FCS Financial: One Hundred Years July 2016 | Page 18

Map of the twelve Farm Credit districts. Federal Land Banks were located
in Springfield, Massachusetts; Baltimore, Maryland; Columbia, South
Carolina; Louisville, Kentucky; New Orleans, Louisiana; St. Louis, Missouri;
St. Paul, Minnesota; Omaha, Nebraska; Wichita, Kansas; Houston, Texas;
Berkeley, California; and Spokane, Washington.

Putting the concept of cooperatives into action, the law required
borrowers become members by purchasing stock in the local
associations on the basis of “five per centum of the face of the desired
loan.” The association, in turn, acquired an equal amount of stock
in the land bank and, as a corporation, guaranteed payment of the
loans of all its members to the bank. Having been granted the rights
and responsibilities of ownership, borrower-members could then
participate in association affairs as a voting stockholder with one
vote for each share of stock owned with a maximum of twenty votes
per stockholder. Members elected neighbors and friends to serve as
association directors, were qualified to receive declared dividends
on stock, and became limited guarantors on the obligations of their
fellow members.

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Selected References