The significance of mortgages has already been considered by many thoughtful men, and it is not out of place to quote here the ready views of some of them. SIGNIFICANCE. As there are two economic classes of the people in the United States,[105] so “there are two views, both of which must be understood.” The [SN: SEMI-OPTIMISTIC VIEW.] view presented by writers like Mr. Edward Atkinson is known to some people as worthy of regard, notwithstanding that these writers knock their heads against a mountainous wall of facts. “They argue that the mortgage is an indication of prosperity.” Mr. Atkinson says, in the “Forum” for May, 1895, writing (before the complete mortgage returns given above had been reported) concerning the census returns for 33 States: “The first startling fact is that in these 33 States and Territories nearly 7,000,000 mortgages have been recorded in ten years for a total sum of nearly $9,500,000,000. The final statement, covering the whole country, which has not yet been published, discloses the fact that 9,517,747 mortgages were executed in the decade 1880-89 to the amount of $12,094,877,793.”[106] * * * And then because “on the first of January, 1890, the amount of these mortgages remaining unpaid in the whole United States was $6,019,679,985,[107] Mr. Atkinson says: “It therefore appears that during the decade one-half of the mortgage debt incurred had already been paid.” But he forgets to deal with the process of losing property by the thousands of the debtors who appeared without property in 1890. And being uncertain about mortgages on acres and lots at the beginning of the last decade, he infers that “the least estimate of the sum due on acres and lots at the beginning of this period (1880-90) would be $1,500,000,000.” And continues that “these original mortgages executed prior to 1880 must have been wholly liquidated, mostly by payment.” * * * As regards this point we have equal or even greater reason to say that those mortgages have mostly been liquidated by an absolute loss of property, because at the end of the decade we have had many millions of propertyless families. But the chief feature of the situation Mr. Atkinson wishes to vindicate is that the mortgage growth indicates prosperity and not the system of tenancy and landlordism as in Great Britain. He says: “The evidence is conclusive that the increase of hired farms does not imply the permanent establishment [SN: AFRAID OF PRIMOGENITURE.] of the relations of landlord and tenant after the English fashion. It does not imply the concentration of land in fewer hands, but rather the reverse. It does imply better and more intelligent methods of agriculture, larger and more varied crops produced from lessening areas of land throughout the whole great grain-growing section,”[108] and so on.