People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1895 — Failures for Thirty-Eight Years. [ARTICLE]

Failures for Thirty-Eight Years.

Amount of Year. Failures. Liabilities. .1857 4,932 $291,750,000 1858 4,225 95,749,000 1859 3,913 64,394,000 1860 3,676 79.807,000 18616,993 207,210,000 1862 1,652 23.049,000 1863 495 7,899,900 1864 •... 520 8,579,000 1865 530 17,625,000 1866 1.505 53.783,000 1867 2,780 96,666,000 1868 2,608 63,694,000 1869 2.799 - 75,054,054 1870 3,546 88,242,000 1871 2,915 85.252,000 1872 4,069 121.056,000 1873 ..5.183 228,499.900 !1874 5,830 155,239,000 ,1875 7,740 201,000,000 1876 9,692 191.117,000 1877 8,872 190,669,936 j 1878 10.478 234,383,132 1879 6.658 98,149,053 1880 4,735 65,752,000 1881 5,582 81,155.932 1882 6,738 101,547.564 1883 ~...9.184 172,874,172 1884 10.968 226.343,427. 1885 10,637 124,220,321 1886 9.434 114.644,119 1887 9.634 167.560,944 1888 10.679 123.829,973 1889 10,882 148,784,337 1890 10,907 189,856,964 1891 12,273 189,868,638 1892 10.344 114,044,167 1893 15.242 346,779,889 1894 13,885 172,992,856

It shows that during the years of the war, when there was plenty of money, and the total volume was confined to what was known as the Union side of the controversy, making about S4O per capita, the number of business failures was reduced to a minimum. See, as you look at it, see how the contraction of the currency, beginning in 1866, increased the failures. Follow it now along down the years to 1894, and note its ravages as demonetization and bank credit, with its terrible tax on the people, were substituted for real money.

Defending Banking System. Mr. Hoc’’ —I must return to the question of banks. To a man accustomed to doing business at the present time the present methods of conducting commercial transactions are readily understood. That the quantity of gold in the world has not increased as fast as the business of the world has increased I admit. But it does not take as much standard money to do the same amount of business to-day as it formerly did. Human ingenuity has devised methods so that one hundred dollars in gold will do the same work that more than two thousand dollars used to do. Hence Mr. Harvey’s contention that the quantity of the standard money alone determines its value is incorrect. This increased power of gold which enables one dollar to do the work that twenty or more dollars used to do diminishes the actual demand for the metal itself, and hence prevents the burden he talks so much about being anything like in proportion to the amount of the business done in the world. Ninety-five per cent of the entire business of this country is done without the exchange of a dollar of currency. But it is all done on a gold basis, with a gold measure for value. While the gold is the measure of value the business is done by using all kinds of credit as a substitute for the money itself. It would be correct to say that, all other things being equal, the quantity of water in a running stream would measure its value as a power to be used to aid man in the production of commodities. Yet the same quantity of water turning an old fashioned undershot wheel will not compare in its benefits with the power obtained from the same quantity of water when mills are located along the bank of the stream at successive falls, and the same water Is used over and over again with turbine wheels, which take the place of the undershot, and thus increase the power in every mill, obtained from using the same water. Thus it is that the work which can be done with the same amount of gold is enormously increased by our new methods of bookkeeping and banking. ♦ ♦ * But j now come ( 0 the keynote of Brother Harvey’s entire system. He bases his new philosophy entirely upon the theory that the people of the world are mostly in debt. You won’t deny that (turning to Mr. Harvey.) It does not occur to him that the debtors and creditors, when you speak of sums of indebtedness, are always precisely the same. But the number of the debtors and creditors differ very greatly in all civilized and uncivilized countries. His whole method seems to be to prove that everybody is in debt, and that the legislation of the world should all be directed so as to relieve the debtor.

Just Like a Mill Stream. Mr. Harvey—Mr. Horr compares our money to a stream of water, and to the utilization of that water in the manner in which he illustrates it. I want to make another comparison to put alongside Mr. Horr’s illustration: Money is a stream. Suppose that along that stream manufactories had been erected, and all have adjusted themselves to the quantity of water, that life-giving fluid that Is flowing by them, and suddenly onehalf of that water Is taken out of the stream, what is the effect? (Applause.) That is the proper illustration to quote in this discussion in the demonetization of Oliver. (Applause.) Let me draw another illustration from the gentleman’s figure: Suppose we were by laws to give rights to men living along the banks of the stream of water to store it away, draw it out and put it in great reservoirs, and rent it to the manufactories and business houses along that stream that had adjusted themselves to the use of It, requiring them to pay a toll for the use of that water —then you would have our present banking system. (Applause.)

