Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-08-27
FARMER AND his MORTGAGE

FARMER-4ANp Ills. MORTGAGE.
How the, eeae2nsps1 Of. .saYafsaskan
May BE Answered.
A 4 farmers letter ITO the, Chicago
Tlmes-Herald raises question In the
mind of manymen. Mr.. J. w. Binger,
of near Lincoln, Neb., owes 1000 on
bond and mortgage. His farm will
grow 1000 bushels of wheat. At 56H
cents bushel In gold, the wheat at
Lincoln will pay half the mortgage.
when the value of silver dollar v
reduced to 80 cents by free coinage"
argues Mr.. Binger, "a bushel of wheat
without any change In Its value will be
worth 50-cent dollar. With free coin
age of silver shall, therefore be able
to, pay the entire. debt with the 1000
Ibushels of wheat"
A good many are reasoning this way.
Many of them less frank. There are
two answers. Both good. One is made
by the Chicago Times Herald. The
debt was made in gold. To pay 1t In
silver Is wrong. 1t Is dishonest. None
the less dishonest II legal forms are
Observed There are other Judgments
than those entered up in the County
Clerks docket. An unjust balancing
of debts Is an abomination to the Lord.
No land can see prosperity inits streets
and peace in its dwellings II a multi
tude go about to deny just debts and
withhold the promised pledge.
This Is not the only answer, and 1t Is
not the only answer because this Is a
world In which dishonesty Is its own
sure punishment. Mr.. Binger has for
gotten some things. He expects to raise
1000 bushels of wheat which he can
sell clear of his own living expenses.
He expects to be as free to sell 1t as
now. The product Of the rest of his
farm meets his living expenses now.
He expects 1t will then. Will 1t? Not
much. The sugar he uses will double in
price. 1t has to be paid for in gold. 1t
costs 8 cents pound In Mexico where
it costs cents here. Coffee will cost
twice as much per pound. Clothes will
be twice as high. Boots, which he pays
So a pair for now, will cost SO. Farm
tools will be doubled. Mr.. Bingers
weekly paper will raise its price. The
railroad on which he lives will have to
advance it's freight rates. Like the In
dian farmer, under a silver basis, Mr..
Binger will find the cost Of getting his
wheat to market increased by high sill
yer freights. He cannot sell as close to
the Chicago and Liverpool markets as
he does now. His profits on wheat I'M
der silver will drop to the ryot's profits
in India and the moujik's in Russia.
II Mr.. Binger wants to drop his scale
Of living to the ryot and moujik's level
he will be all right. He will give up
coffee and sugar He will have no fur
niture in his house. He will go bare
foot good deal of his time and put on
his shoes just outside of Lincoln when
he is going into town, so as not to wear
them out. But If Mr.. and Mrs. Binger
and all the ltttie Bingers, including par
ticularly, Miss Binger. want to live as
they do now, large part of the 1000
bushels of wheat will be used up on
the, Increased cost Of commodities. In
selling his wheat on silver basis Mr..
Binger must compete with the worlds
wheat, but he will lose the cheap gold
prices to which he objects and he must
pay 1.-THE high silver, prices of Mexico
and Argentina. The farmer there gets
along by doing without. No sugar, no
coffee, no furniture! cheap clothes, no
shoes. If Mr. Binger does not like this,
and if he does, we warn him that Mrs.
Binger will have word or two to say
Il will cost more wheat than 1t does now
to buy his daily comforts.
How do we know this? Simply be-
cause in the silver countries at their
range of prices a bushel Of wheat will
not buy as much Of manufactured arti-
cles, sugar and corn, as a bushel of
wheat will here. Why? These things
are made by men paid on gold basis
and are sold on that basis, and when
wheat goes to a silver basis and com
petes with wheat grown on that basis
bushel for bushel, it will exchange for
less in commodities than 1t does now.
Mr.. Binger's mortgage therefore will
not be paid off as easily as he expects
but when he has settled it in silver dol
lars neither that lender nor any other
WIN lend him again. The rate for money
will double. On the average it Is twice
as high in the silver as in the gold coun'
tries. Railroad building win stop and
Mr. .Binger's wheat freight rates will
cease to have the steady competition
Of increasing railroad mileage of the
past twenty years which has reduced
rates in that time one-half. Instead, as
railroad bonds come due. they will have
to be refunded not as in the past on q
lower, but on n higher rate, and the
roads will have to charge more
to make up. The development OF
the whole country will be stopped. A
host of labor will be out of work. The
rest, at work, caught between higher
prices for what they use and wages but
little higher, will eat less wheat. They
will turn to coarser food, more corn and
less wheat, more pork and less beef
more coarse tobacco and fewer cigars
Mr.. Binger and every other farmer will
feel the effect in reduced demand fol
farm products Philadelphia Press.
The Quality of Money.
To destroy money or to Danish 1t from
circulation would be a backward step
"a step to barbarism. 1t would be nc.