The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1869-03-10
NUMBER 40.

tim once within his horrid jaws, thai
does the usurer exact the highest sum
Wiiich the law allows.
1t i our belief that the argument
of the free-traderS in money WaS
v lid within the period of 4 very
br EFF recollection. But charge o
conditions so radical as to amount T.,
revolution, has made the application
| of IA principle ruinOuS, which fifteen
or even ten years ago, would have
been not only consistent with the
public veal but highly conducive to
the public prosperity 1t was not
adopted when il might ana ought to
have been. 1t must be rejected now,
when inevitably as fate, its cOnse-
quences will be oppressive. pernicious,
and ruinOus to the masses of the peo-
pie.
Let us note the altered conditions.
Ten years ago the country at large
| enjoyed the benign effects of Demo-
cratic rule. The exceptional instances
of Black Republican domination in
| certain States, and even their perjured
notification of law, their murderous
cOnspiracies in Kansas, and the an
| archical spirit which they had then
unloosed in the land, could not hinder
| the beneffcent consequences flowing
to the people from a Revenue tariff,
the receipt and disbursement of gold
bV the Federal Treasury, a peaceful
and economical administration of the
General Government, the payment in
| Southern staples of all our imports,
and ready cash market in theSouth.
ern States for Northern products.
All, but we were prosperous peo-
| pie in Democratic daysl MonOpOlies
were kept under foot; excessive for
tunes were hardly known; universal
competency was diffused among the
| people; and every careful farmer had
| his few hundreds to lend; not for the
sake of usury, but to keep safe, and
moderately increase, a portion for
each son and daughter as they respec-
for borrowers; but few were so poor
as to need accommodations" so
called!
Then, with the saving of a legal
rate, prescribed where no agreement
had been made between parties, it
would have been not only safe, but
4 wise, to throw off all restriction, and
allow the lender to take whatever he
could obtain in the market. These
are the conditions to " hich our Butler
county friend will find, upon close
scrutiny, all his argument applies.
But times are changed-hoW much
and how deplorably for the worse,
not all our people even yet permit
themselves to appreciated
Gold and silver have long disap-
peared from monetary channels. The
South is destroyed. Her exports count
nothing against the enormous sum of
our imports; and she has ceased to
afford our farmers, mechanics and
manufacturers market for their
products. -.
A debt of inconceivable magnitude
void by every principle of law,
equity and neutrality-suspicious. a pre-
text: .rt-5-r.s %
l. For a High Protective Tariff,
under which it is not yet ascertained
whether the people of Ohio and Of
the West pay more to augment the
monstrOus fortunes of Eastern Mo-
nopnlists, are to meet the demands of
an untaXed and otherwise privileged
class of bOndhOlders, whose lives of
luxury and idleneSs are assured by a
mortgage on the toll of every labor
log man, woman and child in the
country
| 2. A system of eXcises whose eXac-
tions are not to be distinguished from
robbery; whose hordes of officials,
swarming in every locality however
poor or remote, force from toll the
tithe of its earnings, and leave penury
and destitutiOn in every laboring
mans house which they scourge with
7 u visitation!
The Debt, SO called, involves these
incidents;
Il 1. A snobocrqcy, owning the "prom-
"ises to pay" of the people, exempt
from taxation, drawing virtually ten
per cent. per annum on their bonds.
2. A gang of speculatOrs, made i'm
meusely rich by the favor of the
Government, and controlling vest
sums of money, which, after purcha-
sing all the bonds in market, and
after mouOpOlizing every thing in the
! country which can be made the sub
ject of monopoly, thereby crushing
the poor and depressing the middle
: classes, now beg the Democratic Leg
} isIature of Ohio to give them mar
ket for their uninveSted surplus at
2 the usurer's rate of interest!
} 3. A total change in the condition
of our farmers. Robbed by Tariffs,
r EXcises, and other forms of taXation.;
2 iniuuitOusly made to bear the bur
} bens of the bondholders in addition
4 to their own; deprived of the South
e ern market, and constrained by the
S viIlainous device of ''corners" to sci
e their produce to middle-men for LITTLE
= more than one-half what the consu
n mer is subsequently made to pay
/; their surplus accumulations are gone
e they have no more money to lend
l. but are in the market as borrowers
e perhaps to prevent their farm ant
It stock from being sold under the ham
mer!
e And now, what is asked of tn
l. Democratic Assembly of Ohio:
e This: That they shall say by Leg
q islative enactment, that the robbed
/ oppressed, suffering, struggling mass
1t es shall be made to pay rate of intel
er est which the business OF the countr
le in its most prosperous days of Demo
s. cratic rule could not have paid witt
Is out staggering under!
n And for what? To make biggt
y the already bloated fortunes OF sWae
gering, sneaking, thieving sharpen
% whose money was made, like tn
7e thrift of thieves at fire, in the ana
er chial DAYS of the War! Blood dealer
ne in conscript shambiesI Piferer5 froi
9d the soldier in camp ana hospital !
VI Robbers of the public in Qutrtermd
n ter's dens! Or Drawer and less dishol
De orable breakers of the 10 ks of II
10 public Golfers at Washington!
OF Don't comply, on peril of the Saci
or flee of your name and fame as DSm
- 1 cIdLS dDu luSG ASclIlANA oN@4CuI
penalties so severe and so effective
he devised, that no man in Ohio shs
Ir- dare, openly or covertly, to take mo
he than six per cent for his loan. III
tie people need protection, and the
ar must have it from some sourC
1d promptly and efficaciously, or ruin
IN inevitably before them. As thin
ON now go, another ten years will n
to elapse until one half of the freehOl
'er ers of Ohio will be homeless, glad
'e- live as tenants in the houses al
81 on lands which they once held in fire
ss, A word IN conclusion, specially
We the ten per cent men:
Tor Say the advocates of this law: ''T
ct. Government virtually pays ten 2
as cent interest on its bonds (; and mo
lat ey Will seek this investment, inste
1n, of loans to the people, unless the les
ey rate of interest be raised"
ne The answer is obvious. All the me