The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1896-09-24
THE MORTGACED FARM
Payment Of Debts in Debased Cur
reney Means Practically
Reputation.
A NEBRASKA FARMER ANSWERED
Fallacy 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
be addressed TO the farRer, and it is
used by the free silver orators with inn
mense assurance of its success:
Lincoln Neb.- Aug $40 the Editor:
My land is encountered by a mortgage of
$1,000. payable in lawful money November
products Of my farm. Under ordinary cir
cumstances | will be able to raise 1000
bushels of wheat next year Ii there is no
change in our financial system. this wheat,
at so cents per bushel, will pay half the
debt. When the value Of a silver dollar
is reduced to 80 cents by free coinage
bushef of wheat without any change In
It's value, will be worth a 50-cent dollar.
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 debt of $1,000 has doubled since
l borrowed the money. | have Obeyed the
laws of my country under the gold standard
and shall obey them under silver standard.
The opponents of free coinage Of silver are
appealing TO the laborers The creditors and
policy holders to protect their own per-
sonal interests If should fail to look out
for my own interests who viii do so for
me-? Is there any reason why | should mot
vote for the free and unlimited coinage of
silver2 Very respectfully j. w. Binger-
When this farmer borrowed the money
it was the equivalent of $1,000 in gold
1t was the same as if he had received it
all in gold $40 pieces. He could have
had it that way if he so desired. Per
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
squandered it. he got value received
The borrowing and lending was 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
thousand bushels of wheat have paid it.
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 thousand dollars, get the
friend. There have been in the
past thousands of such transac-
tons. In fact, in every farming
community there are a few farmers,
more thrifty and of better business quail
ifications than the Others who always
have 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 have the same kind of money in re-
payment?
Is it 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
sand 100-cent dollars? Such law
amounts to the repudiatio of one-half
the debt obligations of all the debtors in
the United States.
When Mr. Binger in the above letter
says. 1.-THE burden of paying 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 upon 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 Dor
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 overproduction 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 it's moral
quality-for nations as well as for indi-