The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1893-06-23
Use AND ABUSE OF CREDIT.

CSE I'M ABOa3G Vf a.l6EJ(x L.
How. C1ls.s. Foster, OF OiIle, while
secretary Of Tive treasury. rs Our read
ers will remember, made all prepare
,isrs but applying his signature. Cor
issuing bonds, when President Har-
risOn put y stop 10 the ill-advised xl,xe.
Mr.. Foster had joined with ta,se who
think that becxuse the governaeat
credit is good, It "sght to be used for
wild saxseuiatidnx, and for the further
ance At the schemes Of gold gamblers.
That is, as such men seem to think,
when by honesty and business discre-
ton sound credit b maintained, that
credit ought TO be abused or destroyed
1t Tive earliest opportunity.
Tie credit Of the United States gov
eminent has a,ever yet been impaired,
and this is chiefly because it has very
rarely been used to aid adventures in
carrying out their plans. AS should
always he, it has generally been en-
pioyed to serve a legitimate purpose.
When it shall become, as It should lie
1T All early day, absolutely and per-
manently divorced from interests of a
private nature, when it shall become an
instrument to I've used only for the
benefit Of the whole people, and never
in aid of banking companies, land syn
drainage and road companies
nor for any private individual or pri-
waite corporation, We may be sure that
it never win be and never can be
no matter what tie circnm-
stances under which 1t may be dessra-
ble to use it.
Mr.. Foster has, We are sorry to
learn, failed i'm business. lie seems
to have managed his private business
according to the same plans that he
would have managed the affairs OF the
public treasury had he been allowed to
have his own way. BY inheritance
and successful business ventures he
had acquired u handsome fortune. His
credit was good. lie sought to make
use of that credit for all 1t was worth,
in conformity with the modern meth
ods of those who gain Il reputation for
being enterprising when they are only
wild and sensational. He used his
fine credit for himself, and allowed
others to I've it. Whatever valuable
Industries his adventurous spirit may
have promoted, the fact remains that
the whole chain of enterprises with
which he was either directly or indi-
rcctly interested, were promoted upon
a basis of private credit, but not upon
basis of cash. They were run upon
the false theory and the delusive hope
that cash could be raised when needed
but not upon the certainty nor even
Of a probability that it could be raised.
especially at time when few dozen
other men might want cash with which
t" meet obligations at the same time.
This condition of business matters
is the one which financial refOrmers
have for thirty years been striving to
abolish. 1t is condition which
always has existed and always will
exist when we as nation and peo-
pie are found to have made our circu-
lating medium as scarce as possible
under the pretence of tying it down to
a supposed convertibility into the one
scarce article gold, and under the fur
ther false pretence that this suicidal
proceeding is obligatory upon us as a
people in order to meet our obligations
lionorably. 1t is a condition which il
and always will he unavoidable when
we abandon the full use of silver the
same as gold, and when We wander
away from the legitimate use of the
HOtIOudl CtCNIV 0uu us&tIOlIstl W601tu, III
basis for circulating medium in snfi-
cient. quantity to make all buying and
selling u cash business. It is c0ndi-
ton which is now and always will
exist, when We try to make private
credit serve in the place Of public
credit, in business transactions.
II Mr.. Foster and his friends should
ever succeed in abusing the public
credit by Legitimate uses, rs he tried
to do before President Harrison stop
ped him, we should soon find our
nation in the same collapse RS his pri-
vate affairs now are, and the same ~
now afiicts the Argentine Republic of
South America. Western Rural.
WHAT THE SHERMAN ACTS.
Il is supposed by some that the
Sherman act makes obligatory the use
Of gold for the purchase Of silver to be