The McCook tribune., 1891-01-09

terest) he will return 1t to the people by
funding it In United States bonds Safety
fund notes), and some other individual VIII
have a chance to try his hand at using the
money to advantage, the interest he pays to
the people balancing the interest paid by the
people to the other individual, the people
charging in each case small fee for attend
ing to the business. Thus would be provided
a flexible volume of currency which would
automatically adjust itself to the demands OF
business and productive industry, and the
term per capita circulation would become
obsolete and fall into "innocuous desue-
tude."
This is as far as / have advanced in my
study of the question, and am not yet pre-
pared to admit that the people could advan-
tageously use the enormous volume of cur
rency, the interest upon which at two per
cent would pay the expenses of our National
Government; while, at the same time, can
see no provision whatever in Mr. Maybelfs g
plan for the payment of State, county and
municipal expenses. Nor do consider 1t
either proper or practical to keep our whole
landed estate under perpetual mortgage in
order to provide such money. Moreover, each
dollar when it leaves the land owners hands,
and forever afterwards, must represent labor
performed. Bear that in mind.
1t is said by those who pretend to know,
that, as a rule, the farmers of the United
States are working their lands at a loss in
stead of a profit. If this be the case, the
farming lands of the Nation, under the pres
ent system, are worthless to their owners,
but source of profit to the money lenders
who hold mortgages upon them. There are
two prominent and plainly revealed factors
which work together to produce this de-
plorable result.
First. The fact that the farms are, as rule,
mortgaged at an average rate of interest OF,
..-.lxk mod frry
the people at two per cent, with which to
pay the present mortgages, would at once
place six per cent. upon the right side of the
ledger upon such portion of the value of the
farm as is represented by the mortgage.
This might turn the scale, and cause the
farm to be opened at small profit.
Second. But first in fact, is the cause
which produced this condition of universal
mortgage indebtedness. The cause is this:
The farmer, during the period of sixty or
ninety days, must dump upon speculative
market, to be handled by an infiexible, rigid
volume of currency, the worlds supply Of
grain for the next twelve months A farm
already mortgaged to the people for money
to pay off the present existing mortgages,
will not afford security for any further loan.
Nothing but the sub-treasury plan, or some
thing like it, will save the farmer from utter
ruin. But if all land were now paying the
that legal rate averages six per cent, then,
If the rate of interest is reduced to two
per cent, land at once will treble its
value, as land is worth that amount of money
upon which it will pay the legal, current
rate of interest. And Il believe) the price
of labor, and of all the products of labor,
would at once be increased three fold. But
labor would get much larger proportion of
it's product than now, because profit and in
terest would each absorb but two per cent,
while nows they each absorb six per cent
Difference in favor of labor eight per cent.
Interest is the root of all evil. The land
owning farmer, occupying his own farm,
represents in his own proper person both
labor and rent, hence rent as factor cuts
no figure with him, the receipt of rent, or in
terest upon the value of his farm, being de-
pendent on the price of his products, as af
fixed by supply and demand. To all others
the effect of the factor, rent, would remain
the same, land simply increasing in value as
the rate of interest was lowered.
Now, then, Brother Maybell says our Glands
and forests are worth S15, ,O00, 100000 If, then,
the rate of intesest is established at two per
cent, our lands and forests, etc, Immediately
become worth S45, ,000, 900. Our national ex
penses for 1889, outside and exclusive of in
terest, premiums and sinking fund, were, in
round numbers, S250,OO0,0OO and it is esti-
mated that they will be $300,000,000 for the
year ending June 30, 1891. To furnish this
amount of interest at two per cent, it would
be necessary to keep continually in force
SIS, 900, ,000, 900 in real estate mortgages, equal
to Mr.. Maybelts present estimate of the value
of our lands and forests, and one half of the
prospective value he gives them under the
operation of the land currency system Bear
in mind that this enormous sum of S15,000,-
000, 600 must be constantly kept in the hands
of the people in order to meet the expenses
of the General Government only, not includ
ing any interest, premiums or sinking fund.
Now, if under the land currency system
this interest is paid by the individual to the
county, by the county to the State, and by
the State to the General Government, in
what manner is it expected that this interest
will pay the salaries of county and State Of
ficers, support the public schools and other
public institutions, and maintain the roads?
In short where is the income to come from
that we now derive from what we call State,
county, school and road taxes? Even if it
would do to increase such an enormous vol
ume of currency as 5000, 900, it would
not avail any thing, as interest due the Cen
eral Government could not be used to pay
State and county expenses But would it be
possible for the people to use even so much
as $4,000, ,OOO, 600 of circulating media? 1t
amounts to about $3.50 per capita, or, assum-
ing that there are 100000 of workers in the
UnlCeQ SCaCeS, IL Is u IrdcIlOn more tudH %
per day for each worker, for each working
day in the year 1t sounds "big" to me, and
yet that may be simply the effect of what
Brother Maybell calls estimating in the
old,'' i. e., the force of habit and drift of
habitual thought.
1t may be urged that if the truth were
known $4,000, 900 is not much more than
the present mortgage burdens upon our
lands. This is perhaps true, but that in
debtedness represents the same 81 500, ,000, 900
to s. 00O, 1000, 900, loaned over and over again,
returning each time to it's owners hands
through the medium of rent, interest, profit,
etc. But the Government, or people, in Or
der TO create an interest fund of $500 600 900
must actually loan and place in circulation,
and keep it there, S15, 100000, as the Gov
ernment has no means of getting money
back again, when once loaned, until it is re-
paid at maturity. And we are losing sight of
another startling and portentious fact, to
wit: If by reducing interest from six to two
per cent, we make land worth s. where it is
now worth 81, and raise the price of labor
and its products in proportion; the expense
of Government will also be raised or in
creased, so that it may take nearer $500 000,-
900 than SsO0,0O0 900 to pay the expenses of the
General Government. But assuming that no
evil results would follow such an enormous
augmentation of the volume of currency, and
that the people actually borrow upon the Sc
curity of their lands, such an amount of
money as that the interest at two per cent.
will pay the expenses of the Government;
we yet have the expenses of the State county
and municipal governments to provide for,
and that brings US to the subject of taxation.
T IN, Of fGn fota