| 266THAT VITAL THING, DEBT
Mrs. Peattie Discourses on It in Connection With Mortgage Statistics.
What the Figures Tell of the Movements and Emotions of the People-The Sowing of 1887 in Nebraska.
It is a difficult thing to make the mortgaged indebtedness of a country intersting or simple reading. Yet there is no subject which more nearly concerns the happiness of men and women than this. For in proportion as men enjoy the fruits of their labors, are they free men. No man is free who must give the results of his toil to another man.
If this fact had always been fully appreciated by Americans, they would not perhaps have reached a point where the present financial depression became an inevitable thing. If they, had been more patient in earning and less eager to borrow , if they had developed resources, instead of speculating in possibilities, they would not now, so many of them find themselves hemmed in by a wall of debt. For men build barriers of debt so high that never while life lasts, can they surmount them. And they are too often prone to aquire these debts recklessly in the hope opf large success, and then, when they fail to meet the drain they have put upon themselves, to find fault with the system which permitted them to commit such an error. On the other hand, there are circumstances which compel a man to become a borrower, And these conditions arise, primarily from the system of land and money which obtains here. But not to go into questions so large, and concerning which there are so many differences of opinion, It may be interesting to those who are themselves struggling under the burden which borrowed money imposed to know something of the condition of the people, in this respect, all over our beautiful but much suffering country.
Among the extra census bulletins are some which deal with the statistics of farms, homes and mortgages, and which represent a new departure on the part of our government. Mr. Robert P. Porter, chief of the census bureau says: "It is, I believe , the first time a government has ever attempted to invade for startical purposes the realm of private indebtedness."
He gives some idea of the labor involved in this extraordinary investigation in the following sentence: "The employment of a small army of 2,50 special agents and clerks to make an abstract of every mortgage placed on record in every county of the United States for the last ten years has attracted attention to the dangers of these incumbrances, to the alarming extent to which usury is practiced, and to the defectiveness of these records in all parts of the country. The agents of the census office have, as a matter of fact, overhauled the records in every state and territory. They have traveled on horseback and on foot through the most sparsely settled districts of our vast domain in search of mortgages, and have done their work so industriously and so thoroughly that we now have on file in Washington, as a result of their labor, the abstracts of about 9,000.000 mortgages"
It would be impossible in the space of such an article as this to deal with all of the states of the union. Therefore it may be best simply to use Mr. Porter's figure as they refer to states which topographically, or naturally, or in products, or manner of people, greatly contrast with one another.
In a letter accompanying his report to the secretary of the interior Mr. Porter says concerning this state:
"The real estate mortgage business of Nebraska during the ten years 1880-1890 is represented by 837,872 mortgages made to secure a debt of $274,808.858.
Of this debt 48.44 per cent remained unpaid January 1, 1890. Nearly one-third (81.90 per cent) of the existing debt is on village and city lots, and the principal portion of this is in the couties of Douglas and Lancaster, containing, respectively, the cities of Omaha and Lincoln. In Douglas county the existing debt is $27,064, 041 of which 87.60 percent is on lots. In Lancaster county the existing debt is 80,172,266, of which 64.97 per cent is on lots.
In some of the more prominent characteristics of its real estate mortgage indebtedness Nebraska occupies a place between Kansas on one hand and Iowa and Illinois on the other. The per capita indebtedness of these four states is as follows:
Kansas...9170
Nebraska...126
Iowa...104
Illinois...100
Existing mortgages cover 14,085,200
acres in Nebraska and these are 58.13 per cent of the total number of taled acres in the state. This is lower than the Kansas percentage and higher than the Iowa and Illinois percentages, as is shown below:
Kansas...61.55 per cent
Nebraska...58.13 per cent
Iowa...40.93 per cent
Illinois...80.78 per cent
Again, Nebraska occupies an intermediate place in proportion that the debt on acre tracts bears to the estimated true value of the acre tracts that secure it. The proportions for the four states shown are by the following percentages:
Kansas...47.53 per cent
Nebraska...44.47 per cent
Illinois...48.13 per cent
Iowa...38.85 per cent
Mr. Porter points out fact which in very much to the credit of Nebraska, and that is that the cause for mortgages almost invariably is improvements and purchase, In short, they represent growth and activity, and in no way decay or a-running behind. They show on the whole, the consciousness of strength, not weakness. At the same time, there is not a doubt about many of them having been incurred under protest. This is particularly the case in the farming districts, where the need for securing agricultural implements of the expensive sort, the occasional failure of crops, and the other exigencies of agricultural implements of the expensive sort, the occasional failure of crops, and the other exigencies of agricultural life have compelled farmers to assume second mortgages, frequently at usurious raics of interest.
