The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1896-06-26
THE MONEY DEARTH.
A PLUTOCRATIC PLAN OF RE-
LIEF FOR THE PEOPLE.
Farmers to Ease Up Things, "Ai the
Way Around" by Paying Their Debts
With Gold borrowed From Foreigners
"A Frank Admission.

l nG lOllOWlHS tAti ati 10 iiOhi q
plutocratic 4O-page Chicago Sunday
paper.)
st. Paul, Mimi, dispatch: One Of
the leading bankers of the city said
to-day that a company Of wealthy
Frenchmen intended to establish head
quarters in st. Paul for the loaning
of an immense amount of money to the
farmers of Minnesota and the Dakotas
after the assurance had been given
that the financial system of this coun-
try was to continue on a sound basis:
He continued
This company is prepared to loan
millions OF dollars to farmers at rea-
sonably low rates of interest but it is
waiting to make sure that If 1t sends
gold here it will receive gold in return.
IL the republican party declares for
sound money, as it surely will, the
central office will be established here
in st. Paul, and all this money will be
distributed from here. 1t is easy to
understand the benefit such company
would be. 1t means that the farmers
would be provided with money to pay
their debts, the country merchants
would be paid by the farmers, they in
turn would pay the wholesalers, and
everything would loosen up all the way
around. The trouble now is that no
one cares to advance money on land
values lest loss should result from a
still further depreciation in the event
of going to silver basis"
If the above isn't a clean-cut admis-
sion that there is not sufficient money
in the country to do business with,
what is it?
The only difference between this
leading st. Paul banker" and our
leading populsts' on the money ques-
ton is in the means which each would
employ to rid the country of the money
famine admitted by both to exist.
But, withal, is the St. Paul banker S
plan not an exceedingly brilliant one
when you consider it thoroughly? The
farmers would pay their debts with
money borrowed from this company of
foreign capitalists! Funny, isn't it, the
ideas concerning money" and debts
a banker can have? This st. Paul
| banker really believes that the Dakota
and Minnesota farmers would pay
their debts by putting blanket inter-
est-bearing mortgage on their land
values" and using the proceeds to
| liQuidate certain MISUNDERSTANDING
| claims which merchants have against
| them! 1t is this style of ideas and
this sort of logic that rules at Wash
| ington to-day and has ruled there for
many years.
Poor old Uncle Sam paid his
debts" exactly that way soon after the
| war closed. and the consequence is
| that the old ass has since that time
paid nearly double the amount of his
debts in interest and still owes the
| principal.
OF course. If the farmers could pay
| the merchants, and the merchants the
wholesalers, everything would loosen
up all the way around" provided the
farmer acquired his ability to pay
| through the sale of his products. But
| if he got his ability to pay through
| plastering his farm with a mortgage
then the loosening process, instead OF
going "all the way around" would
have to begin above him and at the
expense of Tightening up of things
for him.
Suppose the number of millions OF
dollars which this company is pre-
pared to loan to farmers at reasonably
low rates of interest" should aggregate
FIVE per cent. Suppose the rate of in
terest be fixed at 6 per cent. Is it no
plain that instead Of paying their debts
they will have assumed an annual debt
of 100000 in addition to their pres.
ent debt of $5,O00,00O? So far from
paying their debts this course would
compel them to pay S5,000,000 in in
terest in the course of sixteen years
and eight months, and still leave their
present debt of 100000 on their
farms.
But, dear me, what a picnic the
foreign company the and leading st
Paul banker" who would, of course
act as the company's agent in obtain
ing the loans. would have in the event
of the farmers borrowing this money
While the fool farmers of Minnesota
and Dakota were skinning around con-
tending with hot winds in summer and
cold billiards in winter in their efforts
to meet the additional interest burden
assumed for the patriotic purpose OF
"loosening things up all the way
around" the gentlemanly foreigners
and their st. Paul agent could be lux
uriating at seaside watering place, OF
enjoying the balmy breezes of Florida
with an increased sense Of Gods good
ness to man and of their own impor-
lance in the makeup of sublunary
affairs.
The leading st. Paul banker, who
eased the pressure on his mighty brain
by evolving this scintillating scheme
for loosening things up "all the way
around" talked from the standpoint OF
a republican, and appeared to be utter
ly unconscious of the fact that in thus
trustfully relying upon the assistance
of foreigners" to help us run our
affairs he was going directly contrary
To the doctrine so assiduously taught
in the cardinal principle Of his party
that America can be and of right ought
to be, independent of the world under