The Progress., 1893-07-29

tiiItNl dlblIitS.
You speak of the den.or class
Would it be sound policy and good
morals for the government to assist a
species Of socialism aud dishonesty
by furnishing to them to the debtor
class coin of less value than 'hey
received wherewith to cancel mot to
pay their obligation ?"
This is sad jumble Of assUmp-
tions and metaphysics. You assume
|. That the debts of the debtor
class represent coins actually received
. That those coins were more val
uable than some other coins pre-
sumably would be.
3. You join together socialism and
dishonesty, intimating that they are
of like Significance.
1. You assume that it would be so
cialstic and dishonest for a debtor to
discharge a debt in way that the
sovereign power-the government
should say it might be discharged
l will kindly ask you to establish
these assumptions.
TO put. however, a liberal cons!ruc-
ton upon your query | will concede
that you ask whether it would be
sound policy and good morals for the
government to legislate so as to make
the discharge of debts more easily
accomplished. that is ''to cancel mot
to pay) obligations" | will answer
tia: governments have done so ever
since the days of the Jewish nation
Such is the effect of bankrupt and in
solvent debtor laws, of assignment
laws of the statutes Of Limitations
and exemptions and usury laws. Ii
it be not sound policy and not good
morals, governments and the people
creating them have been a long time
making the discovery.
Assuming or conceding that the
free coinage of silver dollars fav0rs
the debtor class assumes or comedies
that not TO coin them favors the cred
itor class | will therefore assert that
it is quite as sound policy and good
morals to favor the debtor class now
by re-establi5hing the coinage of sill
yer dollars as it was to favor the cred
itor class twenty years ago by discs
tablishing their coinage.
"Who is the debtor class?" The
class who owe debts, of course.
DO not banks and big corporations
constitute, to a great extent, the debt
or classp ~
No. Theoretically banks owe no
debts and in practice very seldom
They undertake to receive and safely
keep whatever their customers en-
trust to them and return it on call or
at a time agreed upon. Customers
can and many do demand of and OBJ
ligate the bank to return the identical
thing deposited or its equivalent.
When money is deposited as money,
banks assume that it will not AL be
called for at once and loan a part of
it. What they receive and undertake
10 return 20 the depositors thereof
are their liabilities and the evidences
hey accept of loans are the assets.
These are supposed to and in prac-
ice do offset each other.
Big corporations owe debts, that is
hey are instruments, in practice,
which the owners and managers use
Tor creating debts to themselves for
he people to pay. Right here, will
-emark, is where one of the big
kicks" comes in on the financial
problem. The big corporations man
ayers aud msnipulators who owe the |
lebts they have created in the names
If their corporations to be paid by |
he people, want to ''crowd all the hog
hey can into the dollar" eat as much
If the hog as they desire and the
,alance-well look around and see
What is done with it,
Wouldn't they reap a rich harvest
they could pay their depositors and
,eneral creditors in cheap four-bit
lollarsi
If their debtors did not pay in the
anne soon, yes. If they did, no.
Doas NOT tho craditor class consist