The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-01-02
BIG TALK
The Money Sharks Propose 10 RuIIdOze
the West.

llnlCT-Otetln.l
We find the following startling intelligence
in last Saturdays New York Tribune:
The British and American Mortgage conf
pany lllmltedl and the Mercantile Trust COM
pany have issued orders to their agents in
western cities not 10 loan any more money on
mortgage, unless those receiving the loans
agree TO have a clause inserted in the bond for
the payment of the principal and interest in
gold.
And so the Wall street men have begun n
new tactics and are going to bulldoze the
west into gold resumptionl But further
along in the same article we learn that the
banks OF New York are pretty nearly unit
against making any loans on bonds of west
ern and southern cities. except on a gold
basis, until the silver bill should be either
passed or defeated" At the end of the
same article the manifesto of "a prominent
New York banker is given, In which he is
made to say:
The parts of the country now so clamoroas
Tor a reconciliation of silver and the repeal
OF the resumption act would learn by their
failure TO raise money that the evils of silver
legislation were already upon them. He ex-
pressed the belief that with unity of action
on this subject among the banks of New York.
Boston and Philadelphia, and the real estate
trust companies the eyes of the people would
Dill, or any other scheme like it, would be
secured.
If this is the dodge, the only one lett, to-
force resumption upon the people of the
northwest, let the eastern b0ndhOlders Try il
on. The west can stand it if they can, and
from the present outlook the west is in the
best condition to play game of this kind.
The farmers of the vast northwest are in
better condition today than any class OF
| people in the country. The prominent
| banker" spoken of talks of refusing to loan
| money on bonds of western cities. The
bonded city debt of the entire northwest does
not amount to as much as that of one eastern
state, and not New York state at that. Does
| "a prominent banker" know that the munic-
| ipal debts of fiveteastern states amounts to
$3.50, 000, 600, and that the interest of some
| of those debts is in default to-day, while the
entire municipal debt of Illinois-perhaps
the heaviest indebted of any western state
would not aggregate $25, DOC, 000 The west
| is abundantly able to carry its own muhic-
| ipal and state debts without the assistance of
| the east. The bondholders of the east will
therefore, be at liberty to loan theirimmense
| surplus wealth, as they did until 1873. on
eastern mortgage securities, at the rate of 60
aud 20 per cent Of the appraised value of the
property, which had at that time reached
the highest point Of inflated prices This
property has now deprecated enormously,
in some instances as much as so per cent,
and some of it will not rent for more than
enough TO pay insurance and the enormous
taxation incident to state and municipal
| debts. Perhaps the eastern capitalist would
| rather loan his money in this way than on
good western municipal bonds We shall
see about that; but the talk of forcing the
west into an abandonment of its Just de-
mands is several degrees too thin.