The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-06-16
BORROWING HONEY on LAND.
An Interesting Subject for Farmers and
Lawyers.
Manufacturers Record, June 8.

AAWy6Ibs
Manufacturers Record, June3
A carpenter, repairing fatboat moored
to the bank Of river, wished to sharpen
his chisel, and told his son to 60 ashore
and draw bucket of water from we'll
for the grindstone, which was dry.
eyes, father" said the boy, "but I can
dip it right here from the river"
"It's agood idea, my son." said the faith
or, and the grindstone was going in less
fact, it is only worth the telling as para
BILE illustrating, though inadequately, the
financial needs of the South, and the
measures proposed by our political lead
ers for relief.
The bucket Of water to bo drawn from
| the we'll may be taken as the proposed
"rree coinage bill, although the parallel
| fails hera in one important respect, for
while the water of any we'll, after it is OBJ
tanned, may be fit for grindstone use, yet
the general testimony of experts and the
palpable experience of our neighbors in
Mexico and South America at least sug-
gests question whether the waters Of free
coinage may not be very acrid and cor
roding in spite of all the vehement assur-
ance of silver producing communities.
water. Surely the issue is q very vital
one to take any risks upon, and it is far
more than mere question of conve-
nience that is involved In our finding, if
| it be possible, river from which we can
dip relief without delay, whilo we so slow
in free coinage.
Such river of relief does indeed seem
to be at our very doors, and it is most
| surprising that although other English
| speaking nations have availed themselves
| Of it's advantages for many years, we have
failed to profit by the example.
But before explaining in what it COIL
sists and giving credit to the porson who
has apparently first pointed 1t out, 1t is
necessary to explain briefly exactly what
| it is that the South needs. Itcan be stated
in two words-good collateral. For good
collateral means good credit, and good
man lacks for money who has good collat-
eral or good credit, and the man who has
! not these could get no money II there
" ere mints in every village.
Let the South, or any State In the South,
or any individual In any Southern State,
provide itself OF himself with good collat-
eral, and money will flow to seek 1t at
| rates Of interest proportional to the good
| ness. For money itself, that Is coin or
currency, is non-productive.. It only
! earns interest when 1t is lent out, and it
will seek the remotest corners of she earth
where good collateral and fair rate of in
terest can be found. It is not only the
money in the United States that the South
can draw from, but the money Of the fl
nancial centres of the world, when once
her credit is established, Steam aud
electricity have made as great revolution
=. o:o1o ~ !, how In fyoS1
portation and in the arts. The world Is
now one counting house. We can simply
speak across the counters and draw un-
| limited money from all nations II our
credit is guod, and we cannot keep what
we now have at home if our credit Is lost,
There is no "Monroe doctrine" in finan-
cial matters by which we can set up lit
tlesilver millennium all for ourselves and
ignore all the other fellows. We may all
Of US be wrong together, and most proba-
bly, are in mono-mettalism, and perhaps
in many other important matters, but In
the federation of the world" the major
ity rules, and We must bring about our
reforms by inducing others to vote with
| us, not by trying to secede. We tried
that once politically in defence Of the in
dependence which we inherited from our
fathers, but even thirty years ago the days
of independence were over. Steam and
electricity have destroyed them and have,
at least in finance, made one community
of all civilized nations. A financial seces-
sion now from the rest of the civilized
world of the United States would be
equally as disastrous as was the secession
of the South In 1861. We would be
quickly despoiled in financial war, and
would have to come back through much
SORROW and tribulation.
This is o long prologue, but the moral
Of It is that the financial relief which the
South needs is most quickly and surely
to be found in tho old-fashioned way Of
finding good collateral for what she needs
to borrow, and it remains to point out
what she has aud how to make it availa-
BILE. Her best collateral, almost her only
collateral, is her lands with their fertility,
their forests and ther mines. It is to these
alope that she is indebted for the wonder.
| full progress she has made, since the war
| loft her practically with nothing else, only
twenty-six years ago. Their value has
now been demonstrated by practical test,
| and every year the greed of the rest of the
world for what we are in position to sup
ply cheaper than any other section is in
| creasjng, Our landsar therefore hecom.
| ing moro valuable every year, and are In
trinsically excellent collateral. But there
! is one difficulty connected with their use
as collateral, which is so serious that we
can rarely use them even with our own
banks, and almost never with distant or
foreign lenders, or if at all, only at exorbi-
! tant rates.
The difficulty lies in our antiquated,
complicated, cumbersome, unnecessary
and yexations laws governing the titles 10
- 8 AZ. t.on,ro., nffood Ua boua In bar
tied from the English an idea that landed
property is so peculiarly sacred that its
owners cannot be trusted to handle 1t as
they do other property, but that there
must be special set of laws to regulate
every transaction in it. The result is that
no man, especially no foreigner, dare loan
or invest in real estate without expert or
| expensive investigation Of titles, running
| back for generations, and by some local
lawyer. The foreigner cannot employ his
own lawyer, in whom he has confidence,
| but must rely upon stranger who knows
| the ins and outs Of all the laws, decisions
and traditions Of the particular locality.
The older the State the more risk, time
and expense necessary t. make the
searches, In these days Of many oppor-
| tunities very slight increase IN the
time, risk and expense of making loans
practically bars them, and the result Is
| that as whole our lands are yaiueless as
| collateral.
But that is not all the harm, nor half Of
| it. Property which is not good collateral
will never command lis fair market value
when either choice or necessity puts it up
! for sale. The result is lower scale Of
values all aro and, low quotations and still
less valuesas collateral.
The proof of all this Is most notorious.
| This trouble exists, as above stated, in q
much less degree where States are newly
settled and titles come almost direct from
the Government of the United States. In
those States We see millions OF money
loaned by Eastern capitalists, i'm migrants
focking to buy land, and the average
prices Of lapd double and treble the price
Of better land In the South, O thousand
miles nearer the markets of the world,
and with all the conditions Of life easier
on man and beast.
Itwould be hard to estimate what is the
depreciation of Southern lands due to the
difficulty, the time and expense Of assur.
ing absolute security to capital invested
in or loaned upon them, but it Is certain
IL very large. But it is beyond question
that if we can remove these difficulties we
will do the utmost possible to provide
capital for the South, a9d that, too, on
gold basis, and without the risks and pn-
certainties of silver departure.
And it is also beyond question that all
of these difficulties may be speedily and
easily removed, In the February num-
har of the GsnEiL1u is an article bY Mr.,