Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-03-23
The Curse OF Debt.

day. gray-headed and toil-worn men, who
have never been able to say of any spot of
land, however small, "this is all my own"
Have these men no experience to relate2
How many other thousands have gone out
of New England, because they only saw
ruin in remaining under mortgage debts
which were eating them up2 Could not
they send back warning word2 Appa-
rently not. Men struggle under these bur-
dens all their lives, are bowed and broken
by them, and yet they are silent. They
seem to take it for granted that debt is the
natural and inevitable condition for nine
tenths of mankind from which indeed only
the rich man and the pauper can ever hope
to be free. Is It SOP
No one who has felt the pressure of such
debts for years will say we use too strong
word when we call them "curse." But
the worst thing about them, to our mind, is
the alacrity with which each succeeding
generation loads itself down with them. A
large majority of the young men who begin
farming in each year do so on land for
which they are more or less in debt. They
have seen their fathers bowed like slaves,
toiling their lives out to pay their debt over
and over again in interest, yet making it
little or no smaller in lifetime, and still
they run to put their own necks into the
same halter.
| 1t is the same with communities, societies
| and churches. There is an infatuation for
debt among the American people, not Sec
ond to the infatuation of drunkards for al
cohol. Take the following statement of the
| burden Of governmental debt, alone, in the
United States, which we cut from an ex-
| change:
"The Indebtedness of the general government
| is TWO thousand millions. The Indebtedness OF
the several states the first day of last June
| two hundred and ffty-one millions. The indebt
edness of the several counties OF the several states
| has been carefully estimated at two hundred mil.
| lions and the returns already received from the
three hundred cities indicate that the local indeb
edness OF the United States will reach twelve hun
| dred million of dollars, making the entire public
Indebtedness of the people Of the United States
reach three thousand six hundred and fifty-one
million OF dollars, making the Indebtedness per
capita seventy-one dollars. Not long since Judge
| Kelley startled the country by the announcement
English interest, paid in interest their national
| debt three times every century. The census dis
counts this by demonstrating the fact that the
| taxpayers Of three hundred cities OF the United
States pay in interest their enormous debt, aggre-
| eating six hundred sixty-four million dollars,
| oyer six times in every one hundred years.
careful computation reveals the fact that the
nual interest on this sum, amounting to forty-one
million dollars year aggregates four billions and
one hundred million dollars every century that 1t
| remains unpaid"
| Now remember that the above does not
include dollar of railroad or any other
private corporation Indebtedness, or penny
of the individual or church debts. When
we look it over, it seems plain that this coun-
| try 10. and ALWAYS must be. on the edge of
the precipice of insolvency, so long as this
accursed habit of going in debt continues.
But it is particularly of the farmers that
we wish to speak. Farming is the poorest
paying business in this country, and must
always be so, so long as any body who wants
to can get land and go into it, The average
annual profits of all kinds of business, ac-
cordng to the best statistics, does not ex-
ceed three per cent. This is the average
annual increase of our natural wealth. If
we could get at the truth we should find,
probably, that at least three-quarters of this
is absorbed by few thousand men, who
are either lenders of money, or masters Of
some monopoly. The other quarter is dis
tributed among those citizens who are
"making more than living" The share
of the farmers, the country through, cannot
| ahn
nually on their Investment. The great bulk
of our farmers never make a cent on their
investment. They merely make living, or
less; and die no richer, and very often
poorer, than they were the day they began
to farm on their own account. Is there no
remedy for this We see none at all. Peo-
pie rush into debt as moths fly into candle.
There is no way of stopping them, that we
can conceive of. We mean the vast major.
ity. They are as eager to bind themselves
to the yoke of this debt-slavery as most
other slaves are to escape from this. And
when they are tied up to it for life, they ac
cept the situation as one that cannot be
helped, AS the common lot of all.
Is it wonderful that the Just dead Carlyle
looking over our mother country whose
traits we are striving so faithfully to copy
said with sad sarcasm, " England contains
J fifteen millions of inhabitants, mostly fools.
There is no need of young man going il
, debt for farm. If he does, he is almos
! sure never to pay for it; and equally sur
never to be his own man until he does. Th'
: right and only wise course for one who ha
no money yet wants to be farmer, is Il
: work upon farm under good farmer, b.
steady, faithful and saving, and keep at il
working and learning until he has laid u
money enough to buy what land he needs +
I. start with. A young man who does this i
as sure to succeed as the man who goes il
debt for land is sure to fail.
+ The eagerness to buy on credit in the frs
] place doubles the price Of land. If no Ian
were bought except for ready money, tn
average selling price would probably not b.
D. for long time, much more than half c
L what it is, even in the present low conditio
e of agricultural land. When we buy an,
sse thing on credit it is inevitable that we sha
e have to pay more than it is worth. But th
hhs is not all, nor the most. The universalit
e, Of debt makes the interest on money abno
4, mally high. The demand for it is great,
: than the supply in all farming districts, I
I that in the west eight to ten per cent is tl
ruling rate on farm mortgages. In the ca
it probably averages at least seven per cen
The average profit OF money invested
g. farms, the country over, must be less tina
ry three per cent, since that is the annual ga
sa Si on all property, and nobody believes tn
he he farming is more profitable than the ayeral
he he of business. Therefore all loans upon whit
lSs of farmers pay over three per cent must be,
''o the long run and on the average, losing |
vestments. The craze for debt has alwa
nee kept interest high in this country. An
lao sa thing over three per cent (aot free Of tax
ID, tom is too much. Money lending is as sa
A as any business, and ought not to give
nHPsy larger profit than the average of all bu
/. nesses. Yet in this country it has alwa