The Monitor-register., 1896-09-18
GLEANINGS.
{ ONE CITY, A STORY BY HELEN NJ. GoU
GAR-THE MONEY QUESTION. AS THOUGHT
OUT BY MEN-oNE woMAN's
BELIEF RELATIVE THERETO
One City.
A STORY OF FINANCE IN A. B. c

A TORY OF FINANCE IN A. B. c
It is of DO mean city of which l speak.
It was not in Utopia, but nevertheless the
people we're intelligent, industrious,
economical and thrifty. Little poverty,
crime and suicide were ever known.
The masses lived in comparative comfort,
and the Golden Rule was reasonably we'll
observed among the inhabitants. They
were virtuous, for virtue is easiest whep
temptation is absent from a people. This
truism does not cast a suspicion that civ
ilization is merely whitewashed bar.
barism.
All business in this city was carried on
with black and white horses. These
were the mediums of exchange in the
business world. There were four hundred
white and -four hundred black horses.
One was tqual to the other in strength
and beauty. 1t was not unusual, how.
ever, that the white horses were worth
two or three dollars more each than the
black horses, but as a rule a parity
eS eAA N1AoGD o OuC dtuo
farmer would take his wheat to market
and get one dollar per bashel and pay one
hundred dollars for a horse, or in other
terms a horse was purchased with one
hundred bushels of wheat. A laboring
man would exchange thirty days work
for a horse.
New enterprises in business were CON-
stantly %springing up within the city, and
agriculturlst were prosperous and out of
debt Under this parity of the mediums
of exchange, the city %prospered greatly
for over D hundred years. In an evil
hour, envy and a desire for great wealth
took hold of the men owning the black
horses. They wanted to control the trade
of the city. They were fired with an
unhOly ambition-to become leaders in
finance, for all men love power.
This city had a mayor by the name of
John. He was a man of affairs, long
headed and cold hearted, a prtfessed
Christian and a supposed patriot. He
often said, "Let us pray" but in the soli-
tude tf his own mind he spelled pray
with an ''e." But nobody expects
city mayors to be saints. For a
consideration the owners of the black
horses secured the influence of this officer
and the city council in a night, and while
the owners of the white horses slept,
dehorsatizsd the white horses. They
then referred to the black horses as
"sound horses" This was intended, as
the reader can readily divine, to cast a
suspicion on the white horses.
The ambition of a few men was salts.
fed and the black horses were doubled in
value, as there were only half enough to
meet the demands of business. The
owners of the white horses were cor
respondingly impoverished. OF course
the Sound horses" having doubled in
value, instead of requiring one hundred
bushels of the farmers wheat to pur-
chase a horse, it took two hundred.
Instead of thirty days Of the wage
e%arner's toll, it took sixty days wages to
purchase a horse. Labor and produce
were decreased in value one half. Popu.
lation was increasing and new enterprises
and extended business demanded a
greater amount of exchange medium, but
the "Black Horse Trust" managed things
so as to control the finances and business
affairs of the people. Men of limited
means could not enter upon new enter
prises and a reign of hard times set in.
Owners of black horses we're growing 80
rich in this worlds goods that they
declared times were not as hard as the
"grumblers" sought to make people
believe. They called all these lamar
chists," calamity howlers," ~"repudia-
TORS" "revolutionists." The pictorial
burlesque of the complaining people was
a long-earned mule. Burlesque, epithete
and bold assertions took the place of
calm consideration and we'll sustained
arguments on the part Of the trust. The
horse trust controlled the press and made
it its champion.
Even the religious press was bought to
serve the 'soupd horse trusL" company.
The masses could have instruction only
by gathering in little companies, or larger
crowds, and by word of mouth pour out
their complaints and reason the way out.
They still maintained the right of free
speech and a free ballot, although the
horse trust had made loud threats,
through financial circulars, to take these
from the people. Everybody who con-
trolled wealth in the city made threats at
the discontinued populacs. But with the
purpose of a free people, voters threatened
to remove the administration of John and
elect men to Office who would rehorsatize
the white horses, There was great
excitement, and both sides of the contro.
versey were animated to do their best to
win the next election.
In the meantime the city council
ordered vast improvements, and voted a
heavy burden to pension the poor and
dependent; taxes increased until they
became mortgages on the wealth and
prosperity of the masses. The trust did
not pay their share of these burdens, for
they had control of the appraisement
Off ,ers. The masses being un.
able to pay these burdensome taxes,
the trust met the obligations
and bonded the people to pay, stem years
hence, in black horses" The low price
for produce and labo. caused men to seek
relief 10 personal debts. They gave their
notes payable in the future in black
horses, the only medium of exchange
accepted by the business men of the city.
Hope springs eternal in Ehe human breast,
and debtors counted on the little colts to
come to their relief, in the long term of
suspended payment. 1t is sad to rel ate
that crime and suicide became alarmingly
prevalent, but then human nature always
has its weak ones, and moneyed men are
not to be held responsible for these things.
Pay day finally came. 1t was the time
of all others for the horse trust to take
advantage, for an election was at hand,
and as they said in a political circular,
ian Ignorant free suffrage may overthrow
the reign of the horse trust" Business
was paraly zed. The little colts had all
been required to pay the interest up to
date. The black horses were locked M
by their owners. At once the trust fore
closed mortgages and took property,
houses and lands of the people. Fifty
men had such complete monopoly of the