The Colfax chronicle., 1890-06-07
Farmers Don't Borrow.
fLAke Charles Eoho.l

Farmers Don't Borrow.
fLAke Charles Eoho.l
The farmers are busy working
up the idea that it is the thing to
have the government money paper
mills capacity increased so that
they can borrow cheap money by
mortgaging their farms to the gov
ernment instead of to other money
lenders Now, we have been think
ing over this idea and it looks to us
as as if the farmers were about
trying to turn their farms into q
kind of trading business
According to our ideas of q farm,
it is the very thing that really rep
resents the value and really the
only money creating power on
earth. The fact of the government
having a paper and printing mill
does not, In our opinion, make it q
money creator.
It looks to us as If the govern
ment really depended upon the
farmer (as we are all taxed for the
purpose) for money to run itself
The idea that greenbacks are to be
used by the farmer to fertilize his
farm because they are cheaper than
guano. and that they 1.-THE green
backs) are to be the future laborers
of the soil, we think, will result in
disaster if tried. There is weak
falacy here in all this, somewhere,
and we hope our farmers will dis
cover it before they get involved in
q ruinous pit of fanaticism.
The idea that the farmer must
borrow money to run his farm is,
we think, about being inculcated in
him by money lenders, and he does
not see the point Yes, get the bor-
rowing fever, farmers of Louisiana,
(no matter how cheap you get the
money-the cheaper the more rival
~ in farming, the greater the pro-
duction, the cheaper farm products
will be, the greater your inability
to realize, the greater your inability
to pay your interests) and then
you will find the money lender at
your heels just as heretofore.
Cheaper money, and in proportion
you are bound to cheaper the value
of farm products, and in reality, the
value of the farm itself.
The question of supply and de-
mand and proportionate circulation
of money necessary to maintain
values. is great one in the fnan-
cial economies, and has been the
bette noir of ell enlightened nations.
Statesmen have spent their lives
studying and weighing the subject
and is not absolutely answered yet
The very idea of the government
lending money to the farmers sug-
gests its being loaned to the car
penter, the blacksmith the mer-
chant and, in fact, everybody. We
have always thought that ours was
a government of the people and for
the people, but here comes the idea
that our government is a somebody
other than ourselves. If the idea
taught US by our parents and our
constitution that we are the gov
ernment, is correct, this idea of
borrowing money from the govern
ment is like borrowing your money
from one pocket to pay the other,
and it can't be said that there is
accomplished by this any
more than by an attempt to pump
q ship dry that has hole in the
bottom, or endesvoring to lower
the sea by pumping from one side
Of the ship to the other side.
The idea that money has dis
tinct value outside of anything else
and that that supposed value can
be taken and attached to q farm, or
else, is one of the most
absured falacies of the age.
The value seen in our railroads,
buildings in our cities and towns
and our farms, is nothing but the
representative value of the products
Df our soil, and nothing more.
Farmers, we take it upon our
selves to say to you, right here,
abandon such q falacy-borrowing
from one pocket to pay another is
of no avail Your improvements
On your farm only represent the
value you have by your thrift, econ
Dmy and industry extracted from
your land Understand, that when
you say You want to borrow cheap
money you are trying to get the
hard earnings of your brother farm
sr at reduced rates, thereby devour-
inc him