The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1901-09-19
than poor people, are they?"

i 2
mo, sir, they are not
But you said they showed how pa
triotic they were by buying them
What did they buy them for?"
why, to make money. They are a
good, safe investment"
What is good investment
| Zone that pays we'll and is safe"
| why are bonds safe?"
Because the whole taxing power oil
the government is behind Them"
"How we'll do they pay?"
"Why, 3 per cent interest"
Don't your mortgage draw 8 pei
cent?"
"Yes."
isn't a mortgage on your farm per-
fectly safer"
eyes, sir; it is"
isn't 8 per cent interest better rate
to the loaner than 3 per cent? ?"
eyes, of course it is"
"Then why don't these capitalists loan
money to you, instead of buying bonds ?
ooh, they have so much money that
if they should try to keep it loaned out
to farmers in small amounts, it would
keep them busy sixteen hours a day tc
look after it. This is just what they
wish to avoid"
Don't they need to look after the
bonds?"
mo, the government relieves them
of all responsibility. 1t takes their
money, invests it, SO to speak, collects
their interest for them and passes il
over to them, without particle OF
trouble on their part"
| Then if there were no bonds to buy
these rich men would have to invest or
loan their money themselves. They'd
have to hustle to take care of it."
eyes, it would keep them busy, to say
nothing of the annoyance of bad debts
and losses of various kinds to which all
business men are subject?"
"How do these rich bond holders
spend their incomes derived from the in
terest on their bonds?"
ooh, they have various ways. They
give expensive balls and parties, build
fine residences in the Thousand Isles or
at Newport, sail fine yachts and spend
most of their time travelling in Europe.
Some marry their daughters to sons OF
the nobility and settle millions of dollars
on them"
"Now, pa, let's recapitulate, as the
lawyer said. This is popular loan, yet
out of five hundred people whom you
know, only one bought a bond. 1t
showed our patriotism. AS none but the
rich bought, they are the patriots, and
"See here, my head aches, now"
"But, pa, l won't talk loudly. If these
rich men couldn't buy bonds, they'd have
to work and worry and make losses. AS
it is, they can now 60 to Europe, spend
| hundreds Of dollars day. and come
home a thousand dollars richer than
when they went away. In other words,
pa, the government becomes the fiscal
agent of these rich men. 1t furnishes
them a safe investment, collects their in
terest and returns them dividends, and
exempts them from taxation. This in
terest is taxed out of the over-worked,
producing classes, who are too poor to
be patriotic and too tired to think"
"My son."
"More than that, it shows that bust
ness is paralyzed when money IN this
country can be borrowed at 3 per cent
And instead of the country being pros
porous, it shows that small number are
very prosperous, but how about the five
hundred. who are so poor they must pay
| 8 per cent on gilt-edged security, with
millions tumbling over each other to be
invested at 3 per cent"
"My SON"
"Pa, it's perfectly plain to me now
why bonds are issued in this country
| +"
'I'll bond you with trunk strap,
sir"
(Boy goes to work at the onions.)