The advocate., 1892-02-24
Is 1T NCONSTSTENCY2

tongues and puffed out the columns OF news
papers, showing the enOrmOusneSs Of the debt
under which the people of Kansas and other az
rlcultural states are grOaning. Indebtedness Is
the burden that Is grinding the producers Of the
country down into poverty and misery, and rob-
bling them Of energy and hope and life itself. SO
We are told by the reform papers. The cOnclu-
sion follows that debt is the prime evil from
which the people are suffering and that 1t should
be avoided as poison or pestilence.
What do we ind these same reformers pre-
scrIbIng as remedy for this great evil? Meas
ures Of legislation that win place the temptation
to incur debt before the masses In It's most en-
tiCing form. The object Of the Subtreasury and
land loan schemes Is to enable the farmers TO
borrow money with the least trouble anda the
smallest cost. Under measures of this sort ev-
cry farmer who possessed twenty acres Of un-
lncumbered land would be tempted to mortgage
1t and enjoy the use Of the money to be borrowed
upon such favorable terms In five years every
farm In the United States would have q plaster
upon it, and the sum total of mortgage indebted
ness which now seems 80 appalling In its vast.
ness, would be multiplied fifty fold.
The RepWbl ltCGB does not say that interest
should not be lowered II practicable. 1t tiS not
champion of high interest rates. But It submits
as question worthy Of consideration, whether
the Alliance is not proposing as q remedy for
popular Ills, scheme that win inevitably aug
ment and aggraVate those Ills? ISit not pr0pOs-
Ing to Lift the farmers out Of debt by the appn-
cation Of principle that Is calculated to plunge
them deeper into debt9- -EmpOrtG Republican.
No, it is not inconsistency. The
fact is spparant, and cannot be de-
MED, that the debt above alluded to
exists. The mortgage hangs like a
dark and threatening cloud over a
majority of the homes Of this land
Not only are the interest charges ex-
orbitant upon this debt, but the debt
isrspidly coming due, and the peo-
pie are unprepared to pay 1t; and we
have the authority Of the Topeka
Capital in an editorial in the issue Of
the 18th inst, that the people are be-
ing robbed by the mortgage compa-
MES in consequence of their inability
to pay. Farms and homes upon
which loans have been granted, and
which, under the rules laid down by
mortgage companies, are not incum-
bered above one-third of their value,
are put up at sheriff's sale and sold
for q song, leaving Judgment un-
paid hanging over the head OF the
mortgagor in some instances equal to
the mortgage itself. The intent Of
the Legislation the Republican refers
TO, is to enable the people to obtain
money from another source than from
these highway robbers to lift the
debt with which they are nouv bur-
dened, relieve them from extortionate
interest charges, and extend the tune
Of payment. 1t is not, as the Repub-
Hcan, in the blindness of its partisan |
zeal would have its readers believe,
to tempt men to borrow money to
squsnder in reckless indulgences, but |
simply to enable them to save their
homes. The Republican insults the
intelligence Of every man and woman
in the state by the insinustion that
they are so devoid of judgment and
Of common prudence as to borrow
money for such purposes as indicated
In the editorial quoted from it's col
umns.