St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-25


country. These were bonded, in 1890,
in the sum of 81, 1876, 210, 442. OF this sum
it is proper to note in passing that
the school fund of Minnesota is a
creditor to the extent of some $4,000
600, and is not at all DESTROYS of hay
ing it's claim scaled down so per
cent or at all. Next there comes
mass of debtors, street railway COM
panies, gas and electric companies,
insurance companies, and others,
the precise amount of whose indebt-
edness is not ascertainable, but which
must help swell the total to dimen-
sions that exceed the power of the
mind to grasp. An estimate of the
total as being upwards of $4,000 00,-
600 is not at all fanciful. Now who
are the creditors that hold these OBJ
legations and form the money pow
err" and who are the sshort-time"
creditors, and what thes extent of
their demands? There aye the 4,777,-
6S7 depositors in the saVangs banks,
representing one out yofsevery four
engaged in gainful occupation in
1890 There are the unnumbered
business men and their employees
who own the deposits in the ma
tional banks. There are the
people whose income is derived
from the bonds and stocks in
which their fortunes are embarked.
There are the holders of life insur-
ance policies aggregating s12, 1856, $685.
$50, and the holders of fire insur-
ance policies aggregating, last year,
SIG, 400, 100000, none of whom are
clamoring for the relief of having the
value of their policies reduced one
half. Singularly there is only here
and there one of these enormously
indebted men and companies favor
ing a policy that would enable them
to pay back SO cents for each dol
lar they had received.
But leaving these there is another
class of creditors, largely exceed
ing all others in number and quite
eQualing them in the value of their
claims, and these are the wage earn
ers of the country. We have named
the railway employees. Then there
are the 4,711,S32 employees, not count
ing officers, firm members or clerks,
of the manufacturers of the United
States, who are the daily, weekly or
monthly creditors of their employers
to the amount of 50, 2s2, 823, 265 in 1890.
To these must be added those en-
gagged in domestic and personal
service, numbering 4,360,506 in 1890,
whose wages are not given, but
which approximate closely those of
the other wage earners. Each one
of these is strictly the creditor of
his or her employer until the labor
given is paid for. 1t is as singular
a fact as it is a paradox of self-in-
terest that there are more of these
creditors who imagine that they
would be bettered in their conditions
by being paid in money of a de-
creased buying power than there are
of the debtors who desire the priv
ilege of paying off their wage cred
itors in money that would buy rela-
lively more of their labor. When
conduct thus opposes apparent self
interest, it is clear that ignorance of
vital facts prevails among the one
and knowledge of them among the
other. All other questions aside, it
is important to remember in future
that the debtor and the creditor
classes in this country, as shown by
the figures, are exactly the reverse of
what they are pictured by the politi-
cal agitator.