150 THE FARMER AS A BUSINESS MAN. 



annually for its use, they would do so. But they can not. 

 Four or five per cent, regular]}^ collected, is all that can be 

 expected, and is considered satisfactory. Much of it, and 

 perhaps most of it, earns •very much less. A great deal is lost 

 to its owners by bad debts. The total loss of the money loaned 

 by capitalists to the confederacy during the Rebellion is an 

 instance familiar to all in this country. Take it all in all, it 

 does not seem to me that capital when loaned earns for its owners 

 rewards which farmers would deem exorbitant, and therefore 

 it does not seem to me that efforts to control the use of money 

 should be mainly directed towards banks, which, in the popular 

 mind, are the re})resentatives of capital. 



Farmers are themselves large borrowers, and are more clam- 

 orous for "cheap money" than any other class of our citizens. 

 All attacks upon mone}^ whether by overtaxation,* interference 

 with collections, or any other method, tend to drive loanable 

 capital from the states where those practices prevail, and cor- 

 respondingly raise the rates of interest. I am not able to see 

 any business sense upon the part of farmers, in making scarce 

 and dear that which so many of them desire to obtain. 



The fact is that all the great enterprises of the world are 

 conducted with borrowed money, and it is towards the borrow- 

 ers rather than the owners of capital that efforts for control 

 should be mainly directed. Money is borrowed at low rates, 

 expecting that the enterprises in which it is invested will pay 

 high rates. The relations of the farmer to some of these 

 enterprises are considered elsewhere. 



So far as farmers can influence legislation affecting banks, 

 the measures whicli, in my judgment, they will be wise to pro- 

 mote, are sufficiently indicated in the foregoing pages. They 

 should be directed to insuring the safety of money intrusted 

 to tlieir custody, and if tliey issue notes, to assuring their 

 redemption on demand. Under the laws of all states note 

 issues are a first lien upon the assets of banks issuing them. 

 After they are paid, the depositors come in for what is left. 



* All money is almost necessarily overtaxed, because it can hardly be 

 assessed otherwise than at its full face value, while in many states all other 

 property is assessed at but a small portion of its real value. 



