The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1878-04-04
VOL. VII.
HOW DEBTORS ARE ROBBED
BY CREOIT0RS---rHR RICH VS..
THE POOR.

Every person who bought property
one, two and three years ago, the pur-
chase money payable in installments,
has been ruined. To-day land and
rown lots everywhere have been les
sened in value, by the Secretary of the
Treasury, from one-half to two-thIrds.
This is not true of farming districts
INTO which numbers of immigrants
have entered, but it is generally true
n the country, and wholly true in all
towns and villages and cities. One
nalf or two-thirds of each buyers prop
erty has been taken from him by the
process of contracting the volume of
the currency. If the debtor pays dol
lar for dollar, as directed by the face
If his contract, he pays one-half or two
birds more in eaIue than he agreed to
pay. Bank notes oa their face, though
asserting themselves to be dollars, are
not the dollars he agreed to pay, but
each. one has become practically two.
fhe laws and Sherman's thumb-screw
have thus cheated two-thirds of the
people and enriched the other third
beyond their widest hopes. The
debtor has been smitten with hope
less poverty, If he paid his debts as
contracted and IN accordance with the
face of his contracts, and the vendor
or creditor has been paid two dollars
when only entitled, in the court of
morals, to one dollar. Why has not
a wise and just Congress, while legis-
Iating for the protection of the credit
of the United States and for the Euro
pean bon1holder, also legislated for tie
protection of the people On the con-
trary Congress and Mr.. Secretary Sher-
man have looked only to the purpose
Of destroying the enterprising poor
and aggrandiziDg the rich. Laws have
been made for one class. 1t was pre-
tended that justice to European bond
holders demanded this sort of legisla
ton. The assumption was so full of
seifishness and cunning that nobody
fails to discover its emptiness. While
poor taxpayers were looking over into
Threadneedle street and into Amster-
dam and rosing about among German
bondholders TO see that we did them
no wrong, the creditor class has sue
ceeded IN robbing the debtor class t.
absolute penury, and our benefcent
Iawgivers tell US there is no remedy.
A toilIng farmer comes to Texas leav-
ing property in another State. He
sells his personal property and makes
a cash payment of one-third on his
Texas farm. Sherman twists the
thumb-screw and the property bought
here and that in the older State both
go down twenty, thirty and fifty per
cent. He cannot sell at his old home, !
and cannot pay here. Trustees and /
sheriifs make an end of him, and
the creditor keeps the money
already received, gets back his
land and then has judgment for
enough to take all tha-rest that
the purchaser has There ia No rioht
or reason or justice in legislation hav-
ing these results. The whole country
has beon filled by it with bsnkrupts.
Their failure has caused 90 per cent. of
the merchants of Texas to go down to
ruin, and every buyer of town proper
ty has been ruined. If the law could
remedy evils it has done 1t would scale
debts in making which it operated as
a confidence man and swlndler, giving !
property money value last year which
it took away this year. But there Is
no perfect remedy. 1t Is only just that |
they who suffered, but were not ruined,
should now be permitted to have an
even chance with the creditor class.
The wrong may be partially righted,
and the numbers ruined by the process
should not be multiplied. The finan-
cisl condition of the country should
be restored to its state when trade
fiourished and enterprise was active
and railways and houses and towns
were built when farmers and villagers
bought homes and paid for them and
were not robbed by the government
entering into co-partnership with the
vendor to plunder purchasers.