The representative., 1894-05-16

WHeu w eSteTn banks WlShed to borrow
money, they rediscounted the securities
taken. They now obtain the loan by issu-
ing certificates of deposits with securities
as collateral instead of notes or indorsed
paper, and it shows up much. nicer in the
bank statement. 1t locks as though their
customers had money aad were depositing
it with them when in really it represents
nothing but borrowed Eastern money One
of the Aurora banks had sixty thousand
dollars of demand certificates" at it's last
statement. Multiply this prosperous ex-
ample by the nine banks Of Ham ltcn county
and the ninety counties Eof the state and
you may not hear 'muffied sobs," but will
see the vanishing bank account of which
Nebraska farmers hear So much but check
against so little The real amount that
Nebraska business men,. capitalists, and
farmers combined muster, is probably
more nearly shown in the true deposits,
which will aggregate less than one hundred
and seventy-five thousand dollars for this
county. To sum the matter up, the profits
of farming, outside of the increment arising
from increase in the value of land are not
large.
The report of the Bureau of Labor Statis-
tics for Nebraska for 1892 page 1877, shows
that the average cost of raising an acre of
of corn in Hamilton county is seven. dollars
and three cents. The report of the secretary
of agriculture, for $780, page 1885, says the
average value of Nebraska corn for nine
years, between 1880 and $780, was seven dol
lars and fifty-eight cents per acre. The
chief crop of the whole state is corn. This
fact is also proven by noting how few mort
cages are paid unless land is sold or the
owner comes into possession of an inher-
tance
What Nebraska needs is good prices for
her products. What her common people
fear is low prices for products. The cause
OF low prices is treated of far better than
l can speak of it in Jerry Rusk's report
for 1890, pages and s.
What We fear is a gold standard that will
ruin our markets, and eventually take from
us our homes. Gold mortgages menace our
future, and are being put upon the land
as fast as argument and ingenuity can get
people who need money to sign them. /
enclose you two of them, that you may
notice the tricks and devices resorted to to
deceive people into giving them. In the
one the words are run closely together in a
script difficult to read, and the gold clause
is put in with caret, in small. light-face
type. In the other yellowish BACKGROUND
is used so as to make it difficult to read
The same company issues mortgage with
out gold clause for certain loans, and this
is printed on pure white paper, heavy
script, good space between words, and is
very easy to read and understand. Still
another company has the gold clause in
large skeleton condensed letters running
through the bond, across all the lines that
no one notices unless attention is called to
it. In many cases the agent has the farmer
read the mortgage through 1aboriously and
it is signed when found to contain nothing
about gold, the signer and his wife never
dreaming about gold clause in the bond
or real contract. | also enclose a letter
which you may publish if you wish show
ing how particular some companies are to
get the gold clause.
I notice your answer ably called attention
to the deeds made to save foreclosure, and
| enclose copy of letter received by Mr.
L., of this county, to show that the sugges-
ton to deed sometimes comes from the
company. 1t is from the office of the New
England Loan and Trust Company of Des
Moines Iowa, and reads as follows:
I'VE again call your attention to the fact
that you have not yet forwarded your in
terest although long past due. Under the
provisions of the mortgage failure to paw
interest promptly makes the7whole sum due
and payable; and unless the coupon to-
gether with accrued interest be paid at
once, we shall institute proceedings to fore
close the mortgage. Perhaps it would be
better for you to deed the farm to us and
save the trouble and, annoyance of fore
closure. Let us hear from you mmedi-
ately.' j.
The cream of the discussion as to whether
the people of Nebraska are prosperous can
be arrived at by determining, first as to
whether her principal business farmine) is
pursued at an average profit under present
conditions. The reports published bv the
party of which Mr.. Evans is a member
say no. a, .ts
Second, whether a whole we are using
the rise in the value of our lands to get
out of debt and change conditions so we
can do business at profit.
The PoouliSt legislature 1891, passed a
law to give us some facts on this head SO
we are not left entirely to conjecture
Each county clerk is required to make a
monthly report of mortgages and releases.
Mortgages are always new, but releases
may be of any age, and on chattels- (where
the law does not require lender to file a
release unless demanded by the borrower),
they are frequently years old. They go in
just the same; and in fact the bankers of
this county gathered up lot of these old
releases and fired them in just before cleo
ton to make a big showing. The amount
ran away up into the thousands, and was
used as prosperity argument all over the
state, finally reaching the reviews They
evade in this way.
They have also recently got out ere
newal bond'' to take the place of mortga ges
SO that what is practically new mortgage
will be kept out of the report and make no
showing. l enclose you one of these renewal
bonds, that you may how much they
dread the light of true investigation This
is not all. At Kearney, am told, additions
are laid out with a blanket mortgage COW
ering them. When any man pays for his
little home, this big mortgage is on the
payment of his few hundred dollars, released
to him and his heirs, and fifty or seventy
five thousand dollars goes blithely into the
column of Mortgages Paid" In spite of
the efforts to dodge, you will find on pages
SO to 140 of the Bureau of Industrial Statis-
tics for 1892 that the state was sixteen
million, nine hundred and eighty-three
thousand four hundred and twenty dollars
deeper in debt than at the beginning of the
year, and that our own county of Hamilton
was over two hundred and seventeen thou
sand dollars farther behind than ever be
fore. Are we a prosperous people?
The optimistic party stands for a contin-
uation of past conditions; for continued
tribute to wealth. for half truths and de-
ception regarding the condition and gov
ernment of state and nation.
The Populist idea opposes all these be-
lieves in real equality before the law,
and the happiness of the many rather than
the few: condition where the laborer and
producer will be writing of the prosperity
of the country, and the parasites of society
will not so frequently be the ones to hymn
praises to the governing powers.
The reader will naturally ask: If The
Arena article and this letter show a ten
dency to amass wealth in the hands of the
few, what can be done? To strike anyhow?
That will give temporary relief at most
To seize the property of the rich? Oh, no!
That is wrong in principle, destructive to
good government, and unworthy the thoug It
of free people. No, none of these. The
men Of the West and South are for certain
principles: Free coinage Of silver, govern
ment ownership of the Instruments of COM
merce, the initiative, the referendum the
imperative mandate, proportional represen-
tation. Very truly yours,
''f' F. M. HOWARD.
Aurora, Neb., March 13, 1893.
PARALLEL