The Holly chieftain., 1907-11-29
What is Safe Collateral?

ent nnanClal unpledSantneSS snail
have been written it will be
found as in years past that the
farmers are the real saviors of the
nation in times of commercial
distress, says Lutte Wilcox in the
Field and Farm. Still the gov
ernment and the financiers are
never willing to accord to the ag-
ricultural classes the credit that
is due them for serving as the
governing balance to the 6nan-
cial machinery when it gets out
of kilter. We recall an instance
to show how farmers are disre-
garded in these matters. Along
in the early '9os, when the low
prices of our products and high
rates of interest on their burden
some indebtedness were driving
farmers into desperation and
bank ruptcy, many of them uni
ted in asking the government to
loan them money at low rate of
interest on non-perishable pro-
ducts that they might store in
government warehouses or other
designated repositories.
The farmers believed the Sc
curity was good, that the PROPOSE
ton was business-like and legit-
innate and was not more pro-
nounced example of class favorit-
ism than is the national banking
system with deposits in banks of
millions of dollars of public mon
ey, without interest, as an addi-
tional and gratuitous favor. The
farmers proposition was laughed
at, ridiculed, condemned and
scorned and on the pictures of
farmers in the comic papers the
hair and whiskers were made
longer and the feet bigger than
ever before. And no locality
was more prolific Of ridicule and
contemptuous scorn than Wall
street 9nd i .yirtually laughed the
1t is well to recall in this con-
ncction that at the very time the
farmers were the laughing stock
of Wall street, that government
petted lair of coin and crime was
being granted and joyfully ac-
cepted precisely such government
help as the farmers were not only
refused but condemned for re-
questing. The same tactics were
employed when the recent furry
broke out among the bulls and
bears and which by the way
proved our financial undoing as
we find matters today. In prin-
ciple the help was the same the
difference being in method. Wall
street has been helped out of
holes, corners and losses due to
gambling and the help came in
the form of millions Of the peo-
ple's money in the treasury pour
ed into Wall street at critical
moments to avert panic, etc.
At first government bonds only
were accepted as security for de-
posits, then municipal bonds were
taken and now even railroad Sc
curities are regarded good
enough, the things out of which
a billion dollars of value was
squeezed in a single day a few
weeks ago. Even here in Den
yer our present circulating checks
have the approval of the govern
ment because any old form of COL
lateral security has been put up
to ward off the ghost of distrust
which is always lurking around
in panicky times like these. 1t
is only a few years ago that the
supreme court rules against the
local scrip of the Mormons be-
cause it was regarded as an un-
constitutional issuance but this is
a cat of another color when our
own OK is gored. The farmers
products, the necessaries of life,
are not considered good enough
security at seventy-fve or even
sixty-six percent of their normal
value and the mere suggestion of
asking for public money on such
collateral is derided to the limit,