The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1879-09-20
WHAT is THE MATTER?

don't know, but something is terribly
wrong.
If you don't know, you should know;
and that you may never G i've that response
again we will give you the chief cause in
lust one word-fntereSf.
lust now we are eaten up with it. We
burn the candle of our resources at both
ends, and let the bondholding rats gnaw
great chunks out of the middle. We
are Just as deliberately going to ruin as is
possible for a nation, and if you don't
open your eyes and stop the leak we will
inevitably be swamped. Do you under
stand the amount of interest that is an
nually due in the United States? If so,
you will see how our whole circulating
medium has to be held available for that
one purpose, and cannot ami dares not be
invested in the lines of trade and manu-
facture. We squirm under the United
States bonds, but they are only insignifi-
cant items in the grand totals that the Nc
Cullochs and Shermans have fastened
upon the tired backs of American toilers.
Here is a rough estimate of American
Indebtedness taken from floating news
paper paragraph, yet sufficiently accurate
for the purpose of illustration. Let us
look at our debts, and the interest aver
aged at only 5 per cent:
Public debt $2,oooooooo Int 100000 900
Railroad bonds 4,ooo,ooo,ooo Int 2oo,ooo,ooo
Mortgages 3.ooo,ooo,ooo Int 100000
Private and munich
pal debts 1000, 100000 Int 35o,ooo,ooo
Total interest
bearing dts. $I6ooo,ooo,ooo Int $Soo,ooo, 900
By the census of 1870, the value of the
farm products, including additions to stock,
is put at 81, 500, 100000. In other words,
the yearly interest due in the United
States is about one third of all our agri
cultural and stock productions, and out of
the other two thirds the farmer is expected
to make his profits and pay for the cost
of production. The farm wages for 1870
land prices and wages are far lower now
than them only amounted to 1910, ooo, 900.
In other words, we pay to the non-pro-
ducers, the cormorants who crunch the
body and bones of the people in their re-
morseless teeth, nearly three times as much
as to the sons of the soil upon whose
broad backs is based the whole fabric of
our social, financial and political pros
perity
But there is another item that the far
mer or mechanic must look at, when he
begins to investigate "what is the mat
In France-the beacon of prosperity in
these hours of disaster and wreck-there
is available currency of $s5 per capita,
which would, on the same basis, indicate
$2,64o, 100000 for the United States. AS
result, France deals on a cash basis.
They pay there as they go-and they save
the interest to the producer. That is one
great reason why the French farmer is the
most contented agriculturist in the world
1t is why he has remained an imperialist
at heart, because he identified Napoleon
with the financial system, which makes
monarchy and court cheaper institutions
than an aristocracy of note shavers. The
scarcity of money entails upon this coun-
try credit system of business; and when
credit begins, interest begins with it.
When Sherman had $s7I 900, 900 hid in
the United States treasury, and the banks
$25o,ooo,ooo tied up as reserves, how far
could the available 100000, 900, or there
abouts, OF currency, go toward transact
ing in cash the business of the United
states, which amounts to not less than
$40, 900, and according to some
good authorities, $4,000, 100000 per an
mum?
The result is sales on time and interest
Fifty billions of payments at sixty days
a talr average-costs the payers $500, ooo,-
900 year.
BY the census of 1870 the gross profits
on the manufacture of raw materials
amounted to $I,744,oooooo In other
words, the interest which our business
men are compelled to pay, through the
absence of sufficient circulating legal
tender, is equal to nearly one third of the
increase IN value over the raw materials
on all the manufactures of the country
Out OF the other two thirds the manufac-
turer must find the cost of production and
his profits.
Now you have what is the matter-in-
terest on public and private bonds, mort
cages, judgments, and even the ordinary
changes of trade, amounting in all to not
less than $I,3oo,ooo,ooo per annum. And
this is the condition of the people whom. |
fourteen years ago, McCulloch pronoun
ced officially to be practically out of debt.
The inevitable logic of these figures is |
hard as iron, cold as marble, true as steel. |
Inc money-lender is absorbing the whole |
increase OF material wealth. Actually he
taxes all that is produced and for the bal |
ance still due him demands more bonds. |
All statistics show that the increase Of ma |
terlal wealth is only about 2 per cent |
nree per cent on $4,000, ooo. 900, the es-
timated value of our material wealth, is
@I 100000, or very near the amount
that, on totally different line of argument
we Inquired out as the amount of interest |
received by the capitalist, and paid by the
farmer and mechanic. Farmers and me- |
chanlcs, SO long as we have to pay yearly
ONION and quarter interest, common !
sense and political economy alike swear
10 you that you cannot have any profits
cannot even hold your own Your profits |
nave gone; your lands and your work
shops are going and must go. In the Ian
guage of the New York Times, YOU NAV
la 70 h., L Al