120 COIN'S FINANCIAL SCHOOL.
them at a profit. We are not now doing that. The other is to borrow it. So many of our friends have