The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-08-29
The A B G of Finance.
The Money Question Made Clear.
n. Y. Tribune.l


order to keep the peoples pledge. All the
cost of resumption has been paid; shall we
throw away all the gains? Trees which it has
cost years of care to raise are just beginning to
bear. What reason have we to girdle them or
to tear them up by the roots? 1t is a question
of honor, too. Why should pledge be broken
when it will cost no more to keep it? No loyal
man would think of backing out, but for the
fact that United States notes are used as mon
ey. Bad money rather than good, there are
some men in every land who want. Money
pays debts. They want cheap money to pay
with. Most men are little ashamed to ask
openly for worse money, and so the cry is for
more money. Resumption was resisted MANI
ly on the plea that it would involve contrac-
ton. Now that it has been reached without con-
traction, there is still an outcry for more mon
ey The real desire is for bad notes, instead of
notes kept good by payment on demsnd-for
money which shall fall short in buying power,
and so be more easy to get.
OF course, when debtor gains dollar by
the use of cheap money, creditor must lose d
dollar. The country can gain nothing; no boy
makes anything by robbing his right-hand to
fill his left-hand pocket More money, being
nece ssarily worse money, can help one class
only by hurting another. Self-government,
servant of al | alike, should seek "the greatest
good of the greatest number" but the cred
tors are many and the debtors few. 1t is
strange that this is not always seen. If it
were there would be fewer demagogues
urging us to ''give relief to the debtor Glass;
which is small, at the expense of the creditor
class, which is very large. But some seem to
think hat all the people of this country are
debtors, and that all debtors are dishonest.
Mr. Astor may owe butchers bill, or Mr..
Vanderbilt tailor's bill, but neither belongs
to the debtor class. Any man who has owing
to him more money than he owes must lose
more as creditor by the use in payments Of
money that loses value or buying power,
than he can gain thereby as debtor. For
him, poorer money would save at the spigot
and waste at the bung. To that class belong
nine-tenths of those who work for
wages. There are over eight millions of
them, and they earn more than 5000, ,OO0 900
in year. About three million work ON farms
and are paid by the month or season; about
100000 are domestic servants, usually paid
by the month; over 100000 are employed in
manufactures mines, of whom many are
paid by the month. On an average, more
than S1O0,000,000 is at all times due to this
army of creditors. In Massachusetts the La
Dor Bureau reports that more than half OF the
workers save money, and of the rest the large
majority make both ends meet" Are the
workers in other States less thrifty than in
Massachusetts,? If not, hardly tenth of tho
S,000,000 get into debt for more than their
wages coming. Over 100000 must lose if
wages are paid in cheap money; less than
100000 can gain by having cheap money
with which to pay their debts Can the ma
tion afford to harm the many in order to help
the few?
1t is true there are many persons who have
borrowed money ON lands or houses, or to car
~ on business. But those who lend are ten
times as many as those who borrow. Solvent
merchants and manufacturers have more ow-
ing to them than they owe. Good farmers, as
a rule have been saving money, and before
three great crops had enabled many to clear
off debts, wide search led to the belief that
hardly one farm in ten was mortgaged. The
borrowers from any bank can gather in one
room, but if it fails, the streets are blocked
with the throng of depositors whose money it
holds. He who holds life insurance policy is
a creditor. About 100000 policy-holders have
advanced to such companies small sums year
by year, until their assets exceed S400, 100000,
but the loans on mortgage by all the insurance
companies number less than 10000. Fire in
surance, building and loan associations also
gather small sums from each OF many persons,
but loan in large sums to few. 1t is proba-
be that all the loans by all the savings banks,
in amount $500, 100000, number lest than
100000, but the money is gathered from 2,400,-
600 depositors. In New England, New York
and New Jersey there are 2,153, 122 depositors,
and only 1,S22, ,0S6 families, SO that there are
more creditors of this sort than there are fam
lies 1t takes q thousand little rills to make
one river, and many lenders to supply ono
borrower. For the small savings of the mil
lions are not large enough to be separately
used in trade or industry, and the men who
have the means to use borrowed capital advan-
tageously, and the credit to obtain it, are
1xr Orol oril will r1I
float shingle, but thousand brought togeth-
er will float the commerce of a continent So,
of necessity, the many save and lend, and tho
few borrow and use.
The directors of the Glasgow bank went to
jail because they took the savings from the cred
tors of one bank and gave relief to few debtors.
But "more money would do the same wrong
to the depositors in all the banks in this coun-
try. The president of an insurance company
lies in prison because he made things easy for
q dozen borrowers, but hard for thousands of
policy-holders. "More money would pay
100000 holders of policies in dollars worth
80 cents each, in order to let 10000 borrowers
have cheap money for their relief More
money would take part of every dollar due to
100000 depositors i'll savings banks, in order
that the 100000 men to whom their money is
loaned might keep part of it. If individuals
do this thing it is crime. What would it be
if done by act of Congress.
The folly of it is that 'more money would
cut off supplies from future industry and trade.
1t would girdle the sugar tree so that the sap
should no longer mount To rob those who
have saved, and are creditors, would lessen
the desire to save to lend hereafter But
those who save and lend money are those who
make future industry possible. There could be
no crop next year if the farmers should sell or
eat all the grain they have raised, and save
nothing for seed and no money for workers.
Cloth could never have been made by machin-
cry, if no one had saved the money to build q
mill. Not pound of iron could be rolled i'll
f1,n lor, ha1 not hnn avail m moi
mines and build furnaces and mills. No gain
or growth hereafter would be possible, if each
man should eat up his earnings or waste his
gains everv year. Had not great sums been
put away in banks, to be loaned in time OF
need, five years of disaster would have closed
forever nearly all the mills and furnaces in the
land. Suppose that the savings of times past
had been taken from the millions who had
earned them, for the relief of the thousands
who were debtors in 1873! Ruin that no man
can measure would have been the lot of indus
try in this country.
Cheap money for debtors will not only
wrong those whose savings have now been
loaned, therefore, but those who will need to
borrow hereafter The supply of money tobe
loaned is not so great in this country that bor-
rowers can afford to make it less. If blight
should kill the grain and leave no seed for
another sowing, could still buy from abroad.
But money does not come TO be loaned to
country where the dollar lent is apt to be
twice as big as the dollar paid The debtors
who want this thing are not many, nor the
best. Most men who have the sense to use
borrowed means in large enterprises, know
that no country can afford to relieve the shift
less by robbing the thrifty. AS a rule the deb
tors who want cheap money have risked the
means Of others not wisely. Better that they
should go down than that saving and lending
for future industry should be checked. Good
gardeners do not cut up fruitful plants in Or
der to make more room for weeds.
The Four Per Cents.