The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1895-06-04

Ito of 10 to all tho various kinds of cur.
rency in use by the people, including the
silver dollar itself, would be worth less
than It is now, for Of course II this is NOT
TO be the result money would be no cheap.
er than it is now TO assert that the people
are in debt Is simply to say that they have
traded with each other on credit that one
part OF our fellow citizens, relying upotH
the integrity and financial standing Of
their neighbors and acquaintance have
lent them money on time and sold propert
ty to them without demanding immediate
payment in cash, and that in this way they
have enabled many people to carry on a
useful business and live in comfortable
homes who otherwise could not have done
SO. II. it is a crime to lend money to a
man who wants to borrow it or to sell
property on credit to man who wants to
purchase 1t and has no ready money to paw
for it, let the perpetrators be properly pun
ished, but let us not involve the whole
country in confusion and disaster and ims
molate the innocent and guilty alike in
order TO punish the real offenders. If our
people are in debt, they owe each other, and
consequently about as many would be ac-
tually injured as would be apparently ben.
Gifted by scaling the obligations down to a
silver standard.
No Distinct Debtor Glass.
The Indebtedness of the farmers, Ne.
chanics and other laboring classes OF our
people, although large in the aggregate, iS
quite small in comparison with the whole
Indebtedness of the great railroad and
manufacturing corporations, the national
and state banks, savings institutions, trust
companies, insurance companies, building
associations and other organizations en-
gagged In financial and commercial enter
prises. These various organizations are iys
debted to the people to the extent of many
billions of dollars, and while it is true
that many of the people are also indebted
to them their debtors and creditors are not
the same persons, and therefore the debts
cannot be set off against each other and
extinguished in that way. l deny that
there is any such thing as a distinct debt
or class in this country, for, while nearly
every one owes some debts, large or small
nearly every one has also some debts owing
to HMM other words he is both debtor
and creditor.
The laboring people, as a general rule
owe very little at any one time, while their
employers are always indebted to them,
because wages are not paid in advance,
and besides, many of them have small de-
posits in savings and other banks, in trust
companies, in building associations, and
large numbers of them have their lives in,.
sured for the benefit of their wives and chill Z
dren, and consequently they are creditors
of the banks and the insurance companies
The savings bank depositors in this
country last year numbered 4, AZ, 6S7, and
the wives and children of the depositors
who depended upon these accumulated
earnings for future support doubtless num-
bered 10, 600, 600 more. There We're /, 925,-
$40 depostors in the national banks last
year, and 1,724,077 of them had depoSNs
of less than 81, 900 each, while state and
private banks and loan and trust COM
panies held deposits for 1, 436, 63S people.v
The building and loan associations had
nearly 2,000,0 600 members, all of whom
had paid their money mas required by the
rules of the body to which they belonged.
Here, then, are about 81 100000 of our
people, generally poor or at least people Of
moderate means, who have given credit to-
these great corporations and companies
and, in my opinion, it would be grievous
wrong to adopt any policy which would
deprive them of the legal right to demand
and receive just as good money as they
parted with when they made the deposits
in the banks or paid the premiums on their
insurance policies. The hard earned saw
ings of the poor ought not to be sacrificed
to the avarice of the wealthy mine owners
or the ambition of aspiring politicians, and
if the people who have substantial inter-
est in the welfare of the country and Just
appreciation of their responsibilities as cit
liens will exert their proper influence in
public affairs this great wrong can never
be perpetrated.
Preserve the Standard of Value.
Mr.. President, but little remains for mo,
to say before bringing those remarks TO u
conclusion. 1t is not my purpose to dis
cuss upon this occasion the various propo7
sitions which have been made from time
to time for the improvement of our bank
ing system or Ser the retirement of United
States notes because the questions involv-
ed in them are so important and so large
that they cannot be properly considered in
with the subject to which my
time has been devoted. We have an album
dance of money in this country for all the
purposes of trade, and the disturbances
and hard times of 1898 and 1894 were not
caused by scarcity or contraction Of The
but by a contraction of credit re-
Sulting from q loss of confidence in the sta
bility and value of our currency.
So far as the mere volume of our cur
rency is concerned, we had then and have.
now an ample supply for all necessary pur-
poses, but under the existing system it is
not properly distributed and is not sufii-
GENTLY elastic TO meet all the changing re-
luirements of business at different periods
Of the year. The United States should go
entirely out of the banking business by
The withdrawal of its arbitrary and COM
DulsQry issues Of notes and afford the peo-
pie an opportunity to supply their own cur
'ency based upon their own means and
,redit, thus enabling every community to
utilize its own resources when necessary
md adjust the circulation from time to
lime to the actual demands of Legitimate,
commerce.
In what way this shall be accomplished
S question which has already engaged
he serious attention of the people ands
public authorities, and it will no doubt
continue to be investigated and discussed
Until plan is formulated which, if not
perfect, win at least have the merit of be-
ng great improvement upon the existing
ystem.
In the meantime our highest duty is to-
preserve the present standard of value,
maintain the parity of the two metals, and
Keep all the money in circulation among
he people, whether it be gold and silver