Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-10-22

When the famer found his remains he
promptly skinned them, so the ass in
the end lost even the rough hide which
he was trying TO improve.
Moral: Don't be an ass.
Some Debtors and Creditors.
According to AltgeId and other sill
yerites we now have 200-cent dollar,
says the Chicago Chronicle. And they
propose to reduce its value one-half
and make a 100-cent dollar of it for
the benefit of debtors. They would
have us believe that creditors are a lot
of skinf1ints to rob whom by act of
congress would be righteous deed.
NO, to consider for the moment the
morality OF this sort of preachment, let
Us inquire who are creditors and who
are debtors.
We may as we'll begin with the rail-
road companies. They are debtors to
the extent Of more than $4,000, 0000,-
900, 1t might please them to cut their
debts one-half by act of congress, pro-
Nlded their earnings were not cut down
10 the same extent by the same stroke.
But Altgeld is not begging sympathy
for the poor debtor railroad compan-
les.
What has he to say for the creditors
OF those companies? To a vast aggre-
gate the estates held in trust for
widows and orphans are invested in
, railroad bonds and other corporate
securities. Here we find many thous-
ands of the skinfiinC creditors whom
the silverites propose 10 rob for the
benefit of poor debtor corporations.
The banks also are debtors. They
owe their depositors in the neighbor-
hood of s5,000,000,0 900. About 1000
savings banks owe 4,S75000 depositors
more than s1,S10,00O,0 900.
These depositors put gold or its
equivalent into the banks; the silver
ties propose that they shall draw out
silver or its equivalent, worth only
100000 000 Here are more and a
gOOdly number, of skinfint creditors
whom the silVerites propose to rob.
Then there are in round numbers
$4,000 pensioners of the United States,
of whom 900 are widows. All these
are creditors of the United States to
the extent of $140, 100000 a year. The
silyerites propose TO rob these skin
flint creditors to the tune of some $685.
OO0,0 a year, or probably $3.50, 700, 900
or more in ALL
Our colleges and universities have
an annual income of about $1,000 600
from endowment funds. The silverites
propose to divide that in the middle
ana cut down the salaries of those
hard-fsted, grasping creditors, the
professors and other instructors, about
Ole-half.
But now we come to a more numer-
Gus class OF remorseless Shylocks-the
holders of insurance policies Risks
were in force to the following amounts
on the 31st of December, 1895:
Fire companies. ....... $17, 737, 281 ,047.
Marine companies. ..... 203, 415 800
Life companies. .. 5,611, 49I A {.
Casualty companies. 1857, 298, 295.
|. Total. ..............$2 6, 149 ,492, 7l9
Policy holders have paid their preml-
Cms in gold or it's equivalent. The
silyerites now propose to wipe out the
enormous sum of at least $4,000, 000,-
900 of the obligations the companies
have assumed
They propose to rob the millions Of
creditors who hold insurance policies
OF sum fifteen times as great as the
interest bearing debt of the United
States.
And finally We have millions of men
and women who work for wages every
one Of whom is almost always a credl-
tor of his employer for a greater or
less amount. They are creditors to the
amount of their wages for week, two
weeks, and in a vast number of cases
for a month. The silverites propose
to lower the value of the dollar in
which these people get their pay.
Generally the silver people do not
admit that they propose to rob these
creditors. But now and then one has
the brutal candor to speak the truth.
A southern planter is reported as
saying that wages are too high and
that they must be reduced by the cheap
silver dollar method before employers
can prosper. He for one was frank
enough TO admit that his object was to
get the best of his working people, and
that he had no thought of raising
wages to make up for the proposed cut
of one-half in the value of the dollar
There are plenty more who mean
just that, but do not think it wise to
say what they mean.