The herald., 1896-08-09

! be met with stern resolution, as q mar
meets an enemy who attacks his hom'
and the stelter of his children.
| Nor is the picture the least bit over
drawn. We leave ii to the bankers them
selves, to the men who ask that this hor
rible condition be continued, whether, ]
they enforced their claims as the Law
would give them the power to do, agains
rural householders, one-fourth of tn,
families in this state today who live II
the country would not be homeless b,
! the roadside. Charity is not what stay.
the hand of the sheriff 1t is simply no
good business policy to foreclose. Tn,
property would not fetch but a part O.
the amount of the mortgage.
l. To talk to these distressed people
| about cultivating confidence is as inap
| propriate and as cruel as IT would be Il
dilate upon the astronomical pleasures
of a French dinner in the presence of q
| man dying of starvation.
If the bankers really believe that con.
| fdence is the one thing so much needed
| why do they not endeavor to inculcate Il
by example? They themselves manifest
the greatest misgiving as regards tbs
| future of prices. Not bank in San
| Francisco will loan a dollar on country
property. They know perfectly we'll that
| If ii were not for the country there would
be no San Francisco. They know that
the words of Candidate Bryan were lit
orally true. when he said 7s Burn down
your cities and the wealth from the coun-
try Will build them up again; butdestroy
the farms and the grass will grow in the
streets of every city in the land"
PRICES COMING DOWN.
Why. then. will the bankers of San
Francisco not loan a dollar on country
real estate, least of ALL on farming land
, Evidently because they think prices are
| going still lower, and that It would be
dangerous to risk anything on present
q L.
What is to make them go still further
down? Let Banker Barker of Philadel-
phia. heretofore quoted, explain. He is
one of the few men in his line of business
who has studied the question and is ca
pable of giving rational explanation of
the phenomenon. On page 110 he says:
I'VE have shown that the appreciation
of gold is the direct cause of falling
prices; that gold monometallism leads
inevitably to lower prices; that lower
prices mean bankruptcy to Debtors ruin
to producers, lower wages, idleness, dis
tress and misery. We have shown that
falling prices destroy the profits of in
dustry. chill enterprise, separate pro-
ducer from consumer and reduce all
producers to dependence upon the mon
extending classes. Lower
prices mean increased distress, if not
abJect poverty, ruin and bankruptcy to
our agricultural classes, but this is the
u.
Only by a coures that will
force prices lower and lower can the
gold standard be maintained"
TALK OF DISHONESTY.
But the Bankers association go fur
ther and say more. They declare that
the free coinage of silver would mean
the payment of debts. both public and
private. in an inferior kind of money
from that which was borrowed" and
that this would be an everlasting dis
grace to the nation"
About this question of honor or dis
honor in the payment of the debts of the
nation there are two opinions. The best
opinion that we know of holds that, rs
there was arrant and egregious fraud in
the refunding of the public indebtedness
and in all the subsequent proceedings
leading down to the scheme by which
the vast obligation is made payable in
gold. the matter of it's proposed liuuida-
ton in silver is nothing by comparison.
IL Is true that two wrongs do not make a
right but this proceeding would be in the
nature, not of an additional wrong, but
of a corrective of the one already com
mitted
For instance, competent authorities
tell us that the national debt at the close
OF the war could have been liquidated
Tor less than it would take to liuuidata
1t today. not, of course, in terms of mon
ey, put in the things which every nation
OF Pf6ddS .PatdVin tthe IA hny obf1sgtfoit
existing generation ago could be can
celled in less of the products of the soil
and of the shop than it could be can
celled in today by more than two to one
The almost countless millions, there
fore, that have been paid on the national
debt have been, practically. so much
money given to the bondholders by the
producers of the country. And if the
money OF payment should continue to
appreciate. in another generation the
people would owe as much to the bond
holders. in terms of the products in
which alone all such obligations are
paid, as they do now. In other words,
the national debt has been only nomi-
nally reduced since the war. 1t would
take as much wheat, oats, corn, beef,
mutton, cotton and other staple pro-
ducts to settle the balance remaining
as it would have taken in the first place
TO cancel the original amount
1t should be carefully borne in mind
by the reader that debts are paid es-
pecially national debts. in the proceeds
of labor. and that those who do the
work pay them. Any Interference with
the scheme by which the national debt
and all other debts are being constantly
enlarged these gentlemen of the count
ing room tell us would be dishonorable
Listen to what DR.. John Clark Ridpath
! LID, the eminent scholar and his
| tOIldl. has 10 say on tfllS point. Df. KID
| path is not an anarchist, nor even a
! socialist, much less a crank He is
| learned man, who observes things as
! they pass and sometimes writes about
| them. In the Arena for February this
| eminent author said:
1T was on the 18th of March, 1869, that
| the government of the United States
made its first league and covenant with
the fund holding interests against the
| people BY the terms of that league the
| millionaire who had given $100 600 for a
| bond of the same denomination should
| receive back true enough, $100, 900, but
| should receive it in amounts of another
! kind, worth about two for one. From
that day. distant from the present by
| more than twenty-siX years, there has
| been no deviation nor shadow of turn
| ing on the part of entrenched intrigue to
| carry out the compact. Year by year
! the bolts ard bars have been driven
| ever further and deeper with blow on
blow of the Sledge of the money power
until the national fraud has been glori-
fed under the name of honor and the
| wholesome truth nailed to the coffin OF
contempt. Each succeeding admins
| tration has been. even as its predecessor
but more so, in it's devotion to the bond.
! holding interest at the expense Of al
besides"
II will thus be seen that while those
who own the bonds and contract tn,
gold think it would be dishonorable ano
disgraceful to restore to silver the deb
paying power which it possessed Whef
these obligations We're incurred, ther,
are others who. not being intereste,