Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-07-18

''puaiiNif sitlliCS anu tributary lines
count up to the neighborhood of $500,
100000, which, according to our free sill
Yer friends. ought to be reduced on ac-
count of the hardship that was in
ficted on the borrowers 90 years ago.
We might multiply the illustrations,
but the three leading cases are suff-
Gent. They are accompanied by scores
of others. 1t is the well known fact
that the greatest borrowers are the
men of vast operations. 1t is also q
leading fact of vital bearing on the
stupid shallowness of the free silver
remedy that all the men who have
built up vast fortunes within the period
during which it is alleged that the gold
basis has made enterprise impossible
have done SO by borrowing. The
spectators who manipulate stocks are
not only borrowers. but in many in
of all. The men who try to lock up
money do 50 in nine cases out of ten
by borrowing the money.
1t is not to be said that in the rela-
ton of borrowers from the great mass
of the smaller investors the multi
millionaires occupy an obnoxious posi-
ton. On the contrary. that operation
viewed strictly by itself is one of the
great means of progress. When an
enterprising, able man can carry on
great projects by borrowing from the
people who have saved up anywhere
from $500 to $4,000, or more each, there
is benefit to the public and to both
borrower and lender. for which both
are to be credited. 1t is for the reason
that vast benefits are secured by the
legitimate and honest operation of this
system that scrupulous care should be
taken not to disturb it. II anything
We're done to make the system of in
terest bearing securities unreliable and
unsafe it would be one of the greatest
calamities to industry.
But it is to be noted as bearing on
the distribution of wealth that many
of these millonaires have used
the opportunities of corporate control
in which they held the position of Dor
roWers. to concentrate wealth in their
hands that should not have gone there
They have taken it from the public by
preferential freight rates, and by
trusts and pools. they have taken it
from the small stockhoder by inside
rings that absorbed the profits of the
corporations. and by manipulations of
the stocks. They have. in many cases,
ileeced the ordinary investors by sell
ing them bonds alleged to be mort
cages, but which by reason of the
fictitious nature of the stock had none
of the security of bonds and none of
the compenSations of the stock. While
these operations, varied in detail but
comprising the essential characteristics
of injustice, have built up great for
tunes in the hands of men who We're
borrowers in their capacity as stock
holders in the corporations they con-
troll, and in that character are Dor
rowers still, the monumental stupidity
of the free silver cult proposes to take
from the ordinary and legitimate in
vestors in nearly $4,000 600, 600 of cor
porate bonds practical moiety and to
give an immense share of that gain to
the spectators, manipulators and cor
porate rulers who control the corpora
tons through the stocks. That amaz-
ing display of ignorance should lead to
the general enforcement Of these two
facts on the public mind.
First-Every great fortune that has
been created during the past genera
ton has got its start through borrow
ing operations; and the means by
which industry and transportation are
controlled leave those controlling them
in the capacity of borrowers as stock
holders of corporations.
Second-There is not a single case in
which fortune of a hundred. or fifty.
or ten or even five millions has been
created in a single lifetime simply by
the lending of money at interest.
There are two examples which have
been prominent in PittSburg business
during the period of alleged demonetiza-
tlon which make it peculiarly inexcus-
er to indulge in this delusion of scaling
down debts to rectify the social Unequal
tiles. II was just about 1873 when one OF
the national banks of this city began 10
accommodating institution. It's capital
was S30o.000. but In the preceding years it
had accumulated a surplus of $500 600, so
that 1t entered on the period with a work
ing capital of 5000, 900. From that point il
has grown steadily in volume of business
and profits. 1t has done SO. according to
because it treated them literally. It
could not grow in any other way If any
OF ITS customers could get more liberal
treatment at any other bank they had
tiV luIl pIiN HtSe Oh SoliS tnere. But be-
cause depositors. small and large, were
well treated. and borrowers on legitimate
commercial paper knew that they would
be accommodated, if possible. the bank
prospered not only beyond any other
bank in Pittsburg. but to an extent not
eqlalled by more than a half-score banks
in the country. The net result of all this
prosperity IL that the bank has been pay
ing eight TO ten per cent dividends on the
S600,0OO. which It had at the beginning OF
this period. and has Increased its capital.
surplus and undivided profits to little
over N.1cO.0O0. In other words the in
crease in wealth to a corporation dealing
in loans has been liberal dividends and
an increase of its wealth from $500, 600 TO
81, 600
About the same time that this bank be-
poratlon came into prominence not ONLY
IN Pittsburg. but all over the country. it
was manufacturing corporation. an oil
refining company. There was a time
about 1Alo 1S13 that It's fol mo-. -.