The most noticeable fact revealed by the investigation of the European land-credit institution is the all-pervading presence of the state in every nation. Most of the older joint-stock corporations have a public character equal to that of the German Landschaften. Every one that dates back to 1850 or 1860 was directly organized by the state or brought into existence by a Government fiat or favoring legislation, subsidized in some way or other and granted special privileges. The supervision now exercised over them all is most stringent, going into the minutest details and varying from direct control to surveillance by state officials, usually by special laws that impose heavy penalties for malfeasance or even neglect of regulations. Continental Europe is accustomed to state intervention. Commercial credit was organized by means of central banks connected with the Government, and so this régime was naturally followed in organizing the land credit. For this reason the results obtained, at least in some instances, cannot be used by way of comparison to illustrate the possibilities of organization along the lines of private and independent endeavor. But whatever may be the opinion entertained for the State intervention in the land-credit system of the Continent, there can be no doubt that the working principles and business methods of the European land-mortgage banks are the best ever devised, and that they will have to be introduced into the United States if it be hoped to make the farm mortgage a fluid and popular form of investment and direct a flow of capital in sufficient volume to agriculture to enable it to keep pace with the progress of the Nation. The main features of this system are the limitation of the interest rate that can be charged, the amortization of the debt, and wise and equitable regulations and restrictions relative to loans and the issuance of debentures which protect the farmer from extortion and thriftless borrowing, and at the same time bring safety and a feeling of confidence to the investing public. These features, with modifications and additions, appear in all European land banks, whether they be semipublic, as they are in France, Spain and Russia, or of a private character, as with some cases in Germany, or of the mixed type of Switzerland and Italy, but are best exemplified in the great Crédit Foncier of France--the largest and most successful land bank in the world.