Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-08-29
THE MORTGAGED FARM
Payment of Debts in Debased Cur
rency Means Practically
Reputation.
NEBRASKA Err ANSWERED
FaIIacy of What is Considered the
Strongest Free Trade
Argument.

The following letter is one of many
that are daily received by the Times
Herald. 1t is supposed to contain the
strongest free silver argument that can
bc addressed to the farmer, aud il is
used tx LIS tEss siIysE orators With M
Lincoln, NIB, Aug. 3.-To the Editor:
Ny land Is fncumbered by a mortgage Of
$1,000. payable In lawful money November
products OF my farm, Under ordinary cir
cumstances ! will be able 10 raise 1000
bushels of wheat next year. If there is no
change In our financial system. this wheat,
at 30 cents per bushel, will pay half the
debt. When the value Of a silver dollar
Is reduced to 80 cents by free coinage a
hushei Of. wheat, without any chang, in
With free coinage Of silver ! shall, there
fore. be able TO pay the entire debt with
the 1000 bushels OF wheat. The burden Of
paying a debt Of $1,000 has doubled since
/ borrowed the money. j have obeyed the
laws OF my country under the gold standard
and shall obey them under a silver standard.
appealing to the laborers, the creditors and
sonaf interests. If I should fail TO look Out
for my WI interests who will do so for
vote for the free and unlimited coinage Of
silver? Very respectfully, j. w. Binger.
The answer is not far TO seek.
When this farmer borrowed the money
il was the equivalent of $1,000 in gold.
1t was THE same as if he had received it
all in gold $50 pieces. He could have
haps he did, for many such loans have
been made. When he expended it he got
$1,000 in gold equivalent. He probably
improved his farm to that extent or
bought stock or machinery. In whatever
way he used it, unless he burned it up or
s~quandered il, he got value received.
The borrowing and lending was a bust
ness transaction and the borrower used
the money TO promote his business in
terests.
At no time since that mortgage was
executed, for few mortgages run over
five years without renewal, would q
thousand bushels of wheat have paid il.
Suppose we had borrowed the money
from a neighboring farmer more pros
porous than he. That neighbor would
probably have TO carry something like
two thousand bushels of wheat to town.
sell it for a thousand dollars, get the
money and hand it over TO his
friend. There have been in the
past thousands of such transac-
tons. In fact, in every farming
community there are n few farmers,
more thrifty and of better business quail
ifcdtions than the others, who always
nave money TO lend out of their savings.
They get the money from the products
of their farms, but they are not loaning
those products. They are loaning the
money, and since 1879 it has been gold
or its equivalent. Why should they
not nave the same kind of money in re-
payment: !.
Is il any wonder that the advocates of
unlimited free coinage are charged with
dishonesty and that silver is called dis
honest money, when by the passage of
a law a thousand 50-cent dollars will be
sufficient to discharge a debt of a thou
sand 1O0-cent dollars? Such a law
amounts to the reputation of one-half
the debt obligations of all the debtors in
the United States.
When Mr.. Binger in the above letter
saws. THE burden of paying a debt of
$1,000 has doubled since ! borrowed the
! money" he must remember, If he is stat
! ing what is true, that the burden" is not
alone uDon him. but upon every other
business man who has borrowed money.
Merchants and manufacturers feel the
same stress of the hard times as the
farmers do. 1t Is not because they bor-
rowed gold and have to repay gold that
the burden is greater, but that their
| earnings and assets have not turned out
as they hoped and expected. Competi-
ton and oyerproduction have affected
the whole world. but reputation is not
the proper cure for it.
Honesty is the best policy-as a policy
merely, without reference to its moral
q~uality-for nations as well as for indi-