Yet it is noticeable, and I cannot refrain from calling particular attentionto the fact that a very large percentage of the mortgages are on town and city lots. Whereas it is very well known that it is not city men who speak much of the oppression entailled by the mortgage but almost universally such complaints come from the farmer. This may be because of the dull and isolated nature of American farm life, and the fact that the farmer and his family have few amusements to divert their minds from their monetary difficulties. They are forced by the nature of circumstances to concentrate their attention upon themselves. There is also this to be taken into consideration in pallaition of the loud complaints of the farmer, and that is that his living comes directly from the ground, and he, therefore, attaches more importance to the undivided ownership of it than does the man in town, who, deriving his living from other means, thinks of the ground as his accumulation over and above.
The comparison of the mortgages upon farms and upon town lots in interesting. As quoted from the census bulliten they are as follows:
"Mortgages on Acres-On acre tracts, including all farms a debt of 3181.429.021 was placed during the ten years. Which is 06.18 per cent of the total amount for acres and lots, and this was represented by 225,420 mortgages, or 06.72 per cent of the total number. A debt of 37,588,582 was placed on acres in 1680, and this increased to $26,213,154 in 1887; the amount in 1888 was $21,000, 914 in 1889, $25,401,455. The increase of 1880 over 1880 was 284.95 per cent. In 1880 14,109 mortgages on acres were made in 1889, 29,012 mortgages."
It is by the way of peculiar interst to note the effect which the year 1887 had upon Nebraska. That was a climax year of the state. The large number of mortgages incurred that year show the immigration which brought to Nebraska and to Omaha the memorable "boom," which may or may not have been a piece of good fortune. But to return to the subject of:
"Mortgages on Lois-A debt of $92,939,837 was placed on lots during the last decade, or 83 87 per cent of the total amount of acres and lots and this was represented by 112,446 mortgages or 83.28 per cent of the total number. The annual increase of the debt on lots is more marked than the increase of the debt on acres. In 1880 the incurred lot debt was 81,790,008, and the yearly increase was constant to 821,154,983 increase was constant to $21,154,983 in 1887 the amount was $16,728,953 in 1888, and $19,680,095 in 1880 or an increase in the last year of 999.78 per cent of the amount of 1880. The mortgages on lots made in 1880 numbered 8,419 in 1889 19,629."
Concerning the mortgaging as to counties the report says: "By far the leading county in amount of mortgaging done during the ten years is Douglas county, with a population of 168,008. and containing the city of Omaha, whose population is 140,452 an increase of 919.73 per cent over that of 1890, In this county 82,603 mortgages were made during the decade to secure a debt of $52,942.667. The number and amount of these mortgages are chiefly chargeable to lots, the number of mortgages on lots being 31,303 and their amount $40,530,009. The annually incurred lot debt was $323,499 in 1880, $1,475,811 in 1884, $2,758,506 in 1885. $7,623,418 in 1886 $12,285,969 in 1887, $8,725,813 in 1888 and $10,044,084 in 1889. From 1880 to 1889 the annually incurred debt increased 1,818.63 per cent.
