Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-08-24

world Even the Vanderbilts CON
trolling great railroad systems are
debtors and would profit from a law
enabling them TO pay railway bond
holders ana their employees in 81 cent
dollars. Among money lenders who
would suffer are those who deposit
their little earnings in the savings
bank. who buy a few shares Of stock
who loan to those undertaking enter
rriscs. Those who become enormously
rich in this country are those who Dor
row money of other people and make
it earn for them more than the in
torest they pay to the lender While
a deprecated currency would do them
harm by reason of the fluctuations Of
values, depression, uncertainty and
ranic that would ensue, it would also
enable them to pay debts and wages in
a deprecated dollar and in this way
tiey would have more to gain than any
ether class of individuals.
We cannot see how farmers as a rule
could be- benefited and we can see
that they would be first among those
that would suffer. The farmers of the
Fast looking to their home markets
would inevitably suffer from business
depression and stagnation. Their pros
Nerity comedies with the prosperity of
the wage worker Very few of these
farmers are debtors and consequently
would have little or nothing to gain
by paying debts in deprecated cur
rcncy. 1t is noticeable that the debtors
among farmers are those living far
from home markets and forced to raise
staples such as wheat and corn and
cotton, the prices for which are and
markets. As the mortgages upon both
farms and houses in this country
amount to only about one third the en-
tire mortgage indebtedness on real es-
tate it viii be seen that the agricuI-
tUral communities are rot sufferihg
from Indebtedness nearly to the ex-
tent that urban communities are. also
chat the debt is not burdcnsome as
many have represented it to be. But
" hat Of those farmers who are in debt
aud expect relief from deprecated
currency? Their products are mostly
gs4., I,s, l.;
consume any more of in prosperous
times than is necessary. Deprecated
currency is not likely to increase the
demand for their products consequent
~ the price will be among the last to
rise. Meanwhile they will be paying
more for everything they buy and will
be having Just as hard work to get q
dollar as ever OF course if they car
set dollar to pay their creditors il
will represent only about half the dol
lar they really owe but it will cost
them about as much effort as an honest
fol- a SO cent dollar but if the dolla,
is just as hard to get that will be of no
benefit to them. Again many of those
farmers that are in debt got there
through mismanagcment on their OWL,
part or because of overproduction o.
because they have been induced to
take up farms where the demand does
not call for them. Thus many of them
are in a losing venture and if they sue
coed in paying in deprecated currency
what they now owe there is every rea-
son to believe that they will want to
borrow again soon. Then they will
find it more difficult. Rates of interest
will be among the first things to go NJ
and the money borrowed will not go SC
far as the same number of dollars
would now OF course some of the pro-
, rretors of the great farms of the West
might be temporarily benefited by a
SO cent dollar in which to settle thei,