The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-12-15


sane howl about the reconciliation Of silver
by relating the experience OF Mr. Samuel
klumby, OF Iowa, whose case is somewhat sim
liar to that OF the people who ask permission
to pay their debts according to contract. Mr..
klumDy was prosperous farmer some years
ago. but the grass-hoppers swarmed down up
on him, ate ont his substance, and finally lie
was compelled TO 20 to his neighbOrS for help.
Said he: ..sf
II must hire men to help me fight the hop
pers. Lend me 10000 bushels Of oats, and
will pay you per cent. interest upon them,
and will in twenty years wipe out the debt by
giving you 10000 bushels of corn or oats at
my option. In this way can sell the oats and
hire men 10 kill the hoppers.
They readily agreed to the profitable bar
gain, for they knew that Uncle Sans fine es-
tate was worth ten times the debt They de
livered to him the 10000 bushels of oats, and
took his secured twenty-year notes, in which
he bound himself to pay the interest regularly,
and give them two bushels for one at maturity,
lin corn or oats.
Uncle Sam sold the oats, hired hundred
men, and killed and drove off all the hoppers.
For twenty years he has paid the interest every
fall
When the loan was first made corn was
worth much more than oats, and the holders
vi MUMMY uOttS ippCI Iit NOuill
them, when the time came, in corn but in "a few
years the relative prices Changcd-cOrn fell
and oats rose.
Then the holders OF the notes went to the
Iowa Legislature and hired the members to
pass an act on the last night OF the session,
when nobody was noticing what was going on,
saying that it should thereafter take forty
quarts of corn to make buShel.
1t was put through in the dark, under the
title of AN act to change the name OF Ann
Fit to Serephna Seroilia, and for other pur-
poses"
The passage of this swindling law made Il
great excitement in Iowa; and, taking adyan-
tage of the Indignation, Samuel klumby and
Others succeeded in electing legislature last
fall favorable to changing the corn bushel back
to thirty.two quarts, and enabling Uncle Sam
to pay his debt in corn ii he wishes to do so,
according to contract.
At this the absurd cry Of "fraud," "repudia-
| ton" etc, has been raised Some ofthc klum-
by notes have been bought by the New York
brokers' who own most OF the New York news
papers and they echo the cry of fraud" The
| following letters are exhibited in Iowa by
those who are determined to make old klumby
pay more than he agreed to;
| b. Franklin Shylock, Esq.
DEAR SIR-The proposition to restore the
corn bushel TO its natural size fills the whole
civilized world with establishment and alarm
! 1t is Republication with biz Il. 1t will dis
| honor YOUR beautiful state if ncle Sam is per
mtted to pay his debt in corn or oats accord
ing to contract Ever Of thou. JAY GOULD.
| B. +. Shylock, Esq
| 1t cannot be possible that Iowa will author
| ize such an infamous measure Is the cOrn-re-
bushelzation bill. The holders of the notes OF
old Klumby have supposed Of course that they
would bc pad in the more valuable cereal
which is M present oats. and to disappoint thi.
expectation merely because the contract read,
"gIain-corn or oats would be to convulSC
the produce markets of the world Yours cor
daily and allthatically GEORGEJONES.
". y. Times
Il. T. ShyloCk, Esq
The whole circumciscd world stands aghas
at the attempt to swindlc The penniless bond
holders out of their oats. II Uncle sam is per
mittcd to pay his debts according to contract
| | cannot be responsible for the result. Sucl
harefacc, fraud was never before attempted
Yours nieeily, \. BELMO1T
| b. +. Slylock. ESQ.
! | am affected somewhat similarly I'vl
been took the same way.
EDITOR OF THE WORLD"
Il. F. Shylock. ESQ.
/ Make the fellow pay in the dcarer metal
which is oats Our poor, handwriting bond
holders must get all they can out of the bloatet
Iagricuturists The contract" has nothing Il
do with it. II is ridiculous and blasphemou.
10 quote it, Sock it todd klum.
G. \. DANA.
Il. f. Shylock, Esq.
Teddy O'liaiicrty has Just arrived from Xii
kenny, anu reports that foreign hendholder,
expect the old man 10 shell out the oat, and il
Inc tries 10 pay in corn, according To contract
he j. blasted rcpudiationali>i. pick pocket
and bounty Jumper.
i EDITOR OF THE HERALD"
i In the midst of all this hullahaloo Uncle
sam doesn't know exactly what Ia do liz
doesn't quite like To he plundered by Il crowd
OF foul mouthcd rufiians, who simply yell cpl
thets at him without listening to him. when hC
tries to read the contract: at the same time. II
his Interpretation is wrong. he is willing 10 .ub
nit il to the courts.
/ IL looks however. at this moment. ~ If III,
senate would concur IN tie bill for the rgstoa
ton of tho M, shs.l cf rtfr tlallis.