Prices dropped, but the interest on mortgages re-
mained the same. One hundred and seventy-four
bushels of wheat would pay the interest at 8 per
cent on a $2000 mortgage in 1888, when the price of
wheat was higher than it had been for ten years and
higher than it was to be again for a dozen years. In
1894 or 1895 when the price was hovering around
fifty cents, it took 320 bushels to pay the same


106 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE


interest. Frequently the interest was higher than $
per cent, and outrageous commissions on renewals
increased the burden of the farmer. The result
was one foreclosure after another. The mortgage
shark was identified as the servant of the “Wali
Street Octopus,”’ and between them there was little
hope for the farmer. In Kansas, according to a
contemporary investigator,’ “the whole western
third of the State was settled by a boom in farm
lands. Multitudes of settlers took claims without
means of their own, expecting to pay for the land
from the immediate profits of farming. Multitudes
of them mortgaged the land for improvements, and
multitudes more expended the proceeds of mort-
gages In living. When it was found that the pro-
ceeds of farming in that part of the State were very
uncertain, at best, the mortgages became due. And
in many instances those who had been nominally
owners remained upon the farms as tenants after
foreclosure. These are but the natural effects in
reaction from a tremendous boom.” In eastern
Kansas, where settlement was older, the pressure of
hard times was withstood with less difficulty. It
was in western Kansas, by the way, that Populism
had its strongest following; and, after the election
*G. T. Fairchild, Pol. Se. Q., vol. 11, p. 614.
