Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1893-06-29
BORROWING AND LOANING.

hAOA N6oSO ioHo, ohOolo AN11NCS - Inv
ment:
Do we want to build up a state of
'borrowers?" Do we want to encour-
age men to go in debt. to speculate on
borrowed" capital, instead of using
their energies to make, earn, accumu-
late money? Is it we'll to always speak
as though it was positively necessary
for Kansas men to borrow" money in
order to make living and build up
home?
Has not Kansas the most productive
soil in the world. the most energetic,
persevering, undismayed class of peo-
pie known to the nation? Why then
should we whine and fret about our in
ability to borrow eastern money,
when we are surrounded with all the
necessary elements that enable man to
create values, to earn money.
Kansas has been too much of a s'bor-
rover" in the past. She has. borrowed" !"
recklessly, extravigantly and unneces-
sarily. We doubt if there is a reader
of this paper who does not have per-
sonal knowledge of some loan being
negotiated a few years ago that was
unnecessary, unwise from a conserva-
tive business standpoint. And that
| mania, craze, OF fashion of borrow
| ing" all the money one could get on
| the security he had to offer was encour-
aged by the men who handled the
| money of the fasteners. In many in
stances man who decided that he
could safely assume debt of $500 Or
$1,000. eventually obligated himself to
pay double the amount though he really
could have got along with the sum he
| first decided to ask for. The loan
agent was looking out for No. 1; he
got commission on all the money he
loaned, and the larger the loan the
fatter the commission; hence the
anxiety of the men to place the money
| and the great inducement for people to
go into debt.
| We do not want to be understood as
saying that Kansas did not or does not
now find good use for eastern money.
| There is no western state but what
| needs capital to interest itself within
| its borders. But let us endeavor to
get eastern money here with eastern
men; men who will handle their own
money and keep it at work in Kansas.
Let us not encourage the ''borrowiDg''
| class, but the ''investing." Those of
our people who are deeply in debt can
get out of debt, even if they have to
sell out or be sold out. And it would
be better for many men if they wiped
out the old scores with their entire pos
sessions, and started in afresh at the
bottom, rather than to renew the bond
age for another lease of years and con-
tinue to belong to the vast and always
impecuneous class Of borrowers.
! The American citizen is proudest
when he owns values-not when he is
simply using someone else's property
and paying rent for the use Of it-fol
| interest is the same as rent. A renter
is never independent; an owner is. A
renter farmer cannot figure up the
number of bushels of wheat or corn he
has, the value of his stock ETC., and
know that it is his; for a part Of it
and too often a major part, belongs tC
the man he is renting from. A farmer
who has borrowed thousaDd dollars
and mortgaged his farm to secure the
payment of it cannot possess the feel
ing that the farm is wholely his, mol
can he take the pride in improving il
and developing it that he would were
it unencumbered.
Kansas wants less of eastern capita
that is but temporarily with us anc
that stalks about as relentless tax
gatherer; less of migratory dollars anG
more of the resident dollars; fewer
borrowers" and more home makers
farmers.
There are two or three townships il
this county where not one man in ter
has mortgage on his home; and those
localities are standing examples O.
thrift and prosperity. The more theil
example is emulated by our peopl,
generally the less we will need to ''bor
row" eastern capital.
If every quarter section liz thi
county was owned and operated by ;
man who would forever refuse to put
plaster on it to draw out the best par
of its products in interest, this woult
be the most prosperous county in th,
whole land. If every merchant II
every town in the county would deter
mine to never enlarge his busines
with some other mans money tn
: towns would never know failure anC
: no business would be overdone.
l Cease that bellyaching about not be
ing able to borrow the boarded gold O
: the east, and encourage men to worl
their own capital and depend upol
their own prolific land for means O
3 living and accumulating wealth; and i
time the much talked of eastern none