USA > Indiana > Lake County > The First Hundred Years (1938) > Part 6
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Not only our pork, wool, cotton, beef, butter, cheese, etc., amounting in total annual product of the soil to 3,000 million dol- lars, is all thus measured. But every paper dollar in circulation, and the "independent greenback", the "money" of the future will be no exception. Go to New York and try to buy coffee or tea or tin or quinine or sugar or silk or the thousand things im- ported, with this Congressional greenback, and be convinced.
Hard money men, as they are called, do not expect an ex- clusive coin currency, and it is strange that these advocates of an exclusive paper money will misrepresent them. They advocate gold as a standard measure of value, and paper convertible into gold. Impossible, says Mr. Landers. California, Oregon, Nebras- ka, Washington Territory and Montana maintained coin pay- ments, and I think Colorado. Canada keeps up steady specie payments; as does France, Belgium, Holland, England, Ireland and Scotland. And we, with more fertile soil, more mineral wealth, more sea coast, a system of interior water communication planned by nature more grand than any other nation under the sun, can- not do that which other nations do and do successfully. This has been repeated over and over again by designing demagogues until thousands believe it. As long as the people themselves are so demoralized as to lend themselves to any plan which promises temporary benefit, and as they foolishly think, personal advantage to themselves, at the expense of national honor and the public
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credit, so long will such schemes succeed. With the public credit gone, private credit is impaired, confidence in our own govern- ment weakened, confidence in each other broken, no trust, no faith in public officials, everything becomes unsettled. Chaos, ruin, and finally the wrecked wilderness of bankruptcy stares us in the face.
But what is the cause of the present position of business ? Not contraction for there has been no contraction. We have had 13 years of paper money, and the highest tariff that has ever been maintained in any civilized country, and after these 13 years of trial, the results are before the country. As long as the whole world lent us money, as long as Congress gave away millions of acres of land grants, as long as every city and nearly every county issued bonds, and could borrow money on them, all was lovely. It was an expansion of credit, expansion of currency, expansion of land grants, expansion of everything that could be expanded. Two thousand millions of bonded debts, or railroads alone. The prodigals were spending their money and robbing the lands from the people. Look at the iron interests! Sez my friend, T. J. Wood, of Crown Point, in the Times, land grants and the stimulus given to railroads by the tariff runs the price of iron up to $60 per ton. A Brazil furnace cleared $10,000 a month.
Nails went up, plows were doubled in price. The president of an iron furnace got $10,000 a year, while the farmer, his wife and children would have to work fifty years to accumulate as much. Wasted sympathy, spare, oh, spare your lament for the iron interest! It is a contradiction of credit. Today the banks are full of unemployed currency, loan offices in every county seat, inviting farmers to borrow, rather have farm mortgages, with the interest than greenbacks. Afraid of everything but land. Cur- rency unemployed; and yet they say it is contraction, and they want more money.
What is wanted to unlock all is confidence. It is not the fear of resumption, it is the fear that we will never resume-the fear that led by demagogues who are working for power, the people will sustain them in opposition to resumption, and give unlimited power to Congress to issue an unlimited amount of paper money, lowering the value of greenbacks to fifty cents or less on the dollar, and down grade once commenced, where will it stop? Confidence! Who can have any? We have not today hardly honest men enough to collect the whiskey tax. Soldiers at $16 per month are robbed by post traders, to enrich a cabinet member and wife. Public offices are bought and sold. Our high-
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est representative abroad to a foreign court, if reports are true, makes merchandise of his position, lent his name and office to a fraud, to rob the people and to enrich himself, credit mobilizers, North Pacific, 196 railroads, now defaulting on their bonds- over 500 million dollars-and their money coaxed from widows and orphans and working people all over the world by lying, flaming circulars, and lying agents sent all through Europe. Confidence ! Who can have any? This thirst for wealth without earning it, this rage for pomp and show; this reckless use of money to cor- rupt, to buy, or to intimidate until in every county seat was a bribed press paid from a corrupt fund, and a paid agent to manage the county in the interests of the powers at Indianapolis and at Washington, and this thing extended into townships; and from Washington down has worked through every department and people, and like the leaven, it has leavened the whole mass, and has demoralized nearly everything.
