Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-11-30
PRESS COMMENTS.
The Other side Of II.
tIowa State Register.)

The failure of the Sullivans Institu-
ton for Savings in Claremont, New
Hampshire, throws some light on the
manner in which many of the bogus
settlers of the West have fieeced the
money power of the East Among
the banks worthless securities are
$2S0.O0o in farm mortgages on land in
western Nebraska. Many of these loans
were secured by pre-emptors who
stayed on the government lands just
long enough to secure title which
would enable them to get a mortgage
loan. after they had secured the loan
they left the land, many of them never
having paid so much as the first inter-
est charge. Some of them abandoned
the lands willfully. but others were no
doubt driven to it by necessity. But
it all amounts to the same thing as far
as the investors are concerned and they
will not get anything. except pieces of
land which are conceded to be worth
less in return for their savings.
In connection with the Sullivan in
stitution appears, says the Boston
Herald, the name of man who has
been a noted land promoter in the state
of Bryan and who has succeeded in
robbing the people of New Hampshire
of over S3,000,0O0, causing the failure of
10 banks in that state during the past
few years. That is the way the record
is spread all over the East. The New
England states have sunk millions of
their savings in the efforts to make the
western counties of Kansas and Ne
braska productive. Those counties
have been covered over with Eastern
money. The facts are that while the
Western men and women have lost
their time in trying to develop those
sandy areas, Eastern men and women
have lost their savings. OF course,
much Of the disaster was wrought by
the sharks who acted as go-betweens
and who succeeded in making heavy
charges for placing worthless securities
because on worthless or over appraised
lands.
We read great deal about the suf-
ferings among the settlers of the West,
but those in Claremont, on account of
the failure of the Sullivan institution.
are almost unparalleled in this country.
The correspondent of the Boston
Herald who visited the place says that
who have labored all their lives in
shops and factories to acquire a little
competence are now in want. Many
have applied to the town for aid and
others have gone to the poor house and
some may go to the asylum for the in
sane, so much have their losses affected
their humble lives. The case of one
woman, aged IS, is cited. She had la
bored in the Claremont mills from the
time she was girl. She had purchased
little home and had $4,000 invested in
the Sullivan Institution. All of it is
gone and in her old age she is penni-
less. This is only a sample The
Herald cites dozens of similar cases.
We cite these matters to show that
there are two sides to these questions.
The money which has been loaned on
western farms has in nine cases out of
ten come from the savings of just such
poor laboring people. That is the
money power" against which the Ne
braska Bryanites have been raving
Every one but a fool knows that the
Vanderbilts, the Goulds. the Russell
Sages and Rothschilds do not lend
money on little farm mortgages. They
have larger operations in which to use
their money. Look at most of the farm
mortgages which are held in the East
and you will find at that end one who
is just as honest, just as deserving, as
the men and women at the Nebraska
end of it.
There is another point in this matter
and that is the necessity of guarding
more securely the savings of the poor
Men and women who have a few dol
lars week to lay aside for sickness or
old age, ought not to be in imminent
danger of losing it all just at a time
when they need it most. There ought
to be some way for such people to in
vest it without the danger of such a
loss. Their savings ought to be as
secure as the government itself. 1t is
at this point that the postal savings
banks, of which we have recently
spoken. come into consideration again.
1t makes ones heart bleed to read of
the misery that private spectators in
the funds of the poor have wrought in
this land. If there be no he. at the
end of this world. one ought to be made
at once to punish the sharks who have
wasted trust funds and savings of the
poor.