Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-10

vision would be impracticable as I have had
some experience in the donation of sites
for custom houses and postoffces by town
councils. Then the provision for the man
agement of the concerns is glaringly made
ouate How could one man attend to all
the business of giving receipts showing
amount, grading, quality and value at date
of deposit: amount advanced on product;
that the interest is l per cent; amount Of
insurance, weighing, CHASING, warehousing
and other charges that will run against such
deposit2 All this work would require the
services of more than one man, so that the
expense and the number of federal appoint
ees would be increased in exact proportion
to the repositories established.
The Picker bill provides for certificate
s'showing that the site for the location has
been chosen by a popular vote of the cit
liens" and that the manager has likewise
been thus chosen, and also that bond for
title to suitable and adequate amount of
land for the location of the buildings has
been presented to the government. What
this means does not clearly appear. How
can the citizens by popular vote select a
suitable and adequate amount of land rs
site for the warehouse' Will each citizen
inspect each piece of land offered, or will
there be mass meetings TO appoint land eX-
aminers to report on each tract of land Of
fered for salel or will
THE INFLUENCE OF WEALTH
prevail2 The congress of the United States
will hardly appropriate millions of dollars
for enterprises of thia character, and then
permit the expenditure by managers chosen
by the beneticiaries so that managers
would most probably be appointed. The
second section provides for the deposit of
wheat, corn, oats or tobacco in the nearest
depository to the point of production and
the payment to the owner OF 50 per cent of
'.the net value of such products, based
- tln
kets in the United States,'' whatever that
may mean. Sections aud prescribe for
the character and denomination of the
notes to be paid out for such produce, ami
that they shall be a full legal-tender for
all debts, both public and private" and
that such notes, when held by any ma
tional banking association shall be counted
as part of its legal reserve This is a
curious provision in view of the first plank
in the Ocala platform, which demands the
abolition of national bar ks" The fifth sec
ton provides for the receipt to which |
have already referred in discussing the
managers duties.
The sixth section provides that the de-
pOsitOr or his assign may redeem his pro-
duce by ''Surrendering his warehouse re-
ceipt and the payment of the amount origi-
nally advanced and all interest accrued,
together with insurance, warehouse
and other charges for warehousing and
handling Inc money Is sent 10 Inc treas
ury. where it is destroyed.
The seventh section provides for rules
regulating the details of the management of
the repositories, such rs determining
weights and claSSihcationS by the managers
and holding them responsible on their bonds
for correctness, and for the rejection of I'M
merchantable grades, etc. 1t further pro-
vides that the secretary shall prescribe
rules for the sale ut public auction of all
q
than twelve months: and that the proceeds
shall be applied first to satisfaction of the
government: second. 1.-The balance shall be
held on deposit for the benefit of the holder
OF the warehouse receipt"
THIS SEEMS A FOOLISH
provision, as the bailor or his assignee
would har ly allow his product to be sold at
public auction if there was likely to be
balance over to his credit. He would prefer
to sell it at private sale and pay the depOSi
tory. Indeed, to my mind it is clear that
there would only be auction sales when the
market value had gone down. And then!
Who is to sustain the loss! The govern
mentl The government is but an agency.
An agency of WHAT The people, the tax
PAYERS. The government is intangible. The
government is not suscepti Bile to our senses.
1t is an ide:. The people adopt a system
whereby they agree to be governed, and
they elect certain men from among them
Selves 10 carry Oul lldt ~ oICHI. HIS
gregation of men constitute the agency of
the people. which we call the government.
Therefore, when the government suffers
it is the people who suffer; when the gov
eminent loses it is the people who lose.
The losses then which would be inevitable
under the sub-treasury plan, owing to de-
terioration in quality, diminution in guam
tity, fall in prices, mismanagement, defal
cations and other causes, would be sus-
tanned, not by the men who constitute the
government, but by the taxpayers of the
nation.
There is no provision in these bills for a
judgment against the borrowers in case the
produce fails 10 bring the amount advanced
upon it and charges. Why is this In ne
gotiations between individuals for loans, if
the security advanced fails to bring the
amount of the debt the lender can procure
a Judgment against the borrower for the
deficit.
Why should there be different rule be-
tween the government lender and the indi--
vidual borrower?
The bills provide that if there be a sur
plus the borrower or his representative
shall be entitled to it on demand. But it
fails to protect the government in case of
loss. This is wrong. It is unjust 1t is
unconscionable The truth is that the gen
tlemen who inaugurated this scheme fore
saw that the borrowers would never be in a
"
the sale of the product, and they gave
them the advantage of Z rise in price and
protected them against decline. But the
government loss would have to be paid by
them in proportion to their use of
THE NECEssARIEs OF LIFE.
The remaining sections of the bill relate
to details of an unimportant charcter.
When the parents of the sub-treasury
scheme produce such a visionary, imprac
ticable, incongruous bill to support their
offspring, they aud their followers ought
not to be proscriptionists of those who have
the honesty and the temeritY to differ from
them and to expose the weakness as well as
the gross injustice of their attempt at legis-
lation for the benefit of the farmers of the
country.
Indeed the plan would ultimately result
injuriouSly t. the cotton producers first and
to the grain producers afterwards. If all the
cotton in the country were stored for higher
prices the people here as well as abroad
would economize in their wearing apparel
and make less suffice, while the manufact-
urers of foreign countries and their gov
ernments would encourage the production
of cotton in Mexico, in the southern repub-
lies, in Africa ana in India. Favorable re-
suits would injure the cotton planter here
very materially. The same results would
follow with respect to grain, for failures
grain producer has this advantage over the
cotton planter: people must eat; they can
not patch their stomachs. The very men
that are urging our cotton planters to advo-
cate the sub-treasury scheme elected repre-
sentatiyes to congress who voted to put
binding Irvine for wheat on the free list and
IL the same act to increase the tax on cot