The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-07-17
GOVERNMENT LOANS.


Representative Featherstone, OF
Arkansas, has introduced q bill in
congress that embodies the recon-
mendations OF Senator Stanford. 1t
provides for governmental loans to
the people on farm property at two
per cent interest. With the sub-treas-
ury bill which is being urged by the
Farmers Alliances, this is the only |
practical measure OF relief to the over
burdened farmers Of the country.
This matter OF government loans is
no new scheme. 1t Is as old as the
government; railroads, canals, banks
and commercial spectators have at
various times received government
loans and subsidies. The national
banks all exist on loans from the gov
eminent.
Government loans were made way
back in the colonial days and their
success may be inferred from the fol-
lowing letter from Mr.. Hume, who
was one of Great Britain's historians
and political economists.
Mr.. Hume was one OF the proprie-
tors by Royal Charter of the province
of Pennsylvania, and in q letter to his
friend Morelett, Of France, also a
great student and writer on political
economy, Mr.. Hume says:
sin our colony of Pennsylvania,
the land itself, which is the chief
commodity, is coined and passed into
circulation. A planter Immediately
upon purchasing land, can go topub-
lie Office and receive notes to half the
value of his land, which he employs
in all payments, and they circulate
through the colony by convention.
To prevent the public being over
whelmed with this representative
money there are two means Employed:
1. The notes issued to any one
planter must not exceed certain
amount, whatever may be the value
of the land.
2. Every planter is obliged to pay
back into the public Office every year
one tenth of his notes. The whole is
OF course annihilated in ten years,
after which he is again allowed to
take out new notes to half the value
Of his land.
This was the monetary system un-
der which the American colonists
prospered to such an extent that Ed
mund Burke said Of them: Nothing
in the history Of the world is like
their progress.
1t was q wise and beneficient sys-
tenn and it's effects were most conduc-
tive to the happiness of the people.
Take the case Of family, industri-
Gus and enterDrising, driven by per-
Isecution or misfortune to seek q ref
uge in the wilds of the new world.
With their scanty means they pur-
chase tract Of land. Many years of
hard labor, privation and anxiety
would have been necessary to bring
that family into q state Of decent
competency had they been required
to purchase gold and silver by labor
and by the product OF labor before
they could effect other improvements
on their property.
BANKING UPON THE WEALTH OF
MOTHER NATURE.
But half the value of his land was
advanced to the real head of the fam
lily in notes, which circulate as mon
ey. With this money he can hire a.
Dor and purchase implements of hus
bandry and cattle; and thus, where,
without these notes one acre could
be cleared, cultivated and stocked in
a year, ten would, by the assistance
of the proper money advanced, be re
lclailned from the forest and rendered
productive.
Thus hope entered the dwellings OF
the poor elnigrant. Ten years found
him with the whole OF his debt to the
government discharged, the proprie-
tor Of happy home and the kind
hand of a paternal government was
stretched out still to advance to him
again one half of the increased value
of his land, thus enabling him to
clear more of the forest and to settle
his children on new homes. Such was
the system by which q people called
by the British miserable set of out
casts" were converted in q short
space Of time into q happy, contented
and prosperous colonist.
A prosperous people are generally
well satisfied with the form Of gov
eminent under which they live.
When in 1776, Benjamin Franklin
was examined before q committee Of
the whole house Of commons, he was
asked, "what was the temper Of
America toward Great Britain before
1773y" He answered: 1.-THE best in
the world. They submitted willingly
to the government Of the crown, and
paid in all their courts obedience to
all their acts Of parliament. Nulner-
GUS as the people are in the several
old provinces, they cost you nothing
in forts, citadels, garrisons or armies
to keep them in subsection. They
were govsrnsd by this country at the
expense only Of little pen, ink and
paper. They were led by q thread.
They had not only q regard but an
affection for Great Britain, for its
laws, it's customs, its manners, and
even fondaess for it's fashions. that
greatly increased its commerce. Ma
tives Of Britain were always treated
with particular regard; and to be an
Old England man was of itself char