The farmers' union., 1891-04-09
dem that displays an ignorance that il
persisted in will lose Boston her reputa-
tion of being the Athens of America:


The trouble with this scheme is two-fold
First, 1t ignores the fact that this govern
mcnt is not pawn shop or Il loan company,
and has no business to go into mortgage
and land SpeculatlonS; secondly, 1t ignores
the other fact that the money that is to be
loaned, without interest, t. Kansas farm
ers must come mainly out OF the pockets OF
the poor people OF the east in the form OF
taXaticn on their food and clothing. Why
Should the |. ope be taxed t. pay off pri-
vate debts: They have enough to do to
pay off the public debt.
The fact of the matter is that the gov
ernment is now doing just what the
Globe says that it has no right to do. 1t
is l0aning money to the national banks
at the very per cent. that it says that
the farmers had not ought to have. Not
only that, but these same banks charge
the people on an average of 10 per cent.
before these banks will allow them to
have it to do business with, and the
banks, by the aid of this franchise, have
| compelled the American people to pay in
| round figures interest enough to enable
| these same banks to declare divi-
dends to the extent of over S.,
| 900, 100000 during the last quarter
i of century. nearly as much as the
| total debt of the whole country at the
close of the war They now have on
hand surplus Of over Sls7, ZOO, 900, un-
| divided profits to the extent Of over S7O,
900, 900 more, and the Kansas farmers
| have been taxed to this extent to meet
| it, Nearly all this has gone into the
pockets of the eastern money lenders
without any service being rendered for
the same. And what is more than this,
no one was taxed to get the principal
of this money out into the hands
of the bankers, but people were taxed to
get the interest into their pockets. Tn
der the plan proposed by Senator PETER,
the government would simply print the
money, just the same as it did for the
| bankers, i'll the form of notes, and let
| the western farmers have it on the same
plan. The only difference would be that
the mortgage of the farmer would be
| deposited in the treasury instead of the
| bond of the banker as security for the
money SO printed and put out The
| government would get just as much
| interest for the money as it now
gets from the banker for the same
privilege. The only difference is that
the Boston banker would have to go
| without the interest that he, under the
| present system, eXtorts out of the west
ern farmer. In this case the govern
ment simply does away with the middle
man in getting money out to the people.
The people of the east would not be
| taxed or robbed one cent by the opera
| ton. But. on the contrary, the masses
Of the operatives in the eastern mills
would be better off, because the
| farmer of the west would
| under this arrangement have
the money that now goes to eastern
money lenders to buy more clothing from
| the workers of the east. Bt then that is
always the cry of those who are despoil-
ing the people. Oh. the people would be
! taxed. Then again, money would be
more plenty, as the security would be
| transferred from bonds to land, ana
there is a great deal more land than
bonds. But this matter is only a vcrifi-
cation of the saying, 1T is the hit dog
that howls." The eastern money lender
is being hit by this proposition. He
knows that if this be put in operation
he will be like Othcllo, Ibis occupation
will be gone. ''--Nutio1tGt Citizens iUi
| Guce.