Read what the New York Economist says, not a political paper but strictly a commercial paper. Speaking of the slow re- vival of trade, the Economist says :
The war and resulting inflation of currency and prices begot an extravagance of living and doing business that, long kept up, could not but lead to disaster. Vast stocks of goods of many kinds were made. And but half consumed by the buyers. Enough was spent by many persons in a week to provide them reasonably for a month. The real cause of the paralysis of trade is not scarcity of currency, nor is it contraction thereof. It is a contraction of something far greater than currency, a contraction of credit. Money is not scarce, for it is heaped up in places of deposit, wait- ing acceptable employment. What has been for years contracting, what sank to almost nothing in 1873, and thus caused the long growing panic to burst forth in tremendous force, is lack of con- fidence. Men have grown to trust each other less and less, under the demoralizing influence of over-government, over-taxation, and legal-tender paper. Owners fear to trust their property out of their own hands, bankers and lenders distrust borrowers ability, and even their disposition to pay, and hence, dread to aid enter- prize, energy, and skill as the latter deserve. Mills and mines cannot obtain funds to keep them going, because owners of avail- able funds see no certainty of getting their money back. While this wide-spread distrust lasts, it is impossible for trade to re- vive, especially when the heaviness of taxation and the fluctuations in the purchasing power of the currency, make it possible, and even probable that they will be stripped of their honest gains. Trade will fully revive when men have gained confidence in each
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other, and when taxation and currency are on a sound and stable basis.
To bring about this combination will be a long and painful process, but it is the sole road out of our present troubles. The sharpers and swindlers of whatever kind or degree, must be ostracized. Honest men must come to the front and take the lead. Accomodations must be extended to trusty borrowers and to them alone. Law must thoroughly protect every citizen in the full and undisturbed possession of his own. All swindling under what- ever pretext or disguise must be certainly punished, if not by courts, at all events, by public opinion. Dishonest men must be made to feel that, whatever their wealth or position, their dis- honesty forfeits and destroys their social standing. When honesty is commercially and socially at a premium, and roguery commercially and socially far below par, trade will revive and flourish.
The truth, and well said "Taxation and currency on a sound and stable basis." That then is the work now before the country, and to provide in some way for the honest payment of all our debts. This work may not be pleasant perhaps, but it is the sure road to establish "confidence", and in the end permanent and lasting prosperity. We shall never have a purely gold and silver currency, at least it is not likely. But gold as a basis, and paper convertible into gold, so that the whole currency will express gold values. This ought to be the end aimed at. The first step should be to restore the right to convertibility into gold bonds at a lower rate of interest. This the first issue had. But this was repealed, and it seems the policy of the government has been directed to- wards decreasing the bonded debt, and making provisions for it, and doing nothing practical for the greenback.
Banks we must have in a great commercial and agricultural nation like ours. They are a necessity. No substitute for them has yet been found, 90 per cent of all payments being made through banks by checks, drafts, balances, etc., and the various plans known to commerce, without the payment of an actual dol- lar. Conceding their necessity, why this onslaught? Why at every farmers meeting in the West such repeated blows at the National banks? Denounced, and by resolutions in Illinois, In- diana and all the Independent conventions everywhere, demand- ing the withdrawing of all their notes from circulation. What has been done to deserve this I cannot see. It is to me canting, dema- gogism. It is always safe among some to denounce banks. It is purchasing a cheap popularity. Say they: Save the interest on
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the bonds and let the Government issue greenbacks direct, in- stead and in place of notes of the National banks, and save this interest. This has been told over and over again. It is the great argument why the banks should be destroyed. If the banks were abolished tomorrow, it would not save one cent to the Govern- ment. The bonds draw interest whether in the old chest at home or deposited as security in Washington for the circulation of notes of a National bank. With free banks secured by United States bonds, we have the safest, most uniform and best system we ever had. The people have never lost a dollar on the notes of the Na- tional banks. They are not perfect, but if the people will it and with proper legislation, they can become specie paying banks. Let the people through the National banks do their own banking and let Congress be relieved from all such business.
