Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-05-06
HORSE SENSE
OUGHT TO POINT BUSINESS
MEN TO THE RIGHT
ROAD.
Why Should They Sacrifice All
Their Own Interests to Greed
of the Money Changers?

bankers, merchants, manufacturers
and the managers OF railroads and
other corporations. Of course all
men who earn money in any way are
business men. But for the purpose
of this article we deal with the in
terests of the men who conduct busi-
ness enterprises, whether they are
individuals, firm or corporations. We
will PROFOUND a few questions to
them.
We will ask the manufacturer why
he works himself up to such enthu-
he should known by little examina-
ton and reflection that the gold
standard provides stationary
amount for an increasing amount of
population and business. 1t provides
the same sized clothing for the man
that he had when a boy. This con-
slant widening Of the gulf between
the supply of money and the demand for its
uses is contraction. Suppose the demand
! to be stationary and the supply 10 be con-
stantly diminishing. The contraction would
then be obvious. 1t does not require much
reasoning to understand that contraction
must as certainly follow a stationary de-
mand and an increasing demand as 1t would
| follow stationary demand and decreasing
supply. Continuing contraction logically
| compels the continuing reduction of prices.
The lees money there is in the world the
more property each price will buy. The
more sugar you give for dollar the smaller
the price you receive for each pound of the
sugar. So with every other article of daily
consumption. Manufacturers are sure to lose
while prices are falling, if they manufacture
goods beyond the immediate demand of the
| market. If they manufacture stocks which
would require three or four months to dis
pose of through the various channels of
trade, they find when time expires that the
goods on hand have fallen in pri 20 below
the cost of their manufacture. It is this
that has paralyzed manufacturing. What
possible intere 81 can them anufacturers have
only object of which is to make money dear
and all other kinds of property cheap?
Why does the merchant walk in procession
and shout the usurer's stale cry of "sound
money" when he ought to know that to ad-
vocate the gold standards to increase the
value of money at the expense of everything
else, and thereby to advance the cause of
unsound and dishonest 10 oney? The dollar
that is made by law harder 10 get by the
borrower than it would have been when he
borrowed are palpably dishonest. The de-
structlon of silver as money made every g I'D
dollar worth nearly twice as much as it was
worth before. Was not this Just as dishonest
as it would have been to double the amount
of gold in ten dollar coin? Ia it not
strange that merchants should clamor for a
continuance of this system of cutting down
the prices of the goods on their shelves and
in their warehouses?
Why do the railroad managers play into
the hands of the usurers? The single gold
standard has created such decline
in the prices of all commodities that the
products of tho mill and of the farm that
will sell at thu seaboard for what it costs to
produce and transport them thither. How
are the railways to earn operating expenses
and interest on their bonds if the earth will
not yield tsproducts to be carried as freight
on their roads2 And how can the earth be
expeoted to yield when the husbandman
cannot obtain as much for his farm products
as the cost Of their production and the
transportation to the market place? With
silver restored as money metal to its old
place, the steady decline of prices would
change to an equally steady rise of prices.
Silver equally with gold would soon pay
debts and buy goods everywhere. because
the demand for gold would decrease until
it's parity with silver would be substantially
attained. With raising prices the capital
which is now bursting the vaults of the
come forth for investment in business enter
prises. This would give employment to
millions of men who are now idle, and they
would have the money with which to
buy the necessaries of life. An increase of
consumption means an increase of business,
including the transportation business.
Now, capital hides in the dark for fear of
being lost; but il can be easily borrowed at
two and a-half per cent. per year by any
who will give security of the value of two or
three to one. Money lenders no longer ex-
pect to be paid their principal. They grant
extensions as long as the borrowers can pay
the interest. But as properly shrink it will
not yield sufficient returns 70 pay interest,
and will pass into the hands of the creditors.
This is constantly being done. The same
process is going on with the great railroad
properties. They never pay any of their
debts when they mature. They give new
notes, just as Wilkins Micawber did. Under
the present conditions the railroads of this
country cannot, as rule, earn oper ting
expenses and interest on their bonded indebt-
edness. Bondholders are being satisfied at
present with reorganization plans, by which
they take the railroad property in payment
of the bonds, and then issue new bonds in
lieu of the old ones. The holders of the old
bonds become holders of the new. The re-
organization committees take good slice
as commissions for their services, and then
look for new game. 1t is a repetition of the
old fable of the monkey, the cats and the
cheese. Two cats divided between them a
piece Of cheese, and then quarrled as to
which had the larger piece. They submitted
the question to the monkey as an arbitrator.
Finding one of the pieces heavier than the
other he bit some of it off. This made it
lighter than the other, and he bit some of
of that This process went on and he was
never able to get both pieces the same size.
He gradually ate both up in his endeavor to
do 80. The retired men of fortune in
Europe who have invested in American
railroad bonds, upon the recommendation
of the great banking house brokers, like j.
p. Morgan & 90, and the Rothchilds, are
already becoming restless under the re-
organization" of companies in which they
own bonds and the sacrifice of large mouth
fuls of the railroad cheese during the pro-
cess of reorganization. The real interest of
the railroad managers and the interest the
bondholders would best be subserved by
united effort in behalf of the restoration of
States. American railroad bonds in Europe
would be worth much more in gold than
they are to. day ii it was certain that the in
terest on them would be paid in full legal
tender dollars or silver certificates, and that
our mints would be open to the free and
unlimited coinage of silver. The railroad
managers are afraid OF the great banking
brokers, who have thus far been able to
build up or pull down the credit of great
corporations at their pleasure. They have
the power to break away from their self-ap-
pointed taskmasters and deal with their
creditors directly. The foreclosure of rail.
road mortgages would prove a losing busi-
ness to bondholders, and they,known it. To
avoid it they will make fair terms and con-
sent to such scaling Of railroad debts as
larly on the reduced indebtedness of the
roads.
The only men who are benefited by the
gold standard are those who lend money for
themselves or for others. We have just
shown that those who lend money for them
selves are not safe against such a reduction
10 the value of their securities as will con-
stitute automatic reputation.
r. 20 . atrorsya pact a ola In aaA tho aIIiad