Farmers Are Paying Off Their Debts, 1943

From the Editorial Page of Carolina Co-operator, April, 1943

Proving that Farmers Are Provident

Brightest side of the farm picture these days is the fact that farmers are paying off their debts. Last month we reported in Farm News and Facts that repayments to Emergency Crop and Feed Loan offices in 1942 had greatly exceeded new loans made by that agency in the same period. But this was just “chicken feed” compared with mortgage payments to the Federal Land Banks and Land Bank Commissioners.

A total of $303 million was repaid in 1942 by Land Bank and Commissioner borrowers on the principal of their loans and, in addition, farmers deposited more than $21 million to be used in paying off future installments on such loans. One out of every 10 farmer-borrowers, according to a statement by A.G. Black, head of the Farm Credit Administration, lifted his Land Bank mortgage. Many of these mortgages doubtless were made during the agricultural depression following the end of World War I.

Farmers have learned through the hard times they have had to endure what it is to labor against debt. Now that they are getting their hands on a little money, many of them are profiting by their experience and using it to get out of debt. And, too, countless thousands of farmers are putting every possible penny they can spare into War Bonds and Stamps. Yes, our rural people are giving the lie to the false accusations sometimes heard that farmers as a rule are an improvident lot. The only reason they haven’t saved money these past twenty-odd years is that they haven’t had it to save.