The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1894-12-13

Those who owe money, though they may
be possessed Of real wealth in excess OF
their debts, lose their all. They lose be-
cause they must get the money, and
money costs more of those things which
they have than 1t did when they Dor
rowed the money to buy those things.
The money values OF all things are upset.
The reason Of all this is the locking up
Of money, which destroyed credit. 1t
must be 30. The ability and will to work
and produce are as great as ever; the
wants Of men are the same; men are not
idle or starving from choice. Il is be-
cause they cannot get the money to buy
these things, that they do without them.
The money makers, the laborers and mid
die business men, can't get the money
with which to carry on the creation Of
wealth-because the money owners have
lost confidence in the value of things.
1t has been estimated that over SO per
cent. OF the wealth Of this country con-
sists OF real estate. This is the form of
wealth which the enormous majority OF
the people consider the best form. II is
the investment which the heart and
judgment OF man will always hold tn be
the most desirable. And yet real estate
will not bring nearly as much money as
it used to. The reason why the money
value Of real estate has declined is be-
cause it will not produce the amount OF
money either from rents or sale OF pro-
ducts that it did and should. I'm the
case Of unimproved real estate there Is
no demand at all, and ii has practically
no present money value.) The reason of
this 10 that business is curtailed, con-
sumption and demand are diminished,
improvement Is at q standstill The rea-
son, we have seen, for this curtailment
and diminution is that money is locked
up and credit 10 dead. Now why is the
money locked up? Locking it up does
no good in the world. When locked up,
| money does not earn interest. The only
object there can be in locking it up is to
increase its value and so make it bring 10
more, or to save it.
The money owners know that there
is 30 little money that whenever credit is
threatened every one will try to get money
in order to pay his debts, carry on his
business and supply his exchange needs.
Before he did much Of this work on credit.
which was easily obtained on his prop
erty. But now the mischief is in the air,
he can't get credit ne must have money.
There is not nearly enough, and the uni.
versal demand results in increasing its
value. The money owner will not let it
90 any further than to point whence he
can quickly draw 1t back. The creation
of wealth and the distribution necessary
before returns can be got are not affairs
Of q few months, and, therefore, the
money is as utterly unavailable for these
purposes as though it did not exist.
The measure of a sufficient supply OF
money Ia evidently not whether it will do
the work when credit is inflated, but
whether it will do it at all times. In other
words, whether there lie money enough
TO carry the necessary amount of credit
safely. Credit is elastic, and due vol
ume of it is blessing, but inflated credit
Is deadly menace to sound business
Nothing but plentiful money, or disaster,
will keep credit within bounds.
Is it not fact that production OF
money has not kept pace with the pro-
duction of other things? Does not COM
mon sense force us to the conclusion that
there 10 so little money compared with
the demand and ures for 1t, that it is no
longer possible to carry on business fairly
and uninterruptedly without an increased
supply? II there 10 plenty of money in
this country why do we run to English
capital to float every new scheme? East
and west the story is the same. We VEN
ture to say there has not been big irriga-
ton scheme in the arid belt, legitimate
and sound as these may he. that has not
fioated, or tried to float its bonds on for
eigu capital. We are getting deeper and
deeper into England's debt and are leav-
ing the immense stores Of silver :money
with which nature has lowered us buried
in the earth--storss that were gwen us
In the great plan OF human development
to add to our strength. What unspeak-
able follvt