Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-12-10
NOT RePuplAToRs.
| Party Organs Assumption summarfly
Knocked Ont.


Knocked Out.
The Topeka Capital quotes para
graph from an interview with L l.
Polk, president of the National Farmers
Alliance and Industrial Union, recently
printed in the Southern Alliance
Farmer, as follows:
am informed upon good authority that
there are in the State OF Kansas to day, TO-
900 sober, indus trious hard working farm
ers who are even unable to pay the interest
on the mortgages with which their land
and property are GOV rel. They ara hone
lessly In debt and can only get relief In
financial reform. / was prepared to hear
very goo l news from that election. but
must say that the result has surpassed all
my previous anticipations
Commenting on these words, the
Capital asks and answers q question,
thus:
What does Colonel Polk mean by "nnan.
cIa' reform" In such connecticut Plainly
his plan Is re udiation.
Plainly his plan is not repudiation.
The Peoples party is not a repudlation
party. Farmers are not repudiatora
We want to pay every dollar of our
debts according to the letter and the
spirit of the contract but we can not
pay without money, and we can not af-
of interest Kansas farmers are to-day
under obligations to pay an average of
10 per cent interest Qncluding commits
sions of agents and other incidental ex-
penses) and, taking the last six years
as standard, they are not on an aver
age, making net profit out of their
business to exceed the amount Of yearly
interest due on their debts Some Of
them go above the interest line, some
fall below, and as to many, very many,
relief must come in some form or they
will lose their homes, sooner or later.
There Is no escape except through
financial REFORM" just as Mr.. Polk
says. That reform means supplying
the people with plenty Of money
at such rates OF interest - they
can afford to pay such
rate as that when the profits
OF the farm are applied in payment Of
debts. it will not all go to interest No.
count but part Of it will be left to ap-
ply on the principal To illustrate, Say
Mr.. A owes 81, 600 at 10 per cent inter
est The yearly interest payment
would require 500, and that yearly pay
ment of 500 may gAon forever without
reducing the prineipal to the extent Of
one cent But suppose that Mr.. A can
borrow money at one per cent interest
to pay the old debt Suppose, further,
that he pays yearly on the new debt ex-
actly the same amount tS100) that he
paid on the old debt. In that case he
would pay the interest account with go
instead of 500. for one per cent on
81, 600 is S10 That would leave 800 to
apply on the principal, and at thatrate,
in eleven years the whole debt of d, 600
and interest would be paid and the
homestead relieved That is not only
reform that would reform, but 1t sug.
gests very simple, practical just hon
orable and speedy way Of relieving our
homes from present burdensome incum-i
brances
Continuing in the same vein, the
Capital says:
Unfortunate conditions imposed upon ne By
act OF providence may have rendered come
of our farmers unable to pay even the iAeor.
est on the money they borrowed, ana all
creditors are nUt just or kind; but we have
yet to hear of any creditor who has forced q
Kansas debtor to the wall and seized his
property.
We ask attention particularly to the
last part of that sentence-'but we
have yet to hear OF any creditor who
has forced Kansas debtor to the wall
and seized his property" II the editor
OF the Capital will turn to the files Of
his paper and examine the issue Of Au.
gust 81, 1890, he will find reports from
forty-three counties Of Kansas showing
an average of twenty-five farms in each
county sold under foreclosure proceed
tngs during the first six months of this
year; and he will find, further, an edi-
torial statement in connection there
with to the effect that If all Of the
other counties in the State would show
an equal average with those reported,
the total sales in the State during the
six months would be 1850, equivalent
to 5, 800 sales of farms in Kansas in one
year-forced sales every one of them.
Those reports appeared in the Capital
August 81 last and the following FRI
day the same paper announced the
formation of big syndicate" made up
of loan agents to take care Of the lands
which were coming to them in payment
OF loans. by voluntary conveyance and
by foreclosing.
1t is folly, dear contemporary, to at
AuPI W Ofd0O VI W dVOlu JQlB Issue. ~
will not down. The people of Kansas
are ''hopelessly in debt" under present
conditions-iust as Polk puts It and
nothing short of financial reform, not
reputation, will relieve US Look ct
the figures: Farm debts, $50, 600, 600;
town real estate debts, $40, 600, 600;
municipal debt. $40, 600, 900; railroad
debt S456. 600, 00O-total, 1896, OoO, 900.
and the assessed valuation OF all the real
estate in Kansas for the year 1890 is
only $242, 600, 600. but little over ONE
third our total indebtedness. Kansas
Farmer.
The Farmer is much too conservative
in its estimate of farm mortgage in
debtedness. The actual figures are
much nearer 5000. 600, 600. than $50, 0O0,-
600. Twenty such counties as Lyons
and Labette will show total of eco.
O,ooo GEORGE c. WARDl.