This will, of course be considered a sign of activity-of the enornous increase of human interest and confidence in the state. Whether it is prosperity or not each person must decide for himself. It represents the structure of civilization. It may be builded upon the rock or the sand. That is a matter of opinion. It stands for credit. And the business of the world could not so they say be conducted without credit. Yet it is the contraction of credit and nothing else which can make possible such a panic as the one from which we are now suffering.
However, this is anything aside3. There is a general idea abroad that it is the west alone which so suffers from mortgages. and we are apt to think of ourselves as the victims of eastern capital. We might occassionally be frank and admit tht if eastern capital has got in here it is because it was saught for. All sorts of inducements have been offered to it and are still being offered. And the money loaned by eastern capitalists has usually been in large amounts for a fixed, legal, and as custom goes, reasonably rate of interest. The usury has generally proceeded from men among us, and very frequently from farmers who have become money loaners and who loan small amounts of money on short time and monthly interest. Or in cities such as Omaha and Lincoln, it has been the local money sharks who have pushed men to the wall menaced them with the fatal chattel mortgage and very frequently from farmers who have become money loaners, and drained the blood from men's bodies by absorbing the fruits of their toil from day to day. The east is mercanary enough -no doubt about that. But at the present time when certain ill-advised persons appear to be in a semi-seditious frame of mind, it is as well to remember the truth about these things. And approve of that, the condition of Massachusetts will be worth taking into consideration. The following is quoted: "During the ten years 1880-1890, 250,222 real estate mortgages were made in the state of Massachusetts, representing an incurred indebtedness of $308,455,550. The debt remaining in force January 1, 1890, is $323,277.608, secured by 178,202 mortgages, and of this debt $42,441,247 incumbers 920,313 acres and $280,836,421 incumbers 132,683 lots. The mortgage movement of the ten years, which has been an increasing one without interuption, began with an incurred debt of $28,176,183 in 1880 and ended with $75,526,344 in 1880, an increase of 168.05 per cent, while the population increased 23.57 per cent during the same time. During the decade a real estate mortgage debt of $193,635,825 was incurred in suffolk, county, which contains the city of Boston, and the existing debt in that county is $123,784,037. In eight of the fouteen counties the existing debt is more than $10,000,000 each."
Although Massachusetts is so old that we of the west are apt to think of it as being well established in all ways, it is in fact given to new ventures. Boston has felt a tremendous acceleration of business during the last ten years, and particularly during the last five years. The stream of immigration flowing through this country has made its way through Massachusetts, and the drift of this new population lies upon the old Puritan subsiratum. The large number of manufacturies, with their operatives receiving steady salaries has caused a desire for homes, and this is another thing which has had its effect in accelerating what Mr. Porter calls the mortgage movement." Besides, Boston has been undergoing a transition. The parts of town which used to be most desireable are so no longer, and the moving of those who wish to be in the best kept locality , and the subsquent building of new homes is another of the causes. But above all, undoubtedly, the reason lies in the rapid development of business which is the result of an impetus that came to Boston a few years ago, and which is winning for it a reputation of commercial activity which does something toward compensating for its waning reputation as the literary center of the country. For that is a reputation which is rapidly being transferred to New York.
The quotations of the figures concerning debt and ownership of land in Georgia will furnish one more contrast, and will show how all parts of the country are struggling along under the same burden. Mr. Porter says: "In regard to farms in Georgia, the conclusion is that 58.10 per cent of the farm families hire and 41.90 per cent own the farms culivated by them; that 9.88 per cent of the farm owning families own subject to incumbrances, and that 96.62 per cent own free of incumbrance. Among 100 farm families fifty-eight hire their farms one owns with incumbrance. On the owned farms of this state there are liens amounting to $1,697,500 which is 41.89 per cent of their value, and this debt bears interest at the rate of 8.83 per cent making the average, annual interest 857 to each family. Each owned and incumbered farm, on the average is worth $1,627, and is subject to a debt of $681.
