The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1895-08-15
A DEBTOR NATION y
Well, What Of It I? Mr.. Roberts Discusses
Some of the Fallacies of
The Silverite.


16 to /, and made full legal tender, is
that we are debtor nation-that we
borrow lots Of other peoples money. 1t
certainly requires good deal of cheek.
gall, nerve, or whatever it may be
termed to propose taking fifty cents
worth of silver and by law making it
pay one dollar of debt. The people
may be, for time, misled by the cry
to restore the dollar of the daddies-to
put the silver dollar back to it's old po-
sitiOn before the act of 1873. But they
will soon discover the fraud concealed
by these plausible cries and will vote
down any attempt to establish whole
sale dishonesty under the majesty of
law Let us take little time now to
consider and analyze this matter of
debt. A common case will serve as an
illustration. There is a young man
brought up to be honest and industri-
Gus. He is ambitious to provide for
himself good home to share with
woman worthy of his love. He has
! sold his labor to the best advantage.
His surplus earnings have been yearly
placed at interest until he has accumu-
lated the sum of 1000. A good oppor-1
tunity offers to buy farm that meets
his ambition and he secures a good
bargain by being able to pay cash
down. All his earnings capitals
invested in the farm. He has no team,
tools, farm animals or seed Without
these his farm must lie idle and instead
of being productive would deteriorate
and subject him to loss. To procure
his stock and tools he borrows some
body else's money and properly equips
himself to make his farm and his own
labor productive. Now he is a debtor,
man in debt. But he has gumption
and go in him and he makes the debt
servant to his industry, making his
work and his farm productive and in
creasing his wealth. Such a man never
spends his time whining or in seeking
the enactment of law by which he
can pay his debt with any less money
than he borrowed.
Now let us take another common
case. A man bias a little homestead
worth say $500. He borrows some one
else's money and gives a mortgage on
his home of 5000 This sum, the money
borrowed, is the small savings of a
plain man of small capacity, but for
tunately endowed with industry and
thrift. He never loses an opportunity
to work and earn. He lives in the con-
slant daily practice of economy. The
5000 represents several years savings.
He is glad of the opportunity to loan it
so that his savings may be made to earn
something. The debtor, in this case,
we will suppose, lacks thrift and hon
esty and fails to pay his interest. One,
two or three years pass and no interest
is paid. The only way the creditor can
get his money back is to foreclose the
mortgage and turn The debtor out Of his
home. What a tale of woe could be
told of the poor man unable to pay; the
tyranny of the law that turns man
out into the street, and the hard heart
edness of the sheriff who executed the
law. If l had the eloquence Of Prof.
Mcdowell ] could make arrow Of bould-
ers shed tears at the recital of this i'm
aginary tale Of woe. But the person
really entitled to commiseration is the
creditor, who is put TO annoyance and
expense to secure what is justly his.
Large sums of money have been bor-
rowed of citizens Of foreign countries to
build railroads in the United States.
How we'll they serve us. How greatly
they have lessened the cost of trans
portation and distribution and increased
our earnings and our wealth is a SUBJ
! ject worthy of pen thousand times
times more able than mine. Think of
the cost of moving one day, by horses,
the traffic and travel on the Chicago &
| North Western railroad between Mil
waukee and Chicago. The saving of
time aud cost is simply immense. Not
one i'll ten thousand among us have any
adequate conception OF how railroads
have increased our wealth by the en-
| ormous iessened cost of distribution of
products. Because our creditors are
foreign citizens is no reason why We
should pay them at the rate of fifty
cents on the dollar by stamping fifty
cents worth of silver bullion one dollar
and making it full legal tender for a
dollar, as so called free silverites, pro-
pose. Millions of dollars of our nation
al bonds, representing the cost of saw
ing our Union, are held by private citi-
zens and banks of foreign countries.
They are no different in this respect
from citizens of the United States who
have bought national bonds All citi-
zens everywhere where they are sold,
buy them as cheap as they can; all.
have to pay the market price. There
is no reasonable reason that can be
made to appear satisfactory to the ma
tional conscience to urge in favor of
paying either foreign or home creditors