Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1858-11-25
What ETakes Hard Times

Inc new ! Ork HGe?l1llg LH0St notices
the fact that Mr.. Cobb, Secretary of the
Treasury, recently invited loan to the
i government OF ten millions OF dollars, al
per cent interest, and received bids
for thirty millions, all offered at less than
. per cent interest; whereupon the Posi-
states some facts and makes some sug-
gestionS which western men, land espec-
IldUy Wisconsin men, will do well to
i ponder upon and heed in future;
At the same time that these thirty
millions go to Washington for employ
ment at such rates, and twenty millions
of the sum come back without finding
investment, money is in demand in near
! ly all the Western States, at from ten to
! fifteen per cent. State bonds, municipal
bonds, mortgages upon lands worth three
and five times the loan, all can be pur-
chased at y rate yielding over twelve
per cent.
Why is this? Why does the West
ern trader and merchant have to paw
three, four and five times as much for
money as Mr.. Secretary Cobb, or even
as first class mercantile houses in New
\ ork, where it is extremely difficult to
invest any money on good security that
will net six per cent. Why does days
ride on the Railroad take New Y orker
into a region where money, the most
portable OF all commodities, is the only
one which costs several times as much
as it does at home.
The reason, and the only reason, is
that the Western States are cosatinvaUu
| interfering Ia the contract 6etaceega tie
6orroroeS' and the lender; they pass laws
which disable the lender from collecting
his money from an unwilling borrower:
they compel him If he lends on a mort
gage and torecloses, to buy in the prop
erty at tWo-thirds its value, if it should
not bring that sum in the market: they
compel him to wait year, more or less,
TO enforce an execution or get a title to
property sold by the law for the pay
ment his debt. All such laws, if made
alter contract, are in violation of it's
provisions, and wrong the lender; if be-
fore, they are oppressive to the borrow
er, for they impair the value Of the secur-
ity he has to offer to capitalists, and of
course compel him to make up the diff
ference in premium. The cost of money
will always be proportioned to the risk
supposed TO be TAKEN and if the capt
taiist has to lend under laws which do
notrespect contracts, which do not leave
men OF mature years and of a sound
mind to enter into such agreements as
they please, not inconsistent with the
public peace, he will of course charge
more for his money than he would in a
State which did not NEEDLE with the
contracts Of business men, except to en-
force them promptly.
These propositions seem almost too
trIte for discussion, and yet it is impos-
bic to suppose that they are comprehen-
ded at the West, where every kind Of
business is suspended for the qea5at of q
! little money, eohjle millions upon mil
lions are lying idle qcithi2a q dag's Jour-
neg. The people of the west cannot Ger
tainly realize the folly Of their financial
Legislation, or they would abandon it :;
and yet, one would suppose they would
open their eyes to it when they find fed
eral securities chased after at little over
four percent, while their own State bonds
are begging over the world at twelve
and fifteen.
The daily communications between
tine United States and Europe will soon
bring all the surplus capital of the old
world, now netting to the lender barely
three per cent, to our market. All that
will be required to have the use Of the
capital, in other words, to equalize the
value Of money on both sides Of the At.
lantic, will be, to furnish equally good
security. Let eUery stop-lQac or stun
tar "a tie States be at once repeated. let
the laws for the enforcement ofcontracts
be adapted in good faith to that end.
and provide more vigorous penal code
for the punishment of official frauds up-
on the creditors Of corporate bodies. =
Did no necessity exist for these reforms
who can doubt that there would be at
least one hundred millions more ofmon.
ey profitably invested in the West than
is at this moment? The protective sys-
tenn which has been adopted there has
made no man richer, while it has driven
capital away from its borders; it has i'm
paired the credit of its people, and has
compelled them to pay three times as
much as would be otherwise necessary
for money. n
We ask our western friends whether
they are not satisfied by this time, that
legislation for tbo relief Of debtors at
the expense cfcreditors, is bad economy;
that honesty is the best policy, as well
as the best morality. If so why not set
to work 70 purge their character and
/ their statue books of every trace of that
.aosibaM