The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-03-05

Judge Frisbee of POultney, has some
excellent ideas expressed below, which I
we copy from the Journal:
We haYe in the aggregate good many |
money lenders in Vermont, yet as in any |
we find but few of them. |
There is nothing disreputable about the
business. if il is honestly conducted; in |
fact we admire the man who is economi- !
cal, saves his earnings and loans what he
does not need for use at fair rate of in
terest that he may add to his property
what properly his money earns him.
The rate Of interest is fixed by law in
Vermont and most of the Eastern States;
whether it is in the Western States | do
not know, but we all know that very high
rates have been taken there. Twenty
five per cent. has not been uncommon
there and very seldom have the rates
paid been as low as six per cent, Mil
hons of dollars have been loanedb by Yer
monters to parties in the West. 1t is
impossible to make an accurate estimate,
for when the listers come around all are
under oath to disclose their property, but
do not tell where it is. But these high
rates of interest at the West will have an
end; how soon we don't know, but we
know the high rates are already ON the
0OH0W klNts lll6 htblCIU nave
made it their business not to accumulate
money, but by hook or by crook to get
title to all lands they could-though they
cover them with mortgages so as ulti-
mately to make themselves rich on the
rise of those lands. There is some terri
tory left of unsettled lands at the West
though the best lands are taken. Now
then, observing men will from this time
on, till it comes, look for this change
The time will come when the West will
have money of its own, and will not be
obliged to borrow of the Eastern capital
lists-when the Eastern capital will be
withdrawn and invested at home in the
East, where it should have remained.
Emigration from the East to the West
that is the great rush, will cease. Men
will begin to farm it with the conviction
that success in that pursuit will come
not from the amount of lands they own,
but from the excellence in which they
till and cultivate the lands they have.
A good friend said to me the
other day, providence orders all things
for the best and if He put it into the
hearts of so many Eastern people to &c
West, and so many Eastern capitalists to
send their monoy there, you ought moi
to complain as it might have resulted in
settling the Western wilds sooner and
preparing for habitation by our rapidly
increasing population" told my friend
did not like to discuss the question in
that connection, / should be sorry to
show by word or deed any want of rever.
ence or the want of reliance upon the
Supreme Being, as the Ruler of the uni
: verse, If should see a drinking man
, while in state of intoxicatiOn, fall and
break his neck, should conclude that il
the man had kept sober, 1t would MOI
have happened. Some of the ways OF
Providence are inscrutable and past find
, ing out but in the case supposed il
seems to very clear that the man came t.
his end as penalty for the violation o.
| Gods law. If a man without meani
neglects to labor, he and his family mus
! suffer for the necessaries of life. Thi'
r too, comes from the violation of Gods
law. All matters of business must bt
{ transacted in harmony with His law, o.
( arrangement comes in some form. Jay
) Gould may overreach those with whom
) he deals, and get into his hands thou
Q sands, millions of property which h,
] never earned or honestly acquired. NJ
3 property is created in such a transaction
E lit simply comes into the hands of on,
= man, and the disturbance from diVertin,
: it from its natural and Legitimate uses b,
Q its many owners. The nearer equal il
g wealth the people of this republic can b,
= the more prosperous we shall be as
Y democracy,
c If the Vermonters who have gone Yves
r in the last fifty years had remained a
? home, and the Vermont capitalists hat
+ invested their money at home, it woulC
not be a wild estimate to say that Yer
: mont to-day would contain twice the in
Q habitants it now numbers, and that tn
: wealth of the State would be twice wha
t it now is.
9 To come back to the topic which
D have introduced, the change which
Q have introduced, the change which M,
Y prophetic eyes have seen In the future
i the time is coming when Vermonter
t will stay at home. Then instead of 90
/ ing West under the delusion of gettin
Y suddenly rich, they will settle quietl
: down among their native hills and dc
Y wise the best ways they can to accumu
5 late in sensible way by increasing pro
e duction OH their farms by good farming
e 1t may be twenty it may be forty or fit
g years before that change will come, bu
. come it will.