The Silversnake; A Temptation (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896. Excerpt: ... teaches the poor to be still and sullen and to hate the active and saving, and so it discourages thrift and providence. As a rule men borrow money not to relieve distress, but to buy something with, which they either expect to sell again at a profit that will pay them interest and leave them what will satisfy them for their effort, or to carry accounts due them and in which there is a profit. Debtors who have borrowed to relieve distress are in such a minority that it is safe to say that nearly every one in this country who is in debt, went into debt for the purpose of making money, and borrowed other people's money to do it with. They should pay that money back. The vast majority are honest enough to do it. CHAPTER XII. WHY WHEAT FELL. WHY IT DON'T RISE. The free silver men claim that the fall in the price of silver has caused the depression in wheat. Silver has never had any influence on the price of wheat. Let us group a few facts.--In 1873 Bussia began to compete with us in wheat. That year she put into the competition about 42,000,000 bushels; in 1891 she sent over 97,000,000 bushels, an increase of over 100 per cent. India in 1873 sent about 700,000 bushels; in 1892 she sent nearly 60,000,000 bushels, eighty times as much. Argentine sent not a bushel in 1873. She began the competition in 1876, sending 6,000 bushels. By 1892 she had increased this to 156,000,000 bushels, twenty-two thousand times as much As if this enormous foreign competition was not enough, our own people began to double and double the output. The annual wheat crop of Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania increased from 22,272,000 bushels in 1872 to 39,604,000 bushels in 1891, or about 80 per cent. The production of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio. Kentucky and Tenness...