New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-04-19
THE RIPdCIOUS MOR1CAGEF.

If we may credit the assertion OF Governor
Stone Of Missouri and Of 1.-The 81. Lonis Re-
public" which we presume from the aacrty
with which it comes to his support is his home
organ it is the prevailing opinion in the West
and Southwest or at any rate in the state Of
Missouri. that the man who holds mortgage
on farm lands in the Mississippi Valley is ncces-
sarily "ipso facto'' bad man. deserving not
only of severest censuro but Of condign pun
ishment. Governor stone, in speech made
a week or two ago at the annual banquet OF
the Ncw-Yorll Board Of Trade, after giving
some statistics concerning the amount OF mort
cages with which the honest and industrious
farmers in his section were oppressed, informed
his hearers in what he called "homely and nm
dipomatcr language that his constituents were
getting very weary Of "existng economic and
trade systems" and were liable, ii this state
of things continued, to :" lay their hands On the
National Treasury and edo other things not
much thought of now along the Atlantic sea-
board" lie did not state precisely what the
objections were to the existing economic and
trade systems" contentng himself with the
simple proposition that the people OF his Sec
ton considered themselves under these sys-
tens the victims of hostile discrimination. "
We infer, however, from the general tenor CT
his discourse that the main objection to these
systems is that they include the payment OF
debts. There seemed to us to be slight flavor
Of the Jesse James gang in the threat OF the
Governor to 81 lay hands on the National Treas
ury," and we said so at the time.
Now comes "Thc st. Louis Republic with
Al hat ho ~ Wnll
Street and Boston is stealing millions where
our Missouri robbers stole hundreds "They
hold" it says with rising Indignation, lover
two thousand million dollars in mortgages on
which the labor OF the Mississippi Valley pays
the INTEREST," This is hard state OF things
surely. 1t is a large amount Of money to pay
interest on. And the question naturally arises,
as soon as ones Indignation at the Oppressor
slackens for q moment and sympathy with the
oppressed takes n rest, how there came to be
this enormous mortgage debt. Did the Wall
Street and Boston robbers 60 out there with
their "existing economic and trade systems"
and their hostile determinations and put
these mortgages on the lands in the Mississippi
Valley without consultation with the owners
Did the industrious farmers find their lands
when they took possession and began cult
waiting them? Where and when did this rob
berry begin? Were the mortgages given with
out any consideration? by what right or
scmblancc Of right do the robbers of Wall
Street and Boston demand interest on these
two thousand million dollars and over? Have
they taken no risk advanced no money out of
their own pockets? Are they trying to reap
where they have not sOwn? What, in short,
do the two thousand millions stand for?
Unless we are greatly mistaken. the two
thousand million dollars in mortgages stand for
two thousand million dollars in honest money
which the holders of the mortgages lent to
the mcItgageors. The latter wanted money
they borrowed it, Borrowed it of these mort
gagecs on the security afforded by the mort
Cages of their lands. They have had the money
and the use of it; have kept it and increased
it, or through no fault of the lender have lost
it. Is not this the way the case stands between
these borrowers and lenders2 One has lent