Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-02-11
GOLD MORTGAGES.
What viii Be the Eject of the Free Coin
age of Silver Upon Farm Mortgages?

age of Silver Upon Farm Mortgages?
Howard L. Smith, of st. Paul, Mimi,
in letter to the Evening Post, of this
city, discussing the proposed silver leg
islation, says that probably 90 per cent
of the farm mortgages in this country
are negotiated by banks or by corpora
tions organized for that specific pur-
pose, and it has long been the custom
of lenders through these agencies to
make the mortgage debt, both princi-
pal and interest, payable in gold.
Mr.. Smith thinks it probable that
nearly IS per cent. of the mortgage in
debtedness of this country is thus made
payable in gold, though probably not
one farmer in fifty is aware of the fact.
So long as the various kinds of currency
In use were inter-convertible at par
payment in any one of them was accept
ed as a compliance with the contract;
but, says Mr.. Smith: 'AOnce let the inn
pending silver standard be reached and
gold rise to 120 or thereabouts, and
these thrifty people who are now so
anciouS to have their debts scaled down
by act of Congress- will awake to the
fact that they have been scaled up in
stead of down. We can imagine the male
dictions of the honest Granger lover of
cheap money as he passes over S12O
in silver to pay an installment of 500
interest in gold"
Mr.. Smith finds certain grim salts
faction in the situation, and says that
if the farmer were the only sufferer lit
would be poetic justice to let
him find out for himself that honesty is
4l,
others would be involved in disaster
! leads him to think that it may be wise
to throw an obstacle in the way of sill
yer legislation by offering ''an argu-
ment even to the cupidity of the dis
honest" Does Mr.. Smith regard the
process he describes as strictly honest
and honorable? He himself says that
probably not fifty per cent. of the
makers of these gold mortgages under
stood the nature of the contract they
signed. Does he imagine that this igno-
rance is accidental? Does he doubt that
the agents of the banks and mortgage
companies took pains not TO explain to
the borrowers the exact terms of the
contract? Are the farmers not likely,
when the demand for gold is made, to
raise cry that they have been fooled
and swindled?
One of the most amazing things in
modern life is the serene reliance on
law by men who take a strange salts
faction in infuriating the men who ulti-
mately make and unmake laws. The
present condition of mind among the
farmers of this country is one that
BODIES i'll to many consecrated abuses
The great mass of people are becoming
distressed and restless. Farmers and
laborers are beginning to see that the
producers have been cheated out of
their product. There is growing feel
ing among them that they are the VIC
tins of an i'll defined but all powerful
something that they call 1.-The money
power" They feel that this power con-
trolls legislation and they think that it
owns the courts. They are looking
around for remedies and they are ever
ready to accept crude plans and foolish
doctrines. Precedent has little weight
with them, and the angrier they be-
come the less they are inclined to listen
to professed counsels of reason and pru-
dence.
Mr. Smith may view with compla-
cency the prospect of the defeat of
these peoples hopes and an increase of
their burdens when they are expecting
them to be materially lightened. The
Standard, as the advocate of the steady
and gradual removal of abuses. one at
time, until justice shall be re-estab-
lished, does not share Mr.. Smiths
cheerful confidence. 1t does not look
forward with complacency to the time
when the demand is made on our i'm
poverished farmers for the fulfillment,
to the letter, of the contracts they have
unwittingly made through signing
these gold mortgages.-N. Y. Standard.
Perhaps it has not occurred to
Mr.. Smith that the people have
inaugerated an aggressive warfare
against not only the gold head,
but also the silver feet of this money
king. With gold and silver both de-
monetized legal tender paper dollar
will pay dollars worth of debt
GEoRGEC. WARD.