The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-08-28

nous O0D6 caused Dy Cno scarcity OF
ready money and the necessity of the peo-
pie paying for land that is morally theirs,
but was stolen by corporations ssaccord-
ing to law" It Is an infamy that Amer.
lean citizens must pay enormous prices to
private corporations for the privilege of
occupying any part Of the public domain
the heritage of all the people. The adj
vocates of corporate extortion claim that
without the aid Of land grants and other
assistance the railroads would not have
been built and the desert made to blossom
as the rose. This may be true, but If the
people furnished the means to build the
roads the people should own them
The monstrous burden of debt resting
upon our people is made clear by the farm
mortgage statistics, which so far, for rea-
sons unknown, have only been furnished
for Iowa and Alabama. In Iowa they ag-
gregate about $19S, 900, 900, not counting
those recorded previous to 1ssO-equal to
$104 per capita, or counting five to fam
lily $500 to every family in the state. Ad.
ding other real estate mortgages would
double this sum; and all other debts pub.
lie, private and corporate, would certainly
increase it six if not eight fold AS all
debts, taxes, dividends, interest and other
increase must be paid by productive Ia.
Dor the burden falling on the producing
classes is almost incredible. Is it a won
der that in our new country SO, 900 fam
lies own over half of all the wealth, and
that one-sixth of our wealth is owned by
foreign money kings9 Are we not rapidly
approaching the condition of the tenant
farmers of Ireland, who are impoverished
by the rents paid to absentee landlords
as our country is being drained not only
through rents, but dividends, interest and
money paid for the purchase of our own
lands to absentee bond and stock holdersl
How long will it be at this rate until our
farmers are the tenants of absentee land
lords, and most Of the people are degraded
to the level of serfs to concentrated
wealth?
If the billions of dollars of bank and
corporation paper, mortgages and other
paper evidences Of debt issued by indivi6-
uals are good enough for the extortioners
and the usurers, paper notes issued by all
the people jointly, in the form of govern
ment notes, are better. The platform of
the Peoples Party demands that measure,
but the money tories speak of ''Cheap
John money! and Establishing pawn
shops" when the plan is proposed. They
never consider that every dollar of the
many billions of debt certificates held by
them, have only individual backing, while
notes issued by the government are
secured by all the people in the land.
Estimating all the debts in Iowa at only
$4OO, 900, 900 and the average interest at
seven per cent. this would represent q
burden upon the people of that one state
OF S2o, 900, 900 year. If the govern
ment loaned money at two per cent. linn
tied in amount and on approved security
the interest would be only $4,000, 900.
Twenty millions would remain in the poe
kets of the people of Iowa, and the S.
100000 they did pay, would not go to en-
rich lazy and designing spectators at
home and abroad, but would be practically
paid to themselves-the government.
This applies to all the states, to many in a
greater degree. Such currency would
be equal to first mortgages on real estate
and have more reliable basis than gold
coin, of which there is not enough in all
the world to do the business of the United
States alone, because all the gold coin in
the world could be stored in a fair sized
summer kitchen. This system would not
permit any party, clique or corporation to
be entirely self-regulating, because if there
was more money in circulation than the
business of the country requires those hav-
ing borrowed money would return it to the
treasury, while in case of scarcity those who
could furnish security would draw money
from the treasury. Unproductive capital
could never draw greater increase than
two per cent.-the money now exacted as
III, met
of the producers and the foreign capitalists
being unable to compete with the people
represented in the government would be
driven from the country, and industrial
independence thus secured. The silly
charge that it would be improper for the
government to loan money to its members
is refuted by existing facts. The reports
OF the secretary of the treasury show that
the government has now on deposit in
favored banks over $25, 600, 900 without
interest; that it loans national bankers
nearly $500, 100000 lat one time nearly
$500, 900, 000) at an interest rate called a
tax, of one per cent; that it has loaned
the Pacific railroads 1854, 600, 900 which has
now reached nearly s13o. 900, ooo) and that
many senators and congressman who de-
nounce loans to the people, favor the pro-
position to guarantee 500, 900, 600 bonds
OF the Nicaragua Canal company at three
per cent. interest for one hundred wears.
aggregating $500, OOO,O 900 not counting
compound interest. 1t does not occur to
some people that the government, if it is
to furnish the means to build railroads,
canals and other improvements should
own them, and that if it loans money to
millionaires it might do the same thing for
the rest of its citizens on better security
and at a higher rate of interest.
But while the Peoples Party considers
an Improvement of our monetary system
the most pressing reform, it will not con-
fine itself to that alone, any more than it
will try to lift up one class of citizens at
the expense of another. It demands equal
and exact justice to all, even to the pred
atory classes.
Inscriptions capitalists have oppressed
the wage workers and they deserve not
only the sympathy but the active CO.
operation of all humanitarians in their
struggles against the encroachments of
the gigantic combinations that treat them
as chattles, and grind unnecessary wealth
out of their excessive toll.
Our telegraph lines, now controlled by
designing stock gamblers who manipulate
the news for purposes of speculation,
should be owned and controlled by the
people and in the interest of the people. as
is the postal system.
Tho Ponn1osc dooo ~1k