The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-04-26

has been compelled to borrow money
to pay legitimate expenses, and no
man has been idle except from choice"
How have the mortgages been
paid?''
First, by rigid and forced economy;
by the sacrifice of all luxury and many
comforts; by the careful outstanding of
every source of revenue, and then by
the profits upon the splendid crops we
have had for the last two years. The
value of the crops of the Kansas farm
ers in 1896 was $116, 29O 600; in 1897 it
$4,000. =
what is the banking capital of the
state tOday?"
About si7, 900. 900. Of this $4,000, 900
is in national banks and $1,000, 900 in
private banks, and both have sur
plus of about $500 0Oo."
And the depoSits?"
about SAT zoo, 900. I cannot give you
the figures for the national banks, but
the deposits in the state banks, over
which I have supervision, have in
creased very rapidly. In 1891 they were
SIC, 000 600; in 1896 they were $14, 500, 900,
and in 1898 they were $23, SOC, 900. The
deposits in the national banks proba-
bly, amount to nearly as much more.
and these figures do not include large
sums of Kansas money that are depos-
tied in the banks of Kansas City, St
Louis, Chicago and other cities east of
u.s. a.A
And loans and discounts?"
Probably $37 600, coo, the remainder
of the money being in other banks; per-
haps S5.OOO.O0O subject to call in New
York, So 900. 900 in Kansas City and 49,
600, 600 in St. Louis
What are the 1oans?"
'Most of our bank loans are on cat
tie, at and per cent, and they are
difficult to obtain because eastern
banks and insurance companies are Of
fering plenty of money for and So
per cent"
yes continued Mr.. Breidenthal,
1.-THE credit of Kansas has been COM
pletely restored. There was never any
intention or desire to repudiate honest
debts. God never made a better set of
debt-payers, and where they have failed
to meet their obligations it has been due
to ina bility and not to indispoSition.
In the boom days millions of eastern
money was invested in wildcat enter
prises and was sent up in balloons, but
it was borrowed mostly by eastern ad-
VenturerS and not genuine Kansans
who were interested in the honor and
welfare of the state. Millions of this
money was stolen; millions was invested
in the stock of companies that never
existed outside the Imagination of their
promoters and the articles of incOrpOra-
ton. Town-site companies were or
lions of bonds for WaterwOrkS, gas
works, electric light plants, paving,
sewerage, court houses, school houses,
street railways and other public i'm
undertaken; many were attempted and
failed. The plains of Kansas are strewn
with the evidences of mistaken enter
priSeS. and when the boom COLLAPSED
the bonds were only worthless paper.
The people who issued them went back
to the places they came from, and Kan
saS was compelled to bear the blame of
their misdirected zeal or rascality. OF
course, it hurts the state, but the money
lenders have found that honest debts
are always paid in Kansas; that the
,E 10 to
that of Massachusetts, and are ready to
trust US for any amount But now we
have money of our own. We are lend
ers as we'll as borrowers, and have large
balances, as L told you, in the banks of
the east. In a short time Kansas will
be independent of OUTSIDE capital If
the present prosperity continues and |
we have two or three more good crops, |
we shall not have to ask odds of any
body
To illustrate the honesty of Kansas, |
Mr. Breidenthal called my attention to |
one of the hard-time laws that was |
passed by the legislature exempting |
nearly so per cent of the property OF |
the debtor class from attachment in en- |
forcing payment of their obligations. |
These exemptions include farm utensils, !
teams, wagons, a certain number of cat |
tie and other necessary appurtenanceS |
of a farm. Not one man in ten, Mr.. |
Breidenthal asserts, took advantage of |
this law, but 80 per cent of the Dor |
rowers paid their just debts dollar for |
dollar.
1 asked Mr.. Breidenthal how he as |
Populist and silver man accounted for /
all this prosperity without the aid of |
free coinage at 16 to l, etc He re-
marked with sly smile that there>were |
not half so many people working at that |
trade in Kansas as formerly, and added |
that the POpuliStS of this state were |
not entirely welded to free coinage. |
They had never held that the world |
could not prosper and be happy without |
Io1
and sufficient government currency.
I'VE are opposed to private or cor
porate banks of ISSUE he said. I'VE |
demand that all money in circulation
government; we want government notes
in place of national bank notes. We
are original and genuine greenbackers.'
Are you in favor of Bryan's renom
Ination?''
YES" replied the Populist leader of
Kansas. THE west will stick to Bry-
an. There is no telling what will hap
pen, however. The east is opposed to
him, and there is middle country that |
Is so uncertain that you never can tell
what the people will do
Mr.. Breidenthal is the only one of |
the active Populist leaders to survive
the wave of prosperity and the tickle
ness of human nature. Prominence in
that party seems to be fatal. The path
Of the political cyclone that swept over
kansas is strewn with the skeletons
Of statesmen, orators, editors and re Z
formers OF all persuasions, and those
who have survived are concealed under
he shadow of oblivion.
William y. PETER, whose wonderful
1hiskers gave him national fame, who
was lifted into the senate by the tidal
wave of reform, who pointed out to the
country so often the only path to
and contentment, and whose
offered as freely as salvation, is now
receiving a salary of $40 a week to