Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1900 — How He Made Farmers Suffer. [ARTICLE]

How He Made Farmers Suffer.

“Under a gold standard farmers i cannot pay their mortgages, and I simply have to lose what they have invested.” From a speech delivered in Benton Harbor, Mich, by Mr. Bryan, October 16, 1890, In Mr. Bryan’s own state, Nebraska, the value of mortgages which were released or canceled in 1898, the second year of McKinley's administration, was $27,496,070, which is $9,300,000 greater than the value of mortgages paid off in 1896. Instead of farm lands depreciating in value, they have appreciated tremendously. On this subject the American Agriculturist recently said: Agricultural real estate is now worth $1,220,000,000 more than it was, a single year ago; the percentage of farms occupied by owners is now larger than ever before, while the number of farms under mortgage bus materially decreased. “The amount of mortgages on farms occupied by their owners is estimated at about $300,000,000 less than at the beginning of the decade. Mortgages now average only about 27 per cent, of tne farms they afe on, the rale of interest has declined, and in great bulk of mortgages now in force were incurred to buy the farm or to improve it."