"The corresonding facts for homes are that 79.00 per cent of the home families hire and 21.00 per cent own their home owning families own free of incumbrance and 2.78 per cent with incumbrance and 2.78 per cent with incumbrance. In 100 home families on the average,79 hire their homes, I owns with incumbrance. The debt on owned homes aggregates 1,051,754, or 42.59 per cent of their value, and hears interest at the average amount of interest to each home averages $80. An average debt of $1,020 incumbers each home which has the average value of $2,396."
At the conclusion of this report is a significant sentence. It is this "Real estate purchased and improvements, when not associated with other objects, caused 33.60, per cent of the farm families of the state to incure 87.00 per cent of the farm debt and 61.71 per cent of the home families to incur 57.90 per cent of the home debt."
It resolves itself, therefore, to a very large extent, into a struggle for the ownership of land. For the price of land is so disproportionately high as compared with the average income of a man that it must be, at best, an exceedingly difficult thing for a man of the ordinary term of life, with no start in the way of money and the current expenses of a growing family, to acquire for himself enough of the ground of the earth to live on. One might be reconciled to this if it appeared to be natural. But it is not so. It is natural that a man should assume the ownership of the product of his hands. But the earth is the product of God. And the first owner was nothing but the man who was strongest and who helped himself to the most.
But plainly put, how is a periodical panic avoidable, no matter what the monetary system, when so large a proportion of mankind is paying interest in order to hold the possession of land? In short, where debt exists upon conditions so false, contraction of credit cannot but cause a panic. And when this is complicated by two vital influences, both in a fluctuating condition, money and the tariff, it takes both patriotism and hope to make one see beyond the dreary puerile financial worries of the present into the time when men shall have discovered what the true conditions are which surround freeman.
Elia W. Peattie.
REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS.
The following real estate transfers fleed for record are reported for the WORLD HERALD from the office of the Globe Loan and Truet company, at southwest corner of Sixteenth and Dodge streets:
Herman Kountrs et al to United Real Estate and Trust company, undivided lots 8 to 11, 21 and 24 block 3: lots 1 to 8 to 38 clock 4, lots 1 to 58, block 5 lots 1 7 to 14, 16, 17 20, 23, 24, 26 block 6 lots 22 to 26 block 12 , lots 1 to 21, 24, to 26 block 12 lots 2 12 to 24 block 23 lots 1 to4 , 6, 7, 11 to 13, to 21 23 to 26 block 14 Druid Hill, tax lot 31 in 4-15-18 w.d
Herman Kountze to same same wd.. Herman Koutse et al to same undivided of 37a in north part of nw, 10-15-18, w.d.
Same to Luthe Kountze et al, undivided 74 of stine w.d
Herman Kountze et al to United Real Estate and Trust company, undivided lots 1 to 4 , 9 to 18 block 19s lots 1 to 5, block 19s lots 1 to 5, block 20, Highland w.d. Same to same, undivided lots 3,2, and 3, in 3-14 w.d
Same to same undivided of same w.d. Same to same undivided 1-6 of in tax lots 9 in nw ne 15-15 18 w.d
Same to same, undiverse or same w.d. H.W. AlClare and wife to same, undivided same w.d
Herman Kountze et al to same. 18 acres in tax lots 6 in 21/2 in 27-15-13
Same to Herman Kountze, undive 1/4 iots 1 to 1 block 18 Smith's add w.d. Nicholaus Cherek and wife to G.S. Mock 31/2
Mack 3/12 lot 23, Burr Oak, w.d...
Omalis and Fidelity Loan and Trust company to John Chaplin, blocks 183, 15, 190 and 199 and lots 1 to 20, block 95 Florence w.d.
Joseph Deviers, to R.M. DaViera, lot 19 block 4, junction view terrace, w.d.
