Washington telegraph., 1852-01-14

or two hundred dollars. and not QUE dollar in te a.
| OF such debts was ever paid After such debt
| was due awhile the range would be eaten out, or
| the year he bad one for mast, aud the unucky
debtor would be greatly smitten with the exceed
ing ioveliaess Of Texas
1t has been by this thing of running in debt
aud never paying. and by it alone, that "a very
| large portion of the population in most of our
counties. has been enabled to live at all. If the
credit system were at once stopped, and more
work were done than has been done for ten years,
starvation would, beyond doubt go hand in hand
| with nakedness, aud TO an alarming extent.
| Moreover, very great number of men have
been preserved from bankr ruptcy only by means
of the banks established here in 1888. Those
two institutions loaned out on account four mil
lions OF dollars La this way some three millions
went that had been borrowed upon State bonds,
and three or four hundred thousand dollars which
the General Government gave the State none Of
which has been as yet paid back, except far as
the paper and some Of the bonds have been re-
cesed ia payment of debts. The four millions so
loaned wen, to pay off old debts aud buy land and
negroes. More than two millions and half of il
| is due yet, and how mucL Of it will ever be- paid
the Lord only knows. What has been and will
be paid, has been aud will be paid in paper or
bonds. costing the debtor from 25 to 40 cents on
the dollar.
So that surprising that million will never be
paid at all, which is safe calculations and mil
lion and half will be paid at 35 cents on the dol
lar, which gives the debtors a further profit of
nine hundred and seventy FIVE thousand dollars:
it will be evident that the score Of th. banks
alone people have borrowed money which will
never be repaid, to the amount of nearly or quite
two millions oil dollars
suppose we may safely say that in eighteen
years there have been contracted other debts TO
merchants al home and commission merchants
aud others abroad, TO the amouat of at least five
lars tina, we have got. in fact from people in the
east and in Europe. wherewithal to feed aud
clothc ourselves, and buy land aud I-gro-s
And IL is not to he wondered at W. have all
the time been buyiug from abroad, TO an enormous
amount, things that we ought t. have produced AT
home. We have bought every year vast quanti-
ties Of -four, bacon, heef, pork. onions. butter.
CHEESE, whisky, beans, wooden ware, brooms,
iron. All the money that can be scraped togeth-
annually goes out Of the State and large
Of debt is annually contracted besides
that is never paid Our cotton planters expend
large part Of their income in Kentucky end
elsewhere. and except for what revenue they paw,
of little use TO anybody but themselves. We
exp"nd much and make little; and the result is
that those who do pay are charged double prices,
to make up TO the merch nts for the losses they
sutf-r fros, those who never pay al ALI.
In short If the STATE could by any means de-
part ti's hie, her estate. after payment OF debts
would be like most estates administered On in
Arkansas Her epiiaph night we'll be. it is
said Ra5elais was-"I have nothing: L owe
mach: the rest give to the poor"
We borrowed neary three millions o: money
upon bonds TO the Stat. ISSUED to our two banSs,
aud since Jsnnary, 1912, We have paid no interest,
thereby adding siriy per cent. to the principal.
OF over twen;y -s-ven hundred bonds that were
sold have redeemed perhaps three huDdreti:
aud to meet the residue, the State Bauk has per
haps two hundred Thousand dollars of good assets,
the Real Estate Bank perhaps a million and a
quarter.
The General Government loaned us some three
huadrt thousau nd dollars of the surplus revenue,
aud ~e pot it into the State Bank whore il melt
ed away like boar frost of warm norning We
rebuilt the Fententary by selling bank paper at
- cents TO the dollar to raise funds, rather high
discount for even bankrupt 10 undergo on his
paper We had s-venty-two sectous of land
given us for TIE purpose of building seminary
Of learning aud endowiug it; aud pest-red
Congress until she gave us leave 10 divide IL out
and let ii be squandered.
We received magnificent gift Of FIVE hundred
thousand acres of land which We had no right To
except for general objects OF internal improve
ment. That got rid OF by giving il TO the
countless to BE- ti>spated in way and another
without any benefit l., the State. Ii we had with
some of The iand, employed a competent geoIosst,
aud selected FIVE hundred thousand of coal
laud aud mineral land. the grant would have been
worth FIVE aud perhaps, ten millions of dollars;
but the love of popularity induced our public men
to sell out the grant at low prices and take bonds
for those prices, pay able by instalments;
and then to scatter in every direction the
small receipts thus realized.
Now have grant of all overhowed lands
in the ST ate; the result of which viii unqnrstion-
ably be to give fortunes 10 few who get
paid for labor services IN lands AT low price
per acre. and leave the Treasury OF the State
Just as insovent 1t was before.
We have been in the Union more than fifteen
years. Michigan, that came in with us, has
four hundred and forty-seuen- miles of railroad;
aud Wisconsin, several years juno', has
University. What have done in the mean
tIne2 | he State has never expended dollar to
improve roid or river. She has done nothing
for the cii,,-. cf rc-cat:rn except purchase
some books, which are lying about here AMI there
eaten up by moths, and disco!ored with milcew.
Aud Vet have as maguitic country as
the shone upon-fertle lands, fine rivers,
level routes for railroads, enormous fields OF coal.
ample beds of iron, mines of silver and lead
stretching clear across the Stale, from Missouri
TO Red River. As cotton growing State, no
other can compete with US: us a stock growing
country, no one ought 10 be superior The vine,
hemp, wheat, corn, oats, fax, grass, escuient
roots, all suited to tie soil aad climate oi one
or the other portion OF the State
We have ui;d and genial climate, prairies
and mountains, auviai lands, and rich upland
valleys embosoned in the hills. where waters as
pure crystal to be met with every mile.
Our water power is unlimited; aud our lumber
and coal afford every facility for the use of steam
1 have long entertained the opiniou aud do not
hesitate to utter it my firm conviction. that
Arkansas. n her resources were properly de'eiop-
ed, is the finest State in the Union. do mol be-
liev- there is single that can compete with
her in point o. mineral wealth. and few as To soil
and climate. When will the day come that shall
see these great resources developed, her mines
opened and worked, her coal engrossing the New
Orleans market, the clash of machinery mingling
of Lar falls rax,radS of