I write this in a friendly spirit. We are as citizens deeply interested. It is a big subject, and it is a pity it could not be considered simply on its merits, stripped of all partisan feelings or prejudices. As it is I fear it will be made the football of party and presidential aspirants. I have no desire for controversy, nor will I now be drawn into it. It is my honest opinion freely ex- pressed-this, and nothing more.
Bart Woods.
Ross, Lake County, Indiana April 8, 1876
WHERE ARE WE DRIFTING ?
Editor Star :
Last week over one hundred men came to the clerk's office in Crown Point, and declared "their intention to become citizens" and by this legal fiction, they are voters.
Indiscriminate suffrage is the curse of our political system. The ballot should be more sacredly guarded than it is now; to- day it is too cheap.
Indiana invites by her constitution and laws every man, be he good or bad, ignorant or criminal, thief, communist, anarchist dynamiter or anything in human form, though possessed of seven devils, can vote in Indiana; no discrimination, anything can vote except-a woman.
Six months in Lake county makes a voter. Your boy born here must live 21 years before he can vote. Under this infamous system, it is a disadvantage to be born in the United States. The men and women whose labors have made Lake county what it is, are robbed of their rights; these six-month men virtually dis-
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franchise the citizens here; the votes of the men who pay the taxes are swamped by the alien votes. Why not insist that this six-months foolishness, this crime against ourselves and against our children shall stop, that the law shall be changed and that an amendment to our state Constitution shall be submitted to the next legislature, which shall declare as the organic law of Indiana, that none within her border can vote unless he is a citizen of the United States.
April, 1888 Lake County Star
B. Woods
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TARIFF ARTICLES
WIDER MARKETS FOR THE FARMER
Crown Point, Ind., Feb. 27, 1889
Editor Herald :
"Protection" has done its best to destroy the foreign markets for the farmers, provoking retaliation by hostile tariffs against us in Europe and we see the results in every market in our own country. We have a surplus of agricultural products left after supplying the home market of from 500 to 700 million dollars worth. It must go somewhere, and the only way to keep up paying prices, is more extended markets, a freer trade with all the world. The people of Europe cannot buy of us unless we buy of them. There is no one-sided commerce. Ships don't go out loaded and return in ballast. A restriction on imports is a re- striction on exports. To pay for imports gives employment to American labor on American farms, freights American railroads, quickens every industry and builds up and makes possible in this interchange of products such commercial cities as Chicago. The ranchman and the farmers may hold conventions and may be led off from the real cause of low prices and depression in farm products and say the trouble is with the railroads-some say the packing houses. Why not go to the bottom of facts? They will find that our country with such vast capacity for production has outgrown all conditions that could be benefited by the ex- clusive and foolish policy of protection. Our country must share in the commerce of the world and have the world for a market. This is the remedy. But protection, emboldened by its triumphs, now proposes to put the chains on interstate commerce. John Jarrett, the manager and political worker in the interest on tin plate, in a letter to a Maine paper said "Even if the unlimited free trade we have among ourselves in this country is beginning to be looked upon as not altogether an unmixed blessing." Exactly. "Protection" means privilege, exclusion. How dare Alabama iron intrude on the prerogatives of Pennsylvania iron? Why should Dakota wheat dispute in the market with the products of Indiana or New York? California, Colorado and New Mexico, breaking down the price of wool in Ohio? Texas and the ranches in the
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mountains and plains flooding Chicago stockyards with range cattle? Is it not perfectly consistent for the high tariff states of Ohio and Pennsylvania to "protect" their own butchers by ex- cluding western dressed beef and insisting on state inspection ? And, if this thing continues, we may expect to see the great state of Illinois appealing to state pride and state rights, and insisting that the milk supply of Chicago shall be from Illinois cows who have been duly inspected under state supervision, the Wisconsin and Indiana farmers can keep their own milk and do business in their own state, would Illinois allow Wisconsin and Indiana a share in the markets of Chicago? All this and more would be possible had not the fathers of the Republic wisely prevented any such foolishness. Free trade is the supreme law between all the states. The efforts now made show simply the outgrowth, the sequence of the protective policy. If "Protection" is right, our vast resources are a curse. Protectionists do look on interstate traffic as partly an evil but to a free trader it is a living witness to the virtues and wisdom of free trade. In no other way could our people harmonize their different interests. This exchange, this unrestricted commerce, this free trade amongst the states makes us, more than anything else, one people. It binds the Union in a commercial brotherhood which all the ingenuity of the pro- tectionists cannot disturb. The farmers must have the right of free exchange of products or stop production measured only by the wants of the home market. This is an impossibility.