Cathne Kountze to Horman Kountize oval, undive 1/4 lots 3 to 11 83 and 24. block 3 lots 1 to 83 block 4 lots 1 to 88, block 5, lots 1 7 to 14 , 15, 17, 20, 21, 24, and 25 block 6 lots 21 to 26 block 11 lots 1 to 21, 24, 25, to 26 block 12 lots 2 12 to 24, block 13 lots 1 to 4, 6, 7, 11, to 13, 16, to 21, 23, to 26, block 14, Druid Hill, tax lot 31 in 4-15, 13, q c d
Same to same undivide of 37 acres in 9th
Same to same, undivide lots 1 to 4, 9 to 16, block 19 lots 1 to 6 block 20 highland q c d...
Same to same ; and lots 1 to 3 in block 2, 45 1/2 in no 3 and 21 1/2 in ne 3-14-15 a.d
Same to same 61/2 in tax lot 9 in nw no 15-15-13 a d
Same to same : 18a in tax lot 6 in 31/2 lot q Herman Kouptze et al... excutors to United States Real Estate and Trust company, and 3 to 11 2d and 24 block 3 lots 1 to 88 block 4 lots 1 to 88 block 5 lots 1,7, to 14, 16, 17, 20, 23, 24 and 26 block 6 lots 22 to 26 block 11 lots 1 to 21 24 to 23 block 12 lots 2 13 to 24 block 13 lots 1 to 4,6,7,11, to 13 16 to 21 to 26 block 14 Druid Hill, tax lots 31 in 4-14-13 d
Same to same und 1/2
Total amount of transfers...$181,281
REPUBLICAN CITY CONVENTION.
The republican electors of the city of Omaha, Douglas county, Nebraska are hereby called to meet in convention at Washington hall, in the city of Omaha, on Saturday, October 7, 1803 at 2 oclock p.m. for the purpose of placing in nomination candidates for the following officers, to wit.
Mayor, comptroller, city, clerk city, treasurer, police judge, blue councilman-at-large five members of board of education, and transact such other business as may properly come before it.
The representation in said convention shall be for each ward nine delogates and it is recommended that no proxious be allowed.
The primaries to choose delegates shall be held Friday, October 6, 1803 from 12 oclock noon to 7 oclock p.m. at the following places.
First ward, 1018 South Tenth street.
Second ward, 1328 South Sixteenth street.
Third ward 106 South Twolfth street.
Fourth ward, booth 17th and Dodge street.
Fifth Ward, booth Sixteenth and board streets.
Sixth ward, Twenty-sixth and Lake, club room.
Seventh ward, booth, poppleton and Park avenues.
Eighth ward 2300 Cuming street.
Ninth ward booth Twenty-ninth avenue and Fernam street.
Charles F. Beindorff, Chairman.
W.A. Messick, Secretary.
HE USED A RAZOR.
Deputy United States Marshal Liddfard yesterday brought in Charles Buris, a colored soldier at Fort Robinson, charged with using a razor with intent to kill. | 266THAT VITAL THING, DEBT
Mrs. Peattie Discourses on It in Connection With Mortgage Statistics.
What the Figures Tell of the Movements and Emotions of the People-The Sowing of 1887 in Nebraska.
It is a difficult thing to make the mortgaged indebtedness of a country intersting or simple reading. Yet there is no subject which more nearly concerns the happiness of men and women than this. For in proportion as men enjoy the fruits of their labors, are they free men. No man is free who must give the results of his toil to another man.
If this fact had always been fully appreciated by Americans, they would not perhaps have reached a point where the present financial depression became an inevitable thing. If they, had been more patient in earning and less eager to borrow , if they had developed resources, instead of speculating in possibilities, they would not now, so many of them find themselves hemmed in by a wall of debt. For men build barriers of debt so high that never while life lasts, can they surmount them. And they are too often prone to aquire these debts recklessly in the hope opf large success, and then, when they fail to meet the drain they have put upon themselves, to find fault with the system which permitted them to commit such an error. On the other hand, there are circumstances which compel a man to become a borrower, And these conditions arise, primarily from the system of land and money which obtains here. But not to go into questions so large, and concerning which there are so many differences of opinion, It may be interesting to those who are themselves struggling under the burden which borrowed money imposed to know something of the condition of the people, in this respect, all over our beautiful but much suffering country.
