The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-18
Land Pawnshop Bill Reported
Adversely to Senate.
SCHEME STRONGLY CONDEMNED
Unconstitutional as Well as Demoral.
izing and Impracticable.
The Consular Appropriation Bill Passed
by the senate-Secretary Blaine Did
Not Write che Dispatch Read at the
Silver Spike Festivities.

wAsHIS6Tos CRY, Feb. 17.-(spec;al. }-Sena-
tor stanford's land loan bill .sto provide the gov
ernment with means sufficient to supply the ma
fional want of a sound circulating medium in
yoiving loans on land at per cent. interest,
was severely criticised in the report made unan-
imously by the senate committee of finance
today. Under instructions from the committee,
Senator Morrill,. the chairman, reported ad-
vcrsely. The bill is declared unconstitutional.
impracticable, and capable of leading to ex-
treulely dangerous speculation, engrafting in
the minds OF young men, and older ones too for
that matter, unwholesome ideas as to the use Of
money and how to make Ii.
The committee has discovered that Mr.. stsn-
lords idea is not new one, and whenever tried
has resulted disastrously. One part Of the re-
port OF the committee says the bill of course ap
peals To owners of land for its support, as it
could lot be made available by another class;
not TO mechanics and laborers, much less to
merchants and manufacturers The land own
ers, ii is believed are too intelligent and pru-
dent to conduct their affairs in such a manner
as to be compelled 10 cover their homcsteads
with mortgage Even young men, at starting
IN LIE, when borrowed capital is useful and
necessary, do not intend to remain long in debt,
certainly not for twenty years.
The committee then goes on to say the bill
Plainly is founded on the principles set forth by
John Law, and a brief history of the NAL
o1"AouS Hissis>ippi Scueint CouC0cte0 py Law
III lsl7 in Paris il given. Reference 10 made to
the old Continental paper money of 1850, which
Washington and Adams unsuceessfully tried to
keep up to within a reasonable distance OF par,
and of which f50,0oo was necessary to buy pair
OF boots, and further along the financial policy
OF the Argentine Republic, with its disastrous
results, Is exposed. This scheme, which began
In 1866, the committee asserts, consisted solely
OF loans by the hypothecation Of real estate, and
all these schemes, it is charged, are analogous
to Mr.. Stanfords bill. Attention is directed to
the fact that the bill confemplates, by reason of
its great scope, covering every acre of ground
in every county in the United States, and the
setting up OF cumbersome pieces of machinery.
requiring thousands of employees to keep it in
tim In Washington City the land loan bureau
would be much larger than the state, army and
navy departments combined
As to the operation Of the bill. the committee
says: SIN cases of foreclosure, no provision is
made as to what the government should do with
the land, should any fall into its possession,
whether keep it, sell il, or give il away az free
homes teads. and it is probable that the govern
menf, within twenty years, wonld become q
large owner of unstable real estate"
Further along it says: 'sSome OF the minor
objections TO the bill might perhaps be removed
stance as unconstitutional and to the principle
involved are ineradicable."
Mr. Stanford processes to be entirely satisfied
with the report and win proceed to answer its
statements when the proper time comes. He ex-
Pected Just such report and is glad that both
himself and his opponents are on record.