Mr. Horr —Glancing at them I find »hat this reports the failures of 1857 as compared with the failures of 1893. That is, they report the failures of both these years, and I make the comparison. 1857 was a year of fearful panic. I lived during those years. I suffered duri-’ those years. I know something of the trouble that spread over this nation then. We then had, according to my friend Harvey, a double standard. We had another bad failure in 1893, which he attributes to our being on the gold standard. I am not going to take the time in this debate to tell you what really led up to that panic in 1893, but one factor that entered into the panic of 1893 was the fear of the business men of this country and the world that our nation was going to be given over to a class of men that were shouting for free silver. That was one great trouble. In his immense effort in his last speech to make out that the country was going to ruin he recites the suicides and diseases that are incident to ttys human family at this time. But before I get through I must finish the failures of 1857. That table of his shows that they amounted to $291,750,000, or $lO per capita. That was under your double standard. In 1893 when we were under the gold standard, the failures were $346,779,000, that is $5.2' per capita. (Applause.) • They w’ere . >st about double in 1857 what they w're in 1893. But i iw to go back. Yesterday in a vivid description of what we are doing under this crushing money power he could not express himself until he compared the story df the crucifixion of our Savior, and laid that to the money power of that day. He forgot that the only man that betrayed our Savior was Judas Iscariot, the only silver man of the entire tribe (applause), and, what is remarkable, he insisted on a ratio of thirty to one. (Laughter and continued applause.) Now he takes up my illustration of the running water and wants me to tell him what would happen if they took away one-half of the water from the fount of a stream and so let only half of it run down. If they should do that unless there w’as plenty of water in the stream after they took the half it would make trouble. But if they could spare half and still have enough to do all the business of the country it wouldn’t make one particle of difference, not one particle. And before I get through I am going to convince Mr. Harvey, so that he will leave the room perfectly overwhelmed (laughter and applause) with the truth of my proposition. (Laughter and applause.)

Credit a Good Thing. Now my idea of life is entirely different from his. I think that credit Is a good thing, and we cannot have a creditor unless there is a debtor. Mr. Harvey, you are not the first person I have seen in the world who has conceived the idea that everything is wrong in the world on account of some one thing. I sometimes call such men cranks. (Laughter.) You will not be offended when I give the full definition of “crank.” I don’t use it for the purpose of being offensive. It is a man who has been thinking and brooding over some one thing until he twists everything in the universe so as to make it tally with his theory about that one thing, and then forgets all the other circumstances of life. It is on this account that Mr. Harvey talks constantly about the unlimited demand for money when free coinage is given to silver. Why, there is no such thing in the world as an unlimited demand for anything. He knows it. There is a limit to all demands for every kind of property, for everything in this world of ours. Why, I wonder, Brother Harvey, why instead of devoting yourself to business you haven’t before now established a school for the education of doctors. From your speech this morning on insanity, etc., you have a clear cut idea about physicians, and if you will apply your method of arguing you will open such a school to-morrow. The only way is to start out with the proposition that the whole human race is sick (laughter); that we are all subject to disease; that there isn’t a single person on the face of the earth who hasn’t some aches and some pain. Now If there is any unlimited demand for anything on the face of the earth, it is something that will relieve people from feeling badly. Doctors are the things. Consequently in order to carry out your theory it would become necessary to magnify the disease of the people. Make them think that every little ache is a disease that threatens life, and then you would get an unlimited demand for doctors. Now in order to carry out just that theory, my friend Harvey has magnified the debts of the people of this country. He does not recollect that the business of the world is more done upon credit than all other things combined. When you strike down the credit of the world you bring trouble. ♦ *»«**

Wage Earners Not Creditors.

Mr. Harvey—All that is necessary to reply to in what Mr. Horr has just said is this: That in computing the number of creditors and debtors in this country relatively, he has no right to count the wage-workers of this country as creditors because a week’s wages happens to be due them at the time he counts them. (Applause.) That a man who has ten or fifteen dollars due him, who »t the same time owes for grocery bills or other debts a larger sum than that ten or fifteen dollars, it is miserably ridiculous to have him counted in the creditor class. (Applause.) You cannot, Mr. Horr, defending the creditors of Old England and New England, get any sympathy or assistance from allies you are not entitled to, from men whom you seek to make your allies by a pretense that is base and false. Debts in this country have accumulated until men are now mortgaging property that they never thought of mortgaging before. When I say pawnbrok-

era I also have reference to the chattel mortgage fiend, so-called, who loans at from 2 to 5 per cent per month. Warehouses are now being constructed to store furniture—furniture that the owners ought to be sleeping on. I will drop this subject, because the least intimation makes the people know what I mean, by saying that I hold in my hand a book that gives the chattel mortgages in the state of Nebraska. Under a law there the owners of chattel mortgages were required to record them or they could not collect their money. And this book that I hold in my hand and pass over to Mr. Horr shows that there is a per capita indebtedness in the state of Nebraska on chattel mortgages alone of sl9 per capita, and that does not include the actual “three-ball” pawn shops; and I had a right when I said that the pawnbrokers of the United States had the people in debt to them $1,000,000,000. I had a right to say it, and it was true, as every other item in that list is true, which I have not now the time to answer without exhausting the words of this debate. Since this debate began I have followed its logical arrangement. Much more might have been said upon our side of this debate if it had not been diverted at almost every step after we had passed through the first chapter ending with the crime of 1873. We stayed together as far as that. Since then Mr. Horr has diverted this argument; had he not done so it probably might have been more educational. This debate is now coming to a close, except Monday, when we treat on independent action of the United States, and as I wish nothing Monday to interfere with what I shall say on that subject, I now wish to refer to an unpleasant matter. Presents Mr. Horr with a 17»» Dollar Since Mr. Horr came to Chicago, in newspaper interviews and in words used in this debate, he has alluded to me in very uncomplimentary language, and to my manuscript, to my manner and method of presenting these great truths to you. I am going to answer Mr. Horr, and, Mr. Horr, my answer is this: That I regarded this debate as a great question, involving the interests of the American people. My further answer is this: It concerns you. You are a man of vast experience. You are of all the public orators and debaters the foremost in America. You are the financial writer of the New York Tribune —aae the best posted man in the United States upon the gold standard side of this question. You were selected by the committee of bankers of this city for the reason that you are the ablest man in America to present it on their side. If there has been any weakness in your argument it has not been on your account, it has been on account of your cause. (Continued applause.) I have no word of reproach to pass back to you, I have only words of kindness to give you; and in addition to that I am going to do something that will cause you to remember this debate. I am going to give you a souvenir by which you may remember it. Omthe first day of this debate, when it was a question of supremacy between my cause and your cause, when It was a question of what was the monetary unit of measure in our coinage system fixed by our forefathers, I introduced many witnesses, among them Jefferson, the ccmmittee that was appointed to fix a monetary unit, the board of treasury, Secretary Gallatin of the treasury, Chief Justice Chase and others. But they are all now dead. I introduced one living witness. It was the dollar itself of 1799, with the word “unit” upon it. I am now going to give this coin to Mr. Horr. (Applause.) Take it, Mr. Horr. Washington may have carried it in his pocket; Jefferson may at one time have had it in his possession; it may have paid for the paper on which the declaration of war was written in 1812 against Great Britain; it may have been fondled by Jackson when writing his message to congress against the national bank. (Applause.) It is a fit souvenir for any American proud of his country and of its institutions to carry in his pocket all the days of his life. (Passing dollar to Mr. Horr. Applause, shouts, cries of “Hurrah!” and continued applause.) Mr. Horr —This little episode, according to all the rules of parliamentary debate and of social courtesy, requires a fitting reply of thanks to my friend for this very kind action. I must say, however, that I do not deserve one-half the eulogy he gives me. I came to this city myself expecting to discuss this question in a scientific and in what I call a straightforward way. I am not the most eloquent defender of the gold standard in the United States. I am perhaps an experienced public debater, that is, I have met many of the leading men of the United States who differ . with me on other great questions. I came here expecting that the debate would be carried on courtecusly, quietly, and that I- was to receive the treatment due to me as a gentleman. I have never yet complained of Mr. Harvey of one iota of discourtesy, or of anything of the kind. I don’t hold him responsible for the treatment I received through the first four days of this debate. I will leave it to him whether I wasn’t compelled in selfdefense to assert myself in order to stop the interruptions with which his sympathizers attempted to drive me out of this debate. And if I am guilty of any discourtesy, it isn’t to you, brother Harvey, nor could you control the men who forced me to say what I did. I was forced to say things that I never before in my life said to a public audience, but I had to do it in self-defense. Now, as the debate closes, I desire to say to you that I shall keep this dollar and put it to a good use. I intend to have a hole bored through it and then I will hang it around the neck of my little grandchild, born just as we commenced this discussion. (Applause.) This ended the day’s debate apd the usual* quota of questions followed. (Continued July 29.)