Among the extra census bulletins are some which deal with the statistics of farms, homes and mortgages, and which represent a new departure on the part of our government. Mr. Robert P. Porter, chief of the census bureau says: "It is, I believe , the first time a government has ever attempted to invade for startical purposes the realm of private indebtedness."
He gives some idea of the labor involved in this extraordinary investigation in the following sentence: "The employment of a small army of 2,50 special agents and clerks to make an abstract of every mortgage placed on record in every county of the United States for the last ten years has attracted attention to the dangers of these incumbrances, to the alarming extent to which usury is practiced, and to the defectiveness of these records in all parts of the country. The agents of the census office have, as a matter of fact, overhauled the records in every state and territory. They have traveled on horseback and on foot through the most sparsely settled districts of our vast domain in search of mortgages, and have done their work so industriously and so thoroughly that we now have on file in Washington, as a result of their labor, the abstracts of about 9,000.000 mortgages"
It would be impossible in the space of such an article as this to deal with all of the states of the union. Therefore it may be best simply to use Mr. Porter's figure as they refer to states which topographically, or naturally, or in products, or manner of people, greatly contrast with one another.
In a letter accompanying his report to the secretary of the interior Mr. Porter says concerning this state:
"The real estate mortgage business of Nebraska during the ten years 1880-1890 is represented by 837,872 mortgages made to secure a debt of $274,808.858.
Of this debt 48.44 per cent remained unpaid January 1, 1890. Nearly one-third (81.90 per cent) of the existing debt is on village and city lots, and the principal portion of this is in the couties of Douglas and Lancaster, containing, respectively, the cities of Omaha and Lincoln. In Douglas county the existing debt is $27,064, 041 of which 87.60 percent is on lots. In Lancaster county the existing debt is 80,172,266, of which 64.97 per cent is on lots.
In some of the more prominent characteristics of its real estate mortgage indebtedness Nebraska occupies a place between Kansas on one hand and Iowa and Illinois on the other. The per capita indebtedness of these four states is as follows:
Kansas...9170
Nebraska...126
Iowa...104
Illinois...100
Existing mortgages cover 14,085,200
acres in Nebraska and these are 58.13 per cent of the total number of taled acres in the state. This is lower than the Kansas percentage and higher than the Iowa and Illinois percentages, as is shown below:
Kansas...61.55 per cent
Nebraska...58.13 per cent
Iowa...40.93 per cent
Illinois...80.78 per cent
Again, Nebraska occupies an intermediate place in proportion that the debt on acre tracts bears to the estimated true value of the acre tracts that secure it. The proportions for the four states shown are by the following percentages:
Kansas...47.53 per cent
Nebraska...44.47 per cent
Illinois...48.13 per cent
Iowa...38.85 per cent
Mr. Porter points out fact which in very much to the credit of Nebraska, and that is that the cause for mortgages almost invariably is improvements and purchase, In short, they represent growth and activity, and in no way decay or a-running behind. They show on the whole, the consciousness of strength, not weakness. At the same time, there is not a doubt about many of them having been incurred under protest. This is particularly the case in the farming districts, where the need for securing agricultural implements of the expensive sort, the occasional failure of crops, and the other exigencies of agricultural implements of the expensive sort, the occasional failure of crops, and the other exigencies of agricultural life have compelled farmers to assume second mortgages, frequently at usurious raics of interest.
Yet it is noticeable, and I cannot refrain from calling particular attentionto the fact that a very large percentage of the mortgages are on town and city lots. Whereas it is very well known that it is not city men who speak much of the oppression entailled by the mortgage but almost universally such complaints come from the farmer. This may be because of the dull and isolated nature of American farm life, and the fact that the farmer and his family have few amusements to divert their minds from their monetary difficulties. They are forced by the nature of circumstances to concentrate their attention upon themselves. There is also this to be taken into consideration in pallaition of the |