B. Woods.
INVITATION TO BARTLETT WOODS
BARTLETT WOODS Crown Point, Indiana
DELEGATE to the
TARIFF REFORM CONVENTION Central Music Hall
Chicago
Feb. 19, 20 and 21, 1889
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WHAT IS THE REMEDY ?- 1889
Editor Star :
In the Star of November 1 is the following :
"Verily, the farmers have a right to growl. The prices of oats, hay and corn are too cheap."
This is true of all farm products, and as a business question of so much interest to the welfare of all, especially the farmers, reducing their incomes, and their ability to purchase, or pay their debts.
Now what is the remedy? Farmers know there is something the matter; we can see this by the growth of the Farmers' Al- liance in several of our agricultural states. Demagogues and in- terested partisans try to lead them off from the true course, to blind them to their best interests. The patrons of husbandry in some states are increasing in numbers and influence; in Michigan the patrons are foolishly boycotting all the stores in the towns but one, forcing a contract to sell to them at a small percentage, they agreeing to buy only of the one store, thus starving out all the other stores. Such a course is an outrage and a wrong; it is a despotism, an exercise of power founded on selfishness and ignor- ance. Farmers in this way are destroying free competition, the very thing, the very principle they should uphold and contend for. They have to submit to competition from the states to the west of us and from this there is no escape; not only this, but we have to compete in the sale of our surplus in foreign markets with nearly every country on the globe. South and Southwest, the farmers have an organization called the "Wheel", and in Ala- bama, the "Alliance". They are going to build their own ware- houses, have their own stores, etc. They will, or rather, they pro- pose to get rid of what they call the "middle man". They may try it, but it will fail, as it always has failed. A farmer to suc- ceed must be a farmer, and to be suuccessful in these times of close margins, requires as much brains and energy as any other in- dustrial pursuit.
They are on the wrong track; trade and commerce are the middle man and are the best friends of the farmer. If there is a scarcity in one place they find it, as they do where there is a surplus; in parts of Wisconsin this year there is an abundance of potatoes; without a market they would rot. In parts of New England they want potatoes, and there being a free trade be- tween the states, no obstacles in the way, they can go there. The
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"middle man" finds a market for the grower, and the consumer gets potatoes; both are benefited.
The remedy in this case to give value to the potatoes is a market. Carry this idea out and apply it to our immense farm products, increased and doubled up every year by the cultivation of the fertile states west of the Missouri, as well as increased pro- duction in all.
The remedy is not in boycotting store keepers, making our own plows or building warehouses or elevators, or waging war against the men in our stock yards that buy more than half the cattle and put them in shape for transit, both to a home and a world's market.
We have free and uninterrupted trade between the states, so we must extend this to all the markets in the world. The remedy is markets. There is no over production for the world, but con- fined to the home market there is over production and this sur- plus thrown back on the home market, already overstocked, lowers prices, crushes trade in our towns, causes a depression and hard times. When we have a surplus, somewhere in the world there is a scarcity ; they have something we want, then why not exchange ! Simply because so many obstacles are purposely blocking our way. Our tariff legislation has been and is now in the interests of mines and manufacturers and against the farmers; our tariff averaging 47 per cent on imports, has provoked hostile legislation, which shuts out our farm products from some of the best markets in Europe.
While Great Britain opens her ports to us, and admits our farm products free, Germany and France retaliate on us, imposing heavy duties on our food products, thus depriving us of their markets. We all suffer from this unholy and senseless war of tariffs.
Our trade relations with Chicago would be in the same con- dition, if Illinois should put on a heavy duty on all the farm products of Lake county, and Indiana should retaliate by a "Pro- tective" tax or duty on everything imported from Chicago. The result would be lower prices for our produce, and lower value for our farms, trade would be crippled, dull and stagnant in all our towns and villages, every store would feel it. This artificial ob- stacle would as effectively injure us as though a mountain were in our path between Chicago and Lake county.
It is free trade between the states that gives us the home market, and so it is in Europe. The free trade countries there
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are the American farmers' best customers; the "protection" coun- tries shut us out. The remedy for low prices is extended markets, a free unrestricted commerce; this, or our very abundance will add little to our wealth or prosperity.
B. Woods.
Crown Point, Ind., Dec. 6, 1889 Lake County Star.
MORE MARKETS LESS RESTRICTION
Editor Lake County Star :
Any plan or any legislation that will help Lake county or will increase the pay of productive industry will help Crown Point, will benefit Lowell, Hobart and Hammond-in fact every town and village in the county. All this talk in some of our county papers about restricting American markets to American people is for politics only, is clear cant and humbug. Where would Ham- mond be if Hammond beef were restricted to our own American Markets? Hammond ships to Europe about 12,000 carloads of beef a year, and gets paid for it. Restrict the markets as these high tariff politicians advocate and all this beef will be thrown back on the home market, lowering prices still lower, less cattle being killed, few men would be employed, lower wages, and every in- terest in Hammond would suffer. The free trade countries of Europe are our best friends; instead of restriction we want more extended markets.
Checking imports will check exports; it takes two to make a bargain. If we exclude all the world, all the world will exclude us; we can keep our beef, etc., and they can keep their goods, and so there will be no trade, or in other words, no market, what a ter- rible calamity it would be if we were doing a rousing business in every country under the sun.
The whole protection policy as outlined in the MeKinley bill is worse for Lake county ; and more than doubling the duty on tin plate is a crime-and a robbery. And will make millionaires and our people will be plundered of thousands of dollars; and this is what they call "protection to American industry," and so it is all along the line of necessaries purchased by the people.
Binder twine instead of being lowered, the duty is doubled and trebled. The twine trust will then be solid and can defy the farmers.
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No wonder farmers are organizing an Alliance, and Patrons of Industry.
They are trying to find out what hurts them; boycotting stores in a town as some of them are doing, and bringing ruin to the town is all wrong-it is worse; it is working against the very principles they should uphold, that is free competition and an equal chance for all. Let them strike for higher game and not injure and ruin their own people.
B. Woods.
In this article written in 1886, Bartlett Woods gives us an idea of what might have brought on the panic of 1919-35: Editor Register :
I find the following in the Hobart Tribune :
Honorable W. B. Owen, Congressman from this Tenth Dis- trict, made a speech on the foreign mail bill in relation to relief it might afford us by affording a market for our surplus products. He believes overproduction is one of the gravest problems before the country and there seems no possible relief for it except by finding foreign markets, which he seems to show must be in South America.
As Mr. Owen will likely be nominated at the Convention, September 19, his opinions are worthy of consideration. I am very glad that he begins to see and consider the business conditions of the country. Mr. Owen believes overproduction is one of the greatest problems before the country.
What is overproduction? The farmer who only raises enough bread and meat for himself and family, and no surplus to sell, has no means to buy clothes, or educate his children, and so forth. This man is unfortunate, and is not troubled with over-production.
If all who are capable of labor, being employed, will produce more than they need for their individual wants, the result will be a very large surplus of agricultural, mechanical, and manu- facturing products. Having produced this surplus, what shall we do with it? The Chicago Tribune so well answered this ques- tion in their daily of March 2, 1877, that we will reproduce it.
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