The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-11-10
WHAT WE OWE.
Cyclone Davis, Of Texas, in recent
speech, at Populist meeting in Iowa,
made the following statement:

Cyclone Davis, Of Texas. in a recent
speech, at a Populist meeting in Iowa,
made the following statement:
The national debt is $516 per capita, a
burden under which the American people
are becoming a nation of trampS. IL 1t IS
to be paid, where is the money to come
from? The money is now locked in the
vaults Of trusts and cannot be reached.
The interest on this debt amounts to $50
per capita per year. But according to the
report of the secretary of the treasury the
total amount of money in circulation Is
only $25 per capita, and so will not pay the
interest on the public debt. The way it is
now done is to sell bonds and raise the
bonded Indebtedness Of the country. The
restoration of confidence is not helping
affairs 1t is not confidence the people
Want-it Is cash.
This statement has kept the Repub-
lican papers busy ever since it was
made. They deny that the nation has
such a debt-that is to say, one issued
by the United States government: they
say it don't amount to the sum set forth
by Mr.. Davis, but they don't deny the
total Indebtedness Of the people is equal
to that grievous sum-and that is prob
Chicago Times-Herald, (Which may just
ly be claimed to be the leading Repub
lican paper of the country attempts to
justify this condition of things by ar
guing that if the people owe more than
they can pay, it is conclusive proof that
they are highly prosperous. This is in
line with the theory propounded by Hon.
Jay Cooke during the war, that "a ma
tional debt is national blessing" We
have had so much of the debt, and
the consequent blessing, that we are now
able to realize the full force and value
of it. We have paid off about half of
it, and at the present prices it would
take fully as much of our property to
pay the remainder, as it would have
taken originally to have paid The whole
amount The Times-Herald says:
The whole theory Of Populism concern
ing debt rests upon the notion that debt
is always a calamity, whereas 1t is simply
business partnership. All kinds of part
| nershp into which men have freedom to
enter profitable Improbable
cording to the wisdom with which they are
conducted. In the partnership of debtor and
creditor one man furnishes capital for an
other to use, and accepts certain limited
COmper sation, while the other takes the
management of the business and has for
himself all he can make above the agreed
sum. So long as some men are entelprls-
ing and some timid, are original
and full Of schemes while others are mat
ter-of-fact and cautious, some like bust
ness with it's risks and others like smaller
but more certain returns; long, indeed,
partnership of debtor and creditor will be
formed.
No man assumes a debt without receiving
what he estimates as It's equivalent. So
long as each obligation in a creditors hand
is offset by this equivalent in the debtors
possession what difference does it make
whether the Indebtedness Of the people of
the United States to each other amounts
| to $516 per capita or 81 232 per capita? Each
man concerned Is doing what he thinks
will be advantageous to himself, anu no
one desires any supervision from others.
Populism ignores the equivalent received
and simply bemoans the debt and the in
terest burden. 1t is as though the owner Of
a great factory should lament the necessl-
ty Of meeting the pay roll. Can anybody
define the difference between the burden
, # meeting a pay roll and the burden or
paying rent or interest? In each case the
proprietor hires and obtains the use Of
something for his private benefit, expect
ing by it's use to make enough to pay the
charge upon it and profit for himself 1t
would therefore be just sensible for the
Populists 70 add up the pay roll of the
United States and ask how the people can
continue to meet them to estimate the
interest charge upon borrowed money and
wonder how that can be paid.
This is all very specious and cunning,
hit the nreSent indebtedness of the
country is, in our judgment, based upon
the insufficiency Of the money supply.
| If we had three times as large money
supply tomorrow as we have today,
prices would double or treble. This