Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1877-11-29
New Series-Vol. 17-No 46

try, on the assumption that they are the peo-
| pie in debt; that, therefore, it will help tn,
rich, who are the creditor class. 1t is thi.
! proposition to which l wish to address myself
for moment. ldeny the proposition IN toto
L affirm that the vast majority of the creditor,
CT this country are the poor people; that The
vast majority Of the debtors of this country
ars well-to-do people, and in fact moderately
rich. Nov l ash the consideration of that fOl
one moment
As matter of fact, the poor man, the Ia.
boring man, cannot get heavily in debt. He
has not the security to offer. Men lend their
money on security, and in the very nature o!
the case, poor men Can borrow but little.
Wnat, then, do poor men do with THEN small
earnings? When q man has earned out of his
hard work hundred dollars more than be
needs for current expenses, he reasons thus :
81 cannot 20 iDtn business with a hundred
dollars; cannot embark in trade; but as
work want my money to work. and SO he
puts his small gains where they will earn
something. de loans his money to a weather
neighbor, or puts it ir the swings bank.
There were in the United States, on the 1st OF
November, 1876, 4,475 savings banks and pri.
vate banks of deposit, and the deposits
amounted to $1,377, ,000, 900, almost three
f0urths OF the amount of our National debt.
Over two and a half millions of the citizens
of the United States were depositors. In some
States the deposits did not average more than
$3.50 each. The great mass of the depositors
are men and women of small means; laboress,
widows, and orphans. They are the lenders
Of TINS enormous aggregate. The savings
banks, as their agents, lend ito whom
Not to the laboring poor, but to the business
men who wish to enlarge their business be
yond their capital Spectators sometimes
borrow it., but, in the main, well.fo-do
business men borrow these hoardings. Thus
the poor lend to the rich.
Gentlemen assail the bondhelders of the
country as the rich men who oppress the
poor. Do they know how vast an amount Of
the public se-urities are held by poor people :
l took occasion, few years ago, to ask the
officers OF bank in one of the counties of my
district, rural district, to show me the mum
Der Of holders, and the amounts held, of Uni.
ted States bonds on which they collected the
interest. The total amount was S416, 900,
and how many people held them? One hun.
dred and ninety six. OF these Just eight had
over $50, 600 apiece, and the other 1888 ranged
from $50 up to 1880. found in that list
fifteen orphan children and sixty widows,
who had little left them from their fathers
or husbands estates, who had made the Ma
tion their guardian; and found 121 laborers,
mechanics, ministers, and men of slender
means, who had kept what they had and put
it in the hands of the United States that il
might be safe; and they were the ssbloated
bondholders' against whom 80 much eloquence
is Illuminated in the House.
There is another way in which poor men
dispose OF their money. A man says, 81 can
keep my wife and babies from starvation
while live and have my health; but if die,
they may be compelled to go over tine hills to
the poor house," and, agonized by that
thought, ne saves out of his hard earnings
enough to take out and keep alive small life
insurance policy, 30 that, if he dies, there
may be something left, provided the insurance
company to which he intrusted his money is
honest enough to keep its pledges. And how
many men do you think have done that in the
United States? do not know the number
for the whole country, but | do know this,
that from late report of the Insurance Com
missioner of the State of New York, it ap-
pears that the companies doing business in
that State had IA, ,654 policies in force, and
the face value of these policies was 81 ,9aO,-
900, 600. find by looking over the returns
that in my State there are 55, 600 policies out
standing; in Pennsylvania, IA, 600; Maine,
II, 600; in Maryland. q, 900; and in the State
Of New York, 100000. There are, of course,
some rich men insured in these companies,
but the majority are poor people, for the pol
icies do not average more than 90, 200 each.
What 10 done with the assets of these compa-
nies, which amount to $445. 900, ,0007 They
are loaned oHt Here, again, the creditor
class is the poor, and the insurance companies
are the agents of the poor, to lend their money
for them. II would be dishonorable for Con.
gress to legislate either for the debtor class,
or for the creditor class alone. We ought to
legislate for the whole country. But when
gentlemen attempt to manufacture sentiment
against the Resumption Act by saying it will
help the rich and hurt the poor, they are
overwhelmingly answered by the facts
TO UNDO THE WORK DISASTROUS.
Suppose you undo the work, that Congress
has attempted, to resume specie payments.
what will the result be? You will depreciate
the value Of the greenback. Suppose it falls
10 cents In the dollar. You viii have DESTROY
ed ten per cent. of the value of every deposit
in the savings bank, ten per cent of every
life insurance policy and fire insurance policy
OF every pension to the soldiers, and of every
days wages Of every laborer in the Nation.
In the census of 1870 it was estimated that on
any given day there were $120, 900, 900 due TO
laborers for their unpaid wages That is a
small estimate. Let the greenback dollar
come down ten per cent. and You take S12,-
600, 900 from tue men who have already earn
ed it. In the name of every interest-co connect
ed with the poor, denouuce this effort to
prevent resumption. Daniel Webster never
uttered greater truth in finance than when
he said that OF all contrivances to cheat the
labOring ceases OF mankind none were so ef-
fective as that which deluded them with an
irredeemable paper money. The rich can
take care of themselves, but the dead weight
of all fluctuations and loss fall ultimately on
the poor man, who has only his days work
to sell. I,.-,,.- l. ~ .s-. 81,
admit that in the passage from peace to
war there was great loss to one class of the
community, to the creditors, and in the re-
turn to the basis Of peace, some loss to the
debtors was inevitable. The injustice was
unavoidable. The loss and gain did not fall
upon the same. The evils could not be bal
anced nor adjusted. The debtors of 1862 IS
are not the debtors of 1877.
The most competent judges declare that the
average life of the private debts in the United
States is not more than two years. OF course.
obligations may be renewed, but the average
length of private debts In this country is not
more than two years. Now, we have already
y
and the country has been adjusting itself to
the new condition of things. The people
have expected resumption, and haye already
discounted most of the hardships and suffer-
ings incident to the change. The agony is
almost over, and if we now embark again
upon the sea, we lose all that has been gained,
and plunge the country into the necessity of
trying once more over the same boisterous
ocean with all its perils and uncertainties.
speak the deepest conviction of my mind and
heart when I say that should this resumption
act be repealed and no effective substitute be
put in its place, the day is not far distant
when all of US, looking back on this time from
the depth of the evils which will result, will
regret with all our power to regret the day
when we again let loose the dangers of infla-
ton upon the country.
Gentlemen speak of the years of high prices
as years of prosperity. Ii is true that there
was kind of prosperity in the day Of high
nrices. but do not gentlemen know that War