Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1895-01-04
MORTGAGES.
FACTS OVERLOOKED BY THE
DEMOCRATIC RoMANceRs.
Census Figures Knock Some Holes i'm
the Statements of "Reformers"-Re-
suit of canceling Reciprocity Treat
ics-Eneland's Hopeful Tone.
False Statements Rented.

False Statements Refutcd,
F~ree-traders have a particular lean
ing toward making. false statements
which are not susceptible of absolute
refutation until weeks, months, and Of
ten years afterward, by which time the
statements will in all probability have
been dropped by the free trade papers
and orators. Western farm mortgages
have formed q favorite subject for
them, and before the publication of the
census figures on Indebtedness, they
kept repeating their wild assertions
with such vehemencc and p%ersistency
that some farmers We're inclined to he
lieve them. Here is n sample from the
Louisville Times, published in the fall
of 1883:
Bankers know more about money
and debts than any other class of men
in the country, and the Bankers
Monthly is authority is authority for
the statement that the farm mortgages
of Kansas amount to $235, 100000; of
Indiana. $G35, 100000; of Iowa, to.
$567, 100000; of Michigan, to $506,0 00,-
OO0;of Wisconsin, to S:857, OOO 1900. Upon
this immense debt the farmers are
charged %cXorbitant interest, besides
paying most of the State taxes, and coll
tributing, greatly in excess of their just
share, to the tariff taxes leyied by the
federal government. -. Is it not
strange that the grangcrs of the West
continue to support n party and sustain
a policy that have heaped these bur-
dens on them?"
Since then the census figures have
been issued. They show that the total
mortgage Indebtedness of the above
States amounted to only $S25, 962,50S
in 1890, and that of this amount $249.-
1886 was on lots in cities and towns,
and had nothing to do with the farm
ers mt all. Following are the official
figures:
Total. On acres.
Indiana 900. .$11O, 73O,643 S74,553,217
Iowa ....... 109, 774,171 149,457,144
Kansas 800. ~2433,14G,S2G %174.72O,O71
Michigan. -. 1%5O,472,7OO 81, 753,329
Wisconsin -. 121,S3S, 1GS S1,535,SG1
Total..... $685., 9G2, sos $57G,O19,122
So that instead of farm mortgages
amounting to $4,000, 100000, these five
States give a total of only $4,000 900.
Free-tradc romancers conveniently
forget the fact that in 1O2 counties Sc
lected by the census officers for investi.
CATION it is shown that S0.13 per cent.
of farm mortgages have been assumed
for purchase money and improvements,
while only ga per cent. represent
money needed for farm and family cy-
penses; yet tariff reformer" have III.
culcated the idea that practically The
whole Indebtedness has been and is
for ordinary everyday expenses and
debts necessitated by the tariff.
While the Performers" have been de-
plotting their absurd and magnified
views of Western farm mortgages, they
have been as silent as death over the
fact that the great manufacturing State
of New York alone has a total mort
gage indebtedness Of s ,GO7, S74,3O1, or
double the amount shown by the five
Western farming States.
When a true-blue representative "re-
former is out of power lie pictures
frightful Genes of horror, d~esolation,
and want, even when the country is
in the midst of the greatest prosperity.
When unparalleled disaster overtakcs
the land while lie is in the control Of
affairs, he first fails to see it, and then
magnifies every little temporary inn
provement into a wave of prosperity
returning because of low tariff. Great
and marvellous is q "reformer."
GEO. ALLEN WHITE.
Please Spare a Poor Man a Dollar.
3xa@N5;az