The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1895-08-01
QUESTION.
ARE WE AS A PEOPLE DEBTORS
TO GREAT BRITAIN TO THE
EXTENT CLAIMED BY THE
SILVEHTES I?
NOT IN A THOUSAND YEARS
And The Fact Is Plainly Shown In The
Following Communication.

/ Op4uIOuS duu AOlpS us W dIIlV0 dU Gut
truth or the nearest possible approach
to it. John Dough says, in his article
of last week, We owe Great Britain
FIVE billions of dollars on which we pay
annually two hundred millions of dol
lars in gold as interest" 1t beats me
to think that man will carry around
with him all day such a big night mare
to scare himself with, and make himself
tired. 1t tires me to read of such g
breed of horses. We don't owe Great
Britain a cent. The people of the
United States don't owe Great Britain
a cent All that the government OF
the United States owes to the govern
ment of Great Britain is small claim
in connection with the seal fisheries.
Railroad corporations in the United
States have borrowed money Of private
persons in England and Germany to
build and equip railroads in the United
States. This form of Indebtedness is
railroad bonds. The bonds of the
United States held abroad are not pay
able to Great Britain, they are held by
private citizens and banks in different
countries of Europe.
Our national debt represents the cost
of saving and maintaining our glorious
union, the greatest union of great states
known to ancient or modern history.
Railroad bonds represent railroads and
equipments that are earning money,
day and night, in the service Of COM
merce, and are one of the most i'm
portant elements of our civilization.
The bonds must either be paid or re-
pudiated. Common honesty says that
they must and will be paid. They are
sold every day and by every bank or
broker that deals in bonds. They are
continually changing ownership. No
president or vice president of the
United States has been elected who
has not favored the policy of maintain
ing the credit of the United States by
faithful performance of it's contracts
to pay; and believe that no man who
favors policy of reputation can ever
be elected to either of those high Off
ces. Reputation is dishonesty, and a
majority of the people are honest. Free
silver coinage, with silver made full
legal tender for all debts, is taking
fifty cents worth of silver and giving it
the power of paying one dollar of debt.
No law can give it greater purchasing
power than lies in it's intrinsic value.
The seller can, and will if he can,
double his price to get the equivalent
value in silver. "Coin" is right when
he teaches that free silver coinage with
silver made full legal tender will dou-
BILE prices.
Let us go back to the debtor I
have sold four COWS and taken the buy
er's note for $100. I am not a vile
money lender covered with the con-
tempt of the friends of free silver be-
cause | hold mans note drawing
per cent, but an honest farmer dispOs-
ing of the products of his own labor.
If fifty cents worth of silver bullion is
stamped a dollar and I am obliged to
take one hundred of them in payment
of my note, get only the value of fifty
honest dollars for my four cows And
the one hundred pieces of money will
only buy as much goods as fifty honest
dollars would buy. Suppose you have
one hundred dollars deposited in g
bank; the bank is your debtor, you are
its creditor. For your certificate il
hands you over one hundred pieces q
silver stamped one dollar. You woulC
have to use the precaution to take &
bag or basket with you to the bank, az
they would more than fill your pockets
and your hat. If it were thousand
dollars you would have to hire a dray
to draw the dishonest money home anC
then if you had no mortgage to pay
you could get it into circulation by dis
tributing it to the poor. Coin says it il
the poor mans money.
Now let us take up the question O
interest, the enormous interest we pay
annually If believed as John Dough
does it would scare me to death. The
wild statements he makes are evidence
that he himself is scared all but tt
death. He says we pay on our foreign
| debt two hundred million dollars annu.
| ally and pay it in gold; that we pro.
| duce but fifty millions of it and have tc
borrow the other one hundred and fifty
millions. The simple facts are that We
have not only paid our interest, but q
large part of our national debt, and un.
til the past year have not borrowed {
dollar and but small part of it ha.
been paid in gold. 1t has been paid il
cotton. corn, -four butter and beef No
only has the United States reduced it,
Indebtedness, but SO have large num-