his investment, and that from causes wholly beyond his control. Similar speculative indebtedness has been incurred. in the development of dairying, truck farming, and other agricultural industries whenever the hope of selling land or supplies has induced effort to create undue expectations of profit from special agricultural operations.

The foregoing brief review of the causes of speculative. indebtedness among farmers is given for the purpose of making clear to all who are indebted in this way just where they stand. No debtor is likely to make any wise move towards extricating himself from his indebtedness without looking the situation frankly in the face. Until he is ready to acknowledge to himself, his family, and others interested, the exact facts and probabilities of his situation, he will act under the influence of illusions, and his premises being wrong, his conclusions will certainly be unsound.

An indebted farmer who finds himself regularly able to meet his interest payments, make some reduction of the principal, and keep clear of floating debt needs no suggestions from these pages. He understands his business. If, however, he is working to the limit of his strength, with old age coming on, his wife breaking down from overwork and anxiety, and the mortgage interest kept up only at the cost of an increasing floating debt, with its accompanying torment of duns, he will,

if willing to frankly consider his own condition, be ready to concede that he has sometime committed grave errors from whose consequences he is now suffering. If at some former time his judgment has been at fault, he should be willing to acknowledge to himself that he may even now be in error in some things, and that there may be suggestions which have not occurred to him which are yet well worth his consideration.

The farmer who is indebted beyond his ability to pay is very apt to consider his creditors as his enemies who are oppressing him. There is no sense in this. If he does what he has agreed to do they will not be his enemies. If to any extent they are so now it is because of his own failure to keep his agreement. Evidently, since he is unable to keep his agreement, it is one that he should never have made. It may be true that his inability to pay arises from changes in conditions over which he had no control; but, as business is universally conducted in this world, the possibility of such changes must be considered by all who make agreements to be executed in the future, and margins reserved for all contingencies. Whoever fails to do this must take the consequences when things go wrong. Farmers are as strenuous as other classes in exacting this from their debtors. If a farmer sells a horse, taking a note in payment, and the horse dies the next day, he will still require payment of the note at maturity, and collect it if he can.

But, while farmers must abide the consequences of their bad judgment in increasing indebtedness, there is yet a limit beyond which they ought not to go. Neither law nor society requires impossibilities, nor is it desirable that one man shall be the slave of another for his lifetime. While the debtor, as a rule, has asked the credit, considered himself at the time. fortunate in obtaining it, and agreed to take all risks of depreciation or other misfortune tending to prevent payment, the creditor also took his risk. Under ancient civilizations

the debtor who could not pay became the slave of the creditor, and could be bought and sold. In modern times creditors, in making loans, or giving credit, know that they will not have this ultimate recourse. They must look to the property for

payment, and not to the person of the debtor. But as a rule they do not wish the property. What they desire is interest regularly paid. Especially is this true of banks and other money-lending corporations who, above all things, hate foreclosures and the care of property. If the debtor, living upon the property, and familiar with it and with farming, can not make it pay interest, the bank almost certainly can not. The debtor who can not pay interest, usually has but a most meager living, and no wages besides. If the bank takes the property it must pay good wages for its care, and is not likely to get interest in addition.

When an indebted farmer finds that he is killing himself and his family and still making no progress, it is time to stop. He has done his best and failed, and society asks no more of him. It is not right that he and his should be slaves. His creditors have erred in extending credit, as well as himself in obtaining it, and, while the severest consequences must fall upon him, it is proper that the creditors should bear their share. At this juncture the duty which society imperatively demands of the debtor is absolute frankness and honesty, first with himself, and secondly with his creditors. It is also best for himself. There are chords of sympathy in the human breast which reach out even from creditors to debtors. Honesty, frankness, and courage will cause these chords to vibrate.

The first step is to put on paper a complete schedule of liabilities, down to the minutest item. Then there should be a complete schedule of property, and a statement of income by items as far back as possible. This should be taken first to the mortgage creditor. He is the most secure, and it will be to his interest to aid his debtor to a compromise with others. The question to be decided is not one of intent or desire on the part of the debtor, but what income the property can be made to produce in his hands, or whether some other available person can get more out of it. It is for the interest of all concerned that the property shall be so used as to produce the largest net income, and as to this lenders of money will often be better judges than borrowers. If it

should appear that, while the income is not sufficient to pay everything, it can be made to produce a good part of the indebtedness, some kind of compromise will be made which will enable the farmer to go on. All that can be got out of a place is what it will yield after supporting the family which works it. As various considerations will impel the indebted farmer to work cheaper than any one else, and with a better understanding of the capabilities of the farm, there is nearly always a ground for such a settlement and reduction of liabilities as will, under the circumstances, be best for all. If the settlement is complete, and the margin for living is not cut too close, the advantage to all will be great. What kills debtors is not hard work but worry. No man can endure continuous attempts to achieve the impossible with a penalty overhanging in case of failure. When the task is reduced to what can be done, the hard work continues but not the worry. Life takes on a different aspect. The arriving mail is no longer looked to with dread nor the calling stranger feared as one who may have papers to serve. Hope takes the place of despair, and the old renew their youth. Misfortune has befallen and has been bravely met. The best that could be done has been done, and there are respect and esteem in place of suspicion and doubt.

The above is the course always taken by good business men in financial difficulties. It should be imitated by farmers. In attempting such settlement, legal advice should be secured. In most country towns there is some elderly, sensible lawyer whom everybody knows and respects, and who makes his living by keeping people out of lawsuits. Go to him, and to the principal creditor. Lay all the facts before them, and trust your legal adviser and your principal creditor to reach an agreement and bring in the rest.

The relation of the embarrassed farmer to his creditors must be one of perfect frankness and honesty. Many lose their homes who need not do so.

B

CHAPTER V.

THE FARMER AND THE POLITICIAN.

Y "politician" I mean a person who habitually seeks to obtain a livelihood from the emoluments of public office

or to influence the bestowal of office. He may and probably will have some other ostensible or actual means of support, and is quite certain to be an alert and capable person, entirely competent to live independent of office, but he has acquired the office-seeking habit, which is one of the hardest habits to break. A politician may become a statesman, and as such one of the most honored and useful members of society. Most of them do not, but at the same time it must be recognized that the majority of the office-seeking class are intelligent and honest, and faithfully discharge the duties of any position to which they may be elected or appointed. At any rate, they must have the appearance and reputation of so doing or they could not, at least outside the large cities, hope to succeed. In the aggregate there is doubtless a good deal of official corruption in most countries, but in the main I believe our officials personally discharge the duties of their offices with zeal and fidelity.

And yet it is true that when once an honorable man becomes a candidate for an elective office, or a "worker" who expects, in case of the success of his party, to be rewarded by an appointive office, he becomes possessed of an absorbing desire to win. This feeling is by no means wholly mercenary. The joy of overcoming is of itself a sufficient inducement to many, and, once engaged in a contest, all means esteemed honest within the purview of the very loose code of political morals are freely employed.

There is no doubt that in the long run the means deemed most certain to lead to success are what is commonly spoken of as "humbug," and of all classes that deemed most suscep(113)