The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-08-20

i Catechisln for the Advocates of the
Scheme-Can they Answer:
IGreenville News.

LGreenville News.]
Pickens county has been getting d
pretty heavy dose of sub.treasury ora
tory. Now we would like the people
of Pickens 10 honestly ask themselves
and answer few questions:
First, is it true that they have been
growing poorer ever since the war?
Do they not know men whose con-
dition has been steadily improving
ever since the war? Have they not in
every neighborhood farmers who have
made and kept money by farming
since the war?
Are not the general conditions of the
country and people improved? Do they
not live in better houses, eat better
food, wear better clothes than few
years ago? Are they not learning more,
are their churches not better, has ncS
the entire country improved, except
where it was injured by thriftless col
ored tenant labor: and all in spite Of a
tax rate the highest in the State, on
account of railroad subscriptions?
How many Of the men who listened
to Lecturer Jeffries and Colonel Keitt
can figure out how the land loan and
sub-treasury would help them?
In the Fall everybody who has cot
ton can get money either by selling or
by borrowing on the staple. The pinch,
the time when poor men need to be
helped, is in the summer. The sub
treasury would not lend on liens or
chattel mortgages or personal cred It
would run out of business the men who
Go. Even the alliance stores and ex-
changes would deal only for cash.
Would anybody be helped by the
land loan scheme but those who have
land already mortgaged or who own
land and desire to borrow on it to lend
at higher rates to their neighbors?
Would not the ability to borrow
money on land at two per cent make
men who have land hold it tighter?
Would it not make it harder for the
poor man to buy land?
Suppose Pickens County grows 10000
bales of cotton at $40 a bale. When
that is sold outright it puts $4,000 in
the bands OF Pickens people. Suppose
they all used the sub-treasury, drawing
only eighty per cent. of the value. That
would put only S320,C00 in the hands
of Pickens people, wouldn't it? And
interest and insurance would Lave to
be taken from that.
Sub-treasury advocates tell you their
scheme would make money more abun-
dant. How do they get over these
figures or make eighty per cent. as
much as hundred? Ask them.
If your cotton rose in price you would
be winner. If it went down you would
be loser. Did you ever try holding
cottoL for a rise? How did you come
out? Judge the future by the past.
If every man whose land is mort
gagged now borrowed money from the
government on it, who would set that
money? The holder Of the mortgage,
the man to whom the money is due.
Would you get a dollar Of it? How?
Does the mortgage holder owe you any
thing? Have you anything he wants
to buy? Do you reckon he is going to
be so flush with it that he'll give you a
few hats full? The land holder who is
under mortgage will have his debt
transferred from the private lender to
the government, his time extended
and his interest reduced. That is all
right for him if debasement of the cur
rency doesn't ruin all together, but
how will it help the free land owner or
non land owner?
And you man who work occasionally
or regularly for wages: Is it not to your
interest to have the dollar put in your
hand a sure, solid, full dollar, worth
one hundred cents at the store or any
where else, now and twenty years
hence, if you can lay by dollar now
and then? Can you afford t. risk hav-
ing your dollar you have worked for
discounted ten or twenty or thirty
cents, Or to find when the rainy day
you have provided for comes that your
dollar is good only for half a dollar, al
though you have done dollars worth
Of work, put dollars worth of your
time and muscle in it? Don't you know
that wages are always the last thing to
rise? Don't you know you and your
family will suffer if you are earning,
only the same dollar you now earn
while prices are kiting up and your
dollar will pay for only half the food
and clothes it buys now?
These questions may be taken, an
swered and thought over in other
places besides Pickens.
Sell When There's a Demand.