The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-04-14

Creditor and Debtor Classes-How the
Demagoxuss Propose to Relieve the
People.
One of the facts in finance upon which IN
fationists and their opponents thoroughly
agree, and upon which there seems to be no
dispute whatever, because there is no differ
ence of opinion, is that imitation is for the
benefit of debtors against creditors 1t is
conceded that if man owes twenty thousand
dollars or less on mortgage, or if he owes
thousand, or two or ten thousand dollars a
year as interest on mortgage, or if West
ern corporation owes any given sum as in
terest on railroad bonds held in an Eastern
city, all these sums respectively are payable
in legal tenders; and any law that increases
the quantity of legal tenders, as it thereby
makes them of less value, or, in other
words, cheaper" hghtens the burden Of
the debtor. With the produce of his
farm, his fifty bushels Of wheat or
his two or three head of cattle, this debtor
can get larger number Of paper dollars; but
these paper dollars are a legal tender for their
nominal value, and will go just as far in pay
ing the interest or the principal Of the debt as
they would if they were worth as much again
in the farmers produce. And this is the way
that mon who are sent to Congress- who are
supposed to represent the honesty. the wis
dom and the general probity Of the people,
propose to relieve one class at the expense Of
another. 1t is not however, new PROPOSE
ton. Almost in the earliest ages Of civil
society the same cry was heard, and If there
is one monotonous tone in history it is this
clamor of the debtor classes to be relieved of
their obligations to their creditors 1t is a
strange reflection upon the boosted intelli-
gence and progress Of the world, upon the
presumed superior honesty and morality of
the Christian ages, that in this most advanced
of them all an intelligent people should clamor
for just such relief by law as the Romans
clamored for in the early days OF their Re-
public.
Imitation is, therefore, ostensibly and profess
eddy for the relief of the debtor classes; but
who are the debtors in this country and who
are the creditors? Here is point in which
may be seen the wide difference between the
modern and the ancient world in the relations
of the two classes. In this country the cred
itors are the poor. No class is so distinctly
and unquestionably the creditor class as the
laborers-men, women or children who live by
daily, weekly or monthly wages. 1t is the
same whether the recipient of wages is farm
laborer or bank clerk; whether it be factory
girl or dressmaker's apprentice; ship car
penter OF type setter; if he is in the receipt
of weekly or daily pay he is the ultimate
creditor, and the employer is the
debtor. In the ancient world the Ia
borer was slave, and the only creditor
who appeared in that system was the
large landowner to whom the small farmer
could not always pay his rent, and conse-
9uently the Roman laws for extinguishing
debts were laws which really relieved the poor
farmer from his obligations to the rich land
owner. Evidently the analogy of that system
has misled many into the notion that these are
the only classes who bear in any extensive de-
gree the relations Of debtor and creditor In
our country also the farmer owes his rent and
the householder owes his rent; but unless
these obligations are in the form of mortgage
the law for the imitation Of the currency does
not relieve them; for the paper money cannot
be made cheap faster than the landlord can
raise his rent, as the people have already dis
covered. Tenants, therefore, on ordinary
leases, are not Of the class of debtors who are
to be relieved by the Laws proposed in Con-
gress. Holders of mortgages are the only
classes of tenants who are relieved by such
laws, and for these and in their interest the
clamor is now made.
But what proportion does this class of cred
itors bear to the other class indicated? Only
a small one. This is poor mans country,
and the vast mass Of the people live by the
labor of their hands. In no other country is
this the case in anything Like the same degree.
Within the experience of the present genera
ton the accumulation Of great fortunes has
begun in this country also, but it is altogether
a new fact. Fabulous stories were told some
years ago of the wealth of John Jacob Astor, at
time when, perhaps, that gentleman fortune
was moderate compared with number that we
know to have been accumulated since; but it
was certainly very great by comparison with
the wealth Of the large proportion of our So
called rich men in that day. Though accu-
mutation has begun, however, it has not
touched the fact that the people at large live
by their labor, and not, as has been stated, by
Independent labor on their own farms or in
their own workshops, but in far greater
degree by labor at wages. And these aborers
are the true creditor classes at whose expense
Congress proposes to relieve the debtors who
are the employers of these creditors Let us
suppose the owner of foundry has hundred
men in his employ, to whom he pays weekly,
say, twenty dollars each, in paper money. At
the present price of money these twenty dol
lars will buy meat or coal or groceries to the
value of SIT CO. IF the law that has already
IL 10 &C IL laLL.