Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1897-07-15
SCARCITY OF MONEY.
Many Parts Of the South and
West Have No Money.
Business Conducted by Barter-A Re-
marknbIe speech by w. T..
DodGe-What Caused Bry-
ans Big Vote.

Mr.. w. Z. Dodge, one of New York's
most enterprising and philanthropic
business men, was a delegate from the
| New York chamber of commerce TO the
/ business mems sound money conven-
tion which met recently at indianapolis.
He was member of the executive com
mittee of the indianapolis convention.
A short time after he was chairman of
the arbitration committee at Wash
ington. In both capacities he had ex-
cellent opportunities for meeting
I Representatives from different states.
The following is part of his some
what remarkable speech before the
chamber of commerce when submit
/ ting his report Of the Indianapolis
monetary conventions:
Il was surprised, sir, to find the
assertion made constantly by men from
/ the far western states and the south
/ and southwestern states that it was not
Mr. Bryan and it was not silver that
/ they were in favor of, but they needed
some change to bring relief from the
terrible condition Of poverty and scare
ity of money under which they labored.
They felt that their condition was so
extreme and SO painful that any change
would be of value, and when / came to
/ look into the matter and talk in a kind
! ~ and friendly way with them they all
confirmed the same feeling. which !
! had found at a long conversation in the
treasury department, in Washington,
! that the circulation of the country is
quite out of joint, and the lungs and
heart are congested and that the ex-
tremities of the country are absolutely
without any blood
81 found that there were great sec
tons of the southern and western
country where there was absolutely no
money al all. where the most primitive
] forms of barter obtained, where every
thing was most disorganized. One
| gentleman told me that in his county,
which was quite a rich agricultural
country, by some happy accident $50
bank bin had come down into the coun-
! ~, and that he had taken horse and
buggy and spent four days in visiting
all the towns IN the county striving TO
/ get il changed into smaller bills, but
had been unable to do so, and finally was
obliged to send it to Richmond. There
were senator's who told me that their
constituents never saw dollar of mon
/ ey from the beginning of the year to the
end, with the result that they had con-
stantly to go into debt to the local
! storekeepers. The local storekeepers
received their pay in kind In fact,
everything was drifting back to the
old times before money was invented.
And this was not in one section of the
] country only, but in large sections.
I'VE can quite easily understand that
where there is not sufficient money TO
establish national bank under the
! very onerous laws at present in force
/ there is nothing else to take the place.
| The same difficulty has come up in other
| parts of the world. In Austria and Hum
| gary, in southern Germany and in
southern France these difficulties were
understood and appreciated years ago,
and agricultural banks have been
founded there, and they have doubled
the valne of real estate, and they have
made the peasantry and the farmers
rich and prosperous.
The same thing has taken place in
Scotland, as many of our friends know.
| Every town in Scotland with over 900
| people has a branch bank of some one Of
The great banks of Edinburgh or Glas-
gov. \ man of good character who
wants to fit out a fishing smack or buy
anything for his farm is able to 90
there and if his credit is good he is
able to borrow money as cheapIy as any
merchant could 1t has a double effect
it is not only giving to those neighbor-
hoods the money that they actually
need, but it is educating the people in
thrift and promptness. l have talked
with a great many of my banking
friends, who say that the whole thing
depends upon the character Of the peo-
pie; that the people are speculative and
that nothing can be done for them.
MY impression is that if some
thoughtful plan could be suggested Il
would be quite possible TO educate ali
the agricultural people of the country
TO understand that man who Is thrifty
and honest and sober and prompt can
always in some way get some money.
1t is very hard thing do not under
stand i at all here because we have 50
much money moving among us-but If
every time We went to store ,va were
unable TO buy anything except on credit, /
if we had no money to pay dow to en-.
able US 70 reap the advantages Of cash
payments. should BEGIN To be fret