Items of Interest August 5, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

President Wilson has signed the rural credits bill. This bill provides for the establishment of a system of land mortgage banks to handle long-time loans to farmers. This is regarded as one of the major measures enacted during the Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses, evolved from diligent study over a period of years by the members of both houses who have had the matter directly in charge. A trip to Europe and inspection of rural credit systems in various countries was made in 1913 by the special rural credits commission, and a detailed report was transmitted to Congress. The purpose of the bill is to bring together the small farmer who wants to borrow money and the small investor who has some savings to be loaned on reliable security. It provides machinery for giving the farmer long-time loans that can be paid in instalments at a reasonable rate of interest, and for offering to the investor of moderate means a secure negotiable real estate bond of small denomination at a good rate of interest. It divides the country into twelve districts, with a land bank in each district, and establishes in Washington, D. C., a Federal farm loan board to supervise the operation of the system. It provides for local farm loan associations composed of prospective borrowers, and for the organization of corporations known as joint-stock land banks. Under the operation of the system a member of a farm loan association may borrow from his association, giving a mortgage on his land as security. The association in turn borrows the money from the local Federal land bank, and the land bank raises the money by issuing farm loan bonds. Each association has a limited liability for the loans of its members, so is careful to see that the security is good. The bonds are strong, because issued against the collective security of all the real estate on which the individual loans are made.

Department store selling of lumber on the basis of "short lengths for odd jobs," at a few cents a stick, is spreading throughout the entire country, and is proving to be a means of disposing of odd-length lumber by retail lumber dealers to the stores in their vicinity, both department store owner and lumberman making a profit on sizes that otherwise might be waste. A western company specializing in this distribution has succeeded in placing lumber departments in thirty-eight cities. The first installation of a "department store lumber yard" was in Portland, Ore.; the second at Seattle, Wash. The matter furnished is suitable for any ordinary household repairs, but especially adapted to manual training school purposes, and plans are furnished for its various uses.

The Russian Council of Ministers has approved the project of the minister of finance and the minister of ways of communication concerning the construction of the Ob-Ural-Bielomorsky Railway. The total length of this railway will be about one thousand miles. As this projected line will pass through the dense forests of the basins of the Mezen, Pechora, and Ob, it will facilitate the exploitation of these forests and will increase the revenue of the forestry department as well as promote the export trade in timber. It will also provide a cheaper route for the exports of raw material from Siberia, chiefly Siberian grain. It will connect the mining districts of the northeastern slopes of the Ural with newly discovered rich deposits of iron ore and mineral fuel, and makes accessible a country rich in natural resources.

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