The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-04-21
NUMBER Is.

| AiAoiAoo a.uo e ulupIcuco WndU5
amount Of bonds amp bank de
posts, it can never get over 80 per
cent of their face value in bank
bills, for circulation; and no bank
is permitted to deposit, for circula-
ton, any more bonds than the
amount Of its capital stock. tt
may take less than 90 per cent. of
such bonds in bank bills, but it
can never get more than that
amount.
2. | again repeat that it is a
mystery to me how farmers or any
one else should think, that It
would equalize the burdens of the
whole people to have the govern
ment collect or borrow, from the
whole people, money for the pur-
pose OF loaning it to any class of
its citizens at 2 per cent. year or
for any other rate Of interest. If
the government collects such
money by taxes for the purpose of
loaning it to the farmers at 2 per
cent. a year, what right has it to
refuse to loan it to any other peo-
pie who will give security, at the
same rate? If it collects the
money from the entire people, for
the purpose of lending it, why
should it not lend the money to
any person or corporation that de-
sires cheap money, and can furnish
ample security? / understand
that the men who favor this
scheme tell US that they would not
have the money raised by taxation
for such loaning purposes, but
they would have the government
simply issue greenbacks for that
purpose. But that is only another
form of borrowing money from
the entire people for the purpose
of loaning it. Every greenback is
a promissory note of the govern
ment- that is, of the entire people.
Promissory notes should never
be issued by the government ex-
cept to meet its own necessities.
Had there never been any civil
war, had not the expenses of the
government for years exceeded all
possible revenue by enormous
sums, no one would have ever
dreamed of issuing a single green
back. The people should never
be thrown into debt by. the issue
of bonds on greenbacks, except
when the necessities of the Nation
itself require such a loan. Such
Indebtedness should never be in
CURED for the purpose of loaning
money to any one, neither to
banks, corporations or individuals.
Our objection to the loaning of
the money of the government to
borrowers is, that that is not a
proper function of government.
Government should never enter
into competition with it's own
citizens by transacting private
business. It should not grow
wheat, manufacture goods, mine
coal, do banking business, or
buy or sell merchandise. The
banks have been established in
part to loan money, and the
government should not compete
with them.
The confusion on this subject
has possibly arisen from the er-
roneous notion which is prevalent,
that the government loans money
to the National banks. It does
nothing of the kind. It never has
done it; it never ought to do it.
If law should be passed to-mor-
row, permitting every farmer in
the United States to deposit bonds
and receive blank bills on pre-
cisely the same conditions that
such blank bills are furnished to
the banks for issue, such a law
would not aid the farmer one
particle. If he had bonds to
deposit as collateral, he could get
the money, at any bank. None
but moneyed institutions can afford
to issue bills on the terms imposed
by the National Banking Law.
I know there are few people
in the United States who insist
that the money for these 2 per
cent. loans to the farmers should
not be greenbacks OF promises to
pay" but simply printed state
ments that each piece Of paper is
five dollars or ten dollars or hun
dred dollars, or whatever sum
should be named on its face; and
that such paper should be made a
legal-tender for all debts, public
and private, and never be redeem
able at any place, at any time, o..
in anything. That is the. theory
of the man that believes in fat
money.
| The theory is, to me, so absurd,
SO entirely void Of the least parti-
OF common sense. that / refuse