Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1893 — A Kansas Financial Scheme. [ARTICLE]

A Kansas Financial Scheme.

St. Louis Globe Democrat. One of the enterprising farmers of western Kansas whose mortgage has not yet stripped him of his estate is to be credited with a novel financial invention. His farm rests on a bed of salt 250 feet in thickness, which he estimates to be worth $3,000,000; and he has issued bonds upon this deposit to the amount of $50,000, which he is offering for sale. The property in other words, a product six, times as valuable as the amount of the bonds, and he points with pride to the fact that the bonds of railroad companies, for instance, are by no means so well secured. Those who buy these bonds, he declares, need entertain no fears of repudiation or depreciation, whenever the bondholder desires redemption, all he has to do is to go and dig a sufficient quantity of the salt preserve and pay himself in full. Some sales have been made, it is reported, and the bonds are being used in the neighborhood as currency. There are many other farms in Kansas which have salt under them of various degrees of thickness, and thus an easy way is provided for the inflation of the circulating medium. The owners of tracts of land have only to calculate what the crude deposit is worth, and issue bonds or notes on it accordingly. It is all a matter of simple arithmetic and a little expense for printing. The parity between gold and silver, and other vexatious questions which are now being talked about, have nothing to do with the case; it is an issue of salt, and that is all. This seems very absurd, of course, to people who are in the habit of dismissing the National finances, but it is really not more ludicrous than some other plans that are seriously proposed for the reconstruction of our currency system.