New-York daily tribune., 1858-12-25

10 The advantage OF sherlfs and shaking lawyers,
and the disadvantage Of every BODY else. Times
must soon be better is the general calculation Of
these shufers; when the fact is that they TAX
ing the very course to keep the times as bad ss
ever. Had there been a general rIor, last Winter
TO get the property of the West into the hands Of
ts real owners and clear the country of debt,
there would have been better times ere this. But
so long as very large proportion Of the community
persist IN holding on - property that honestly
belongs to their creditors the improvement so
anxiously awaited cannot be realized. They who
will be ready to sell theIr property whenever il
will brDg what they consider fair price take the
very course to render such price unsttainable. If
every man who holds property and owes debts
would resolve to sell property enough to pay his
debts, matter at what sacrifice, or, If all would
not suffice Just surrender the whole TO his credi-
tors and ASK them to give him the free use OF his
hands for the maintenance of his family the West
would soon be- firm Oh it's feet again. But here
are embarrassed farmers owing perhaps thousand
dollars and holding On TO two or three hundred
acres Of land. when their true interest cOncurs
with common honesty 10 urging them tosel enough
to pay their debts, if that takes the last acre, and
be free to begin the world again. 1t is just as
mistake TO hold on for ten dollars per acre as for
forty il you owe debts past due and must sell IN
order to pay promptly.
The question of corporate or local Indebtedness
should be treated in the same spirit Here is this
beautiful, energetic, promising young city Of
Racine, sadded with debt Of $500, 900 for mis-
taken Railroad. with other debts for HarbOr Im-
prOvement, Bridge, &C., swelling the aggregate
to something like Half Million. 1t is heavy
load for young city of less than ten thousand in
habtan.s--one that she may well stagger under.
But there is just one way to meet it, and that Is
the honest way. The property bere is not worth
SO little as Two Millions 80 that the debt. after
all is simply a mortgage or rent charge OF twenty
five per cent. on property which is constantly n-
creaslDg in value. 1t becomes the property.
booers of Racine, then, to say at once, "Our
property Is worth but three-fOurths as much as
we estimated it, because the other fourth be-
I" longs to our public creditors. Of every SiOO OF
" rent or current value, 800 belongs to them,
" aid We muet pay it-Dot grudgingly, sulkily, but
" promptly, cheerful ly, because such is our duty
" and their right" Only let the difficulty be met
thus manfuly, and it would be more than half
conquered Population and business would not be
rep, He'd from Racine by her debt, because her
prices of property, rents &c. would have been
adjusted to it az subssting aid inexOrable fact
Having thus shown her,elf elnineDty worthy OF
trust, Racine could renew her bonds as they fell
due at much lower rate of interest, and with the
difference thus saved, establish Sinking Fond for
their ultimate and certain extinction. Thir, and
not any preposterous scheme of Assumption, or
the saddling of one cOmmunitys debts upon
other, by which other they would inevitably be
repudated whenever they came to be felt as a
serous burden, is the true course, lot for Racine
only, but for every other City, Town or County
that mas involved itself in like manner.
Let no one suppose that the growth of the
West is utterly paralyzed by the great revulsion
On the contrary, building bas gone forward steadily
and RAPIDLY throughout the year now closing.
presume THE city never gained so many credtab'e
structures vi any former year, while Milwaukee
must have added several hundreds to her dwellings
-eeperay modest substantial, two-story houses, fit
for the residences of prudent merchants or thrifty
mechanics. Judge that the trade OF Milwaukee
was never better than in 1858 - hundreds OF iDand
merchants buying small stocks there from time to
ii ne instead of goirg down to face their long
suffering creditors in New York. Thus the sales
OF one obbiDg house here amounted to S3oO,OUO
half for cash, half sixty and ninety days. but no
credit given save to men personally and intimately
known to be sure to pay at the hour This
Al. -, .botc chouli ba and time
must be universal. 1t is absurd that every seller
of sheetng and sugar at back-Woods road
crossing whose entire trade ranges from S2OOO TO
81, 600 year. should come to New-lork for his
goods; and be would not come but for tue facility
of obtaining credit among strangers that he could
never even ask from those who know him fhor-
ouchly. And that credit il is alike Tu,nous to give
and TO receive Let him buy at the nearest city
as he needs, and pay as he goes, aud he will not
sell to Tom, Dick and Harry on credit, and viii
have bard work to make very disastrous failure.
i have said that much building has been done
this year in Milwaukee and throughout the West.
| am DID that good part of i ls effected without
money, or with very little after this fashion, A
has lots that are earning him nothing; Il has
yard full of lumber that BE- cannot sell; while
has brick, lime, &c, for which no purchaser pre-
sentI himself: so the three put their heads To-
eether, agree on a common basis of operations,
raise little money TO pay workmen by mortgage
on the lots and the embryo block, and row of
new houses is the result which they proceed To
SELL divide or hold jointly, as shall seem most al
vsntaeeous. So the wheels of business move on.
though not without creakng, and the West grows
and Will grow. while her magnificent soil remains
| M ;sf filIad hv hands that