The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-05-01
EAST AND WEST.

In the Boston Advertiser recently ap-
peared the following editorial:
The mortgage assignment law enact
ed at the last session of the Kansas
legislature. of which the essential fea-
lures were described in the Advertiser
Yesterday. appears to be just and Ju-
dicious. To be sure, IL IS the WoIh o. % d
Populist legislature, but that fact
ought not to be taken as prlma 1acIe
proof that everything which the IeglS-
lature does is fraudulent or foolish or
both Some very unWise measures
were certainly introduced last session,
and it may be that some of them were
enacted though as to that our in
formation is incomplete. AS we have
criticised what we thought to be Objec-
tfOuable features in the proceedings at
Topeka during the past winter, we are
all the more pleased now to commend
what seems to be pTaiseWOrthy.
The mortgage assignment law recent
" enacted protects mortgagors and
mortgages alike There is nothing
unreasonable in the requirements that
all assignments, to he valid, now eX-
listing must be recorded in the office of
the register of deeds of the proper
county on or before September 10 next.
The time is ample and the warning is
fair. The requirements that all assign
ments hereafter made must be ac-
knoWledged and recorded within 80
DAYS after making and must show the
address of the assignee, to be valid" is
plain. common sense and even handed
honesty.
Every man who is in debt has a right
to know who his creditors are. Every
man, more especially, whose home and
means of livelihood are liable to be
taken from him at the will of another,
has right to know the name and ad
dress of that other 1t is incredible
that any honest creditor, to say moth
ing of any humane one, can object to
such a requirement.
But it is really the mortgage rather
than the mOrtgagor who win be bene
fitted by this law. or, to be more exact.
the law will work chiefly in the interest
of legitimate investors. The man who
has the right to be secured by means
of mortgage on a Kansas farm is the
man whose security will be strengthen
ed by this new assignment law It Will
no longer be possible for raScalIy
mortgage to make an assignment. re
ceive pay from the assignee. then fore
close. get the money from the farmer,
sign a release. have the mortgage can
celled and leave the man to whom the
money belongs robbed and helpless.
There has been a good deal too much
of a disposition here in the east to take
it for granted that in all contentious
between Kansas farmers and eastern
money lenders the farmers are at fault;
and that at any rate every act of the
Kansas legislature, especially if it be
a POpulist legislature, relating to mort
gage Indebtedness, is intended to swim
die the money lender. We are not de-
nying that some reprehensible legisla-
ton has given color to these injurious
notions, but there is. to say the least.
much exaggera ton. The farmers have
had reason for some of their complaints
as we'll as eastern money lenders for
some of theirs. There is room for more
fairness, calmness and Willingness to
hear reason. on both sides.
And in general, it is proper to say
that if the east and the west knew each
other better. fewer people in the west
would believe that the east is princi-
pally inhabited by Shylocks greedy for
pounds of flesh; and fewer people in
the east would believe that large sec
lions of the west are controlled by wild
eyed fanatics who take for their mot
to, Property is robbery"
On this the Atchison Champion com
ments as follows:
The above from the Boston Advertis-
er is full of good sense which ought to
commend itself to some of the uneasy
marplOts and political fault finders
who make Kansas their home. It is
not much wonder that Kansas people
have been looked upon with distrust in
New York and New England when so
many Kansas newspapers and Kansas
politicians have busted themselves in
criticising Kansas measures and Kan
sas men
It is.indeed.a most hopeful sign when
an influential, conservative New Eng
land newspaper like the Boston Adver-
tiser. wisely sees the truth and bravelv
publishes it. Its comments remind US
forcibly of the remark made to the
writer of these lines, at Lookout Inn
last September, by a general who serv-
ed in the Confederate army: IF we
had known the northern people in 1861
as we know them now: and if you folks
had known the southern people as you
know them now, there would have
been no southern cOnfederacy and no
war"
The Advertiser correctly says that if
the east and the west knew each other
better. fewer western people would re-
gard the east as inhabited mostly by
Shylocks, and the east would not re-
gard the west as governed by public
and private robbers. The advent of
POpulism in Kansas was not wholly
the outgrOWth of sOciahstic ideas, but
its great strength came from the tens
of thousands of honest voters in this
state who improved the opportunity to
punish those Republicans who abused
public confidence by using public trusts
&c private snap for personal profit.