The Portland daily press., 1881-01-14
FRIDAY MORNING, JANUARY IA.


part, is limited to two counties, Androscoggn
and Aroostook and is due chiefly to the
manufacturing interests of the one and the
agricultural attractions of the other. Thou
sands of our citizens have left the State
during the decade, to escape their burdens of
debt and taxation, hoping to better their
chances In a new country.
Why is it that the West is making such
drafts upon our population, upon the bone
and muscle and intelligence of our State: A
prosperous people do not emigrate; only
those who are in distress. This is true of
emigration from one State to another as well
as of emigration from the old countries to this.
One of the most efficient causes tending to
drive citizens from the State, is the law of
Imprisonment for debt, as all must admit who
know anything of its operation. This law is
made the means of great oppression. Demands
are cut up into small amounts, ten or fifteen
dollar notes given, execution taken out upon
each, and the debtor is pursued, harassed and
oppressed. until he is forced to leave the State
TO preserve his personal liberty. The poor
debtor in this State is deprived of the benefits
of the statute exempting his property from at
tatchment, for it must go, if it be his last COW
or shoat, to pay the fees and cost of his last
disclosure. 1t is shame that the personal
liberty of the citizen should be held more
cheaply than the collection of a ten dollar de-
mand. Maine is now about the only State that
retains upon its statute books this relic of
barbarism.
The act of last winter, giving justices of the
peace and of the quorum jurisdiction throughout
the State, adds to the abomination of this law !;
for, in case of disclosure, the creditor may take
his justice from the most distant part of the
State, at the expense of the debtor.
USURY.
Then, in aid of the law of Imprisonment for
debt, we have statute which limits the inter-
est which the creditor may exact, only by his
greed and the necessities of the debtor. I'm
der this law. whatever the exactions by the
money-lender, in the form of interest they are
not regarded as usury extortion, only as a
business transaction. The evil effects of the
law develop slowly but surely. They tend not
only to transfer the property of the many to
the pockets of the few, but to paralyze and
blight all productive industries, by rendering
the trade of the money lender the most profit
able well as the most favored business in
the State.
The evil effects of this law have been most
conspicuous in the disasters it has brought
upon our savings institutions. All have suf
fered by it and many have been brought to
the verge of ruin. The managers of these in
situations are of the best men in our state,
and vet. in the management of funds, not their
own, and under the restraints of legislative
supervision, such was their passion for high
rates of interest these men neglected their
first duty to the depositors and loaded the
banks with investments of such doubtful
character that banks holding six millions of
deposits suspended payment. If these in
solvent banks had gone into the hands of re-
ceivers, instead of having their liabilities
scaled down under the wise provisions of our
law. the result would have been disastrous in
deed. If good men-the best in the State
hpndling trust funds, are so anxious to make
money for others, what may we not expect,
under the license of this law from men who
are governed, in their rates of interest. only
by their greed to make money for themselves
This law also tends to aggravate, immensely,
far greater evils-those resulting from the nom
taxable government bond.
GOVERNMENT BONDS.
Debt, public and private, debt and taxation
are slowly but surely undermining our free
institutions. Government bonds not only es-
cape taxation themselves, but they furnish q
cover for all other kinds of evidences of debt
that are taxable. This double iniquity must
be endured so long as United States bonds are
endured. 1t would seem that the proposition tc
refund the seven or eight hundred millions Of
United States bonds now maturing, could
PCO
pie in this State; that their interests de-
mand that these bonds should be paid, moi
refunded to remain a burden for a generation
at least, and perhaps for generations. Their
that other proposition, before the American
Congress. to retire and destroy the 346, 900, O0(
of legal tender notes,-burn them, so that ou
of their ashes may arise like amount of in.
terest- bearing bonds to further tax the labo
and industry of the country! Would it no
be more in accordance with the interest of thu
toiling masses in this country to require thu
national banks to retire their currency, some
over three hundred millions, and replace i
with United States legal-tenders, and thereb,
paw off like amount of United States bonds
burn them up and thus relieve the people o
so much burden of interest, and above all
from the baneful influence of these bonds up
on the currency and business of the country
The Treasurer of the United States in hi
last report says: "Instead of the volume o
the circulation being regulated by the business
needs of the country, it is governed by tn
price of United States bonds! Within tn
last year large reduction of bank circulation
has taken place in the face of an active de-
mand for money, simply because good prof
could be made by Withdrawing and selling tn
four per cents deposited as security for circu
lation. Nearly twenty-fv million dollars il
four per cent bonds were thus withdrawn dur
ing the last fiscal year. The power that con
trolls the volume of the peoples money is Ger
tain to control the peoples destinies.
This question of the currency is one abou
which honest men may honestly differ. 1t il
an important question. Its decision will be o
far-reaching consequence. If the bank cur
rency win the whole field of circulation, thei
we shall have never-ending national debt
maintained by the banks as the basis of thei
existence; yes, fostered by them as a "na
tional blessing"-to the banks. ever increasing
in number and power as the country increase
in wealth and population, and certain to be
come, if not so already a political machine
hostile to free government, mingling in tn
elections and legislation of the country, cor
rupting the press and exerting its influence il
the only way known to the money power-b,
corruption.
But it is claimed that this bond policy
demanded in the interest of idle capital tina
it is necessary to furnish san opportunity 70
the safe investment of idle capital" Thes
safe investments for idle capital are destruc
tive, not only of the industries, but of tn
morals of the people. As they render tn
trade of the money lender the most proftabl
business, they tend to create race of idlers
misers and towards who will never take an
chances with labor in the productive indus
tries while this opportunity for safe invest
menI anu exemption from IaXatlOn Is open Z
them. They take no risks. The Vanderbilt
with tens of millions of United States bonds
spending the interest in Europe, and the ten
of thousands of lesser bondholders, who pro
duce nothing and do nothing except eli
coupons,-what are they to this country an
its industries, but class of gilded pauper
supported by the labor of the countrys
If this bondholding policy shall continue
Judging by the rapid accumulation of prop
erty in the hands of the few, dnring the las
fifteen years, how long will it be before W
shall see, in this country, the same conditio
of things as in England where one hundre
and sixty persons own one-half of all the so
of England, and two thirds of Scotland; o.
as in Ireland, where only one person in tie
hundred and fifty-eight owns one foot c
mother earths Order reigns at Dublin to
day; SO it did at Warsaw.
We have in this country 5000 persons VIII
own and possess 5000 millions of property
mostly accumulated within the last fftee
years, and that too, through unequal laws