The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-01-16
GREED.
Its Blindness and Rapaeity.
The West and South support the COun.
try-Their Views on Currency Cues
lions Should be Considered.
IChicago Tribune.l

4
| aud municipal obligations and in mortgages
upon the lands of the country. They made
| these loans and investments with paper
/ money of deprecated value, and hardly any
at less than 10 per cent below coin value.
| The law of the land and the full consent OF
| the debtors. guarantee the payment of inter
| est and principal at par in such lawful
money as may exist, notwithstanding the
| great increase in the value of the paper
money. Thus, man who loaned $4,000 on
mortgage at per cent when greenbacks
were worth 90 cents, drew the equivalent of
| per cent. interest in gold on the value of
| the money loaned; but the advance in the
value of greenbacks to 972 cents in gold
makes the interest now paid on the loan
| equal to 80 per cent in gold on the value
of the money loaned. That increase in the
value of the interest paid ought to satisfy
any reasonable demand, but it does not.
| The demand is not only that the interest
shall now be paid in gold, but that all forms
/ of metallic money shall be abolished save
| gold coin; that gold coin, being thus made
| the exclusive legal money, and being
scarce, shall have an increased value; that
all other property shall be proportionately
| deprecated, and gold have a purchasing
| power greatly in excess OF Its present power.
Under the new arrangement, in the case of
| the transaction mentioned, the interest on
| the gold value of the original loan will be
advanced to possibly u per cent. gold and
| the principal of the loan be made equivalent
! to from $4,000 TO 5000 in the property
mortgaged. That is the plain English of the
| struggle to have silver demonetized; that
gold, being scarce and getting scarcer, shall
| have greater value and that there will be
practically an addition made of % per cent
| TO every debt outstanding That is the end
sought by the inordinate greed of the money
| lenders. Are not those who make this de-
mand blind to the best interests of the
| country?
Pending such struggle can there be any
| question as to the cause OF business stagna-
1 ton? Ever since 1873 all business in this
| country has been done on falling market
Every man who bought to sell, every man
| who manufactured, has done so under the
embarrassment OF being compelled to sell at
a loss. Those who stood up under the imme
| date effects OF the panic have been going
| down year after year, and the commercial
disaster and distress are as startling to day
as they have ever been. Every man IN bust
ness has been looking for the bottom to be
reached has been expecting that hard
pan" would be touched, and that, when
| things had got so low that there was no lower,
| there would be a recovery and rise, and a
| renewal of business. The outlook for the
| unemployment of labor is even darker now
than it was year ago. The country has
reached that point, as was happily expressed
| by General Butler few days ago, where,
instead of there being an overproduction,
there was a want of consumption, resulting
from the inability of the mass of the laboring
population, because of their poverty, to buy
and thus consume what's produced. And yet
we have not touched the bottom. Labor and
material and the means to purchase and all
forms of property continue to decline in
value, and this condition is of necessity
aggravated by the efforts to still further
depreciate every description of property and
every product of labor by demanding that
the dollars shall be increased aud every mans
debt enlarged by the addition of % per cent.
increased value of the only metallic money
left. To 4 nation and a people who are
overwhelmed in debt, and who for nearly Is
years have been borne down by enormous
taxation, this attempt to increase the value
of gold is an act of self-destruction. The
people of the southern and western states,
as we'll as a large proportion of those in the
other states, are largely in debt. They live
by the product OF their labor. They toll and
they produce; they maintain themselves and
families; they pay taxes and they pay the
interest on their Indebtedness, and are hoard
ing to meet the principal when due. Is il
wise, therefore, for the creditors to demand
that in addition to these charges upon the
popular industry thrift and production,
there shall be an arbitrary levy of at least
% per cent, without consideration, to be
paid out of the proceeds of the labor which
is now hardly more than sufficient to meet
the lawful claims upon them? Is it wise 70
insist upon having two days labor to meet @
debt which according to contract can be sat
) isfied with one? Is it wise to insist upon
taking 100 acres of land to pay debt which
by the contract might be satisfied with sc
acres? Is it wise to so increase the debts by
law, and without consideration, and so crush
| out the debtor class as to reduce them to
! perjury and want, and arrest production by
: expelling the producers from the land? Is
it wise to confiscate the only means whereby
these people may be able to pay their debts
Is not greed overreaching itself, and is it not
destroying the very people from whom il
seeks to make this excessive extortion?
The only direct and immediate mode by
which values OF property can be arrested in
! their fall is TO remonetize silver. 1t will
arrest the undue increase in the value Of
{ gold. 1t will restore the relative values oil
: the two metals, and keep them more or less
permanent. 1t will prevent corners in either
| metal. because, both being legal tender the
! cheaper, whether it be silver or gold, will be
that resorted to in payment.
> The people of the south and west do not
favor the reconciliation OF silver with any
purpose to cheat anybody. The south and
? the west produce more annually than would
! pay their whole indebtedness, and this they
propose to sell for the silver dollar They
are practically the only producers, and il
they are willing to take this cheap money
for the product of their labor they are willing
to be the victims OF their own cheat II the
people of the south and west are willing tc
sell to the people Of New England all theil
, cotton, their tobacco, their sugar, theiI
, flour, wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley, eggs
: butter, cheese beef, pork, lard, bacon, Poul
try, their lead. copper and iron, their lum
: ber wool. hides, and all their other products,
I and take in pay silver dollars. the people o.
,, New York and New England might well af
ford to accept the same money in payment
of interest or mortgages and principal o
! municipal bonds. II the people who pro
duce the food ana clothing of the nation
who furnish by their labor 80 per cent. of al
the exports, are willing TO accept the silver
dollar in payment for that labor and in ex