Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1868-11-17
Country Payments-All Men have
Rights Duty of Men.

kee and Chicago furnish the countr,
with money in exchange for produce
To-day these cities possess million
upon millions of money awaiting the
arrival OF wheat to be exchanged
| therefor.
But the wheat does not go forward
the money comes not forth. The
week before last we spent severa
days at Boscobel, and the streets
were clear of teams. Nc money was
being paid out Tor grain.
The chief cause of this unnatura
and unwelcome condition of affairs
in brief is the large decline which
has taken place in wheat, which
makes nearly all holders, whethc,
they may be the growers or the pri
mary purchasers, unwilling to sell al
present prices. Farmers by holding
too long have lost what they might
have made, frequently as much as
they now realize, while dealers have
lost in many cases half Of what they
have paid out.
The only reason tor continued
holding is in the hopo or belief that
prices will rally, and that the loss
will be retrieved. With the opin.
ions which holders may entertain n 0
one has any right TO quarrel, if the
resultant action affects Immediately
and unavoidably no one besides the
holder, but where the case is one of
deferred payments of debts past due,
of unfnfiled obligations of various
kinds, because the delinquent is un-
willing to part with his property
under a disappointment of anticipa-
ted and III one time possible profits,
there is class whose rights are as
strong and clear as those of holders
of wheat, and this class consists of
all grades Of creditors who have been
promised payment as soon as the
surplus crop could DO marketed. and
they should not BIO slow or timid in
the assertion OF their rights and the
enforcing of them. This result must
follow Great demand for money,
neglected payments, collection suits,
and o business crisis. The mer-
chants and mechanics cannot, will
not wait. This is one of the seasons
that will come round once in while
to show farmers and dealers remote
from large markets that the holding
process is not certain recipe for
making money in produce, and that
it is better to sell and buy, or buy
and sell, in reasonably quick success
sion, and so avoid debt and the pos
sibility of consequent disaster.
We are not here discussing the
probabilities or the possibilities Of
the markets, whether or not Eng
land will want our wheat at high
prices, whether or not the present
decline is the result Of combination,
whether or not the surplus is large !;
we are simply saying that in case q
farmer or merchant has incurred OBJ
legations upon the strength of the
surplus, whatever it may be, and up
on its being sold, whatever the mar,
ket may be, when the surplus is Sc
cured and ready for the market, the
debtor who holds on to it is damag-
ing his creditors, his neighbors and
himself, and cannot complain of the
law he applied to compel payment
Of debts.
Business practice differs these days
from former rules. The merchants
purchase not on credit-the best of
them are allowed but four months
time. The mechanics are even less
able to credit than are the merchants.
Six months of neglect to pay on
the part of the grain producer, or
ever three months of neglect, are
sufficient to bring ruin and bankrupt
cy upon third of the accommodate
ting business men; and the ruin OF
such would involve q certain reduce
ton of the worth of labor and land,
and a resultant reaction upon the
price of produce, reducing the mar
kets below present rates perhaps a
fourth. Rights are reciprocal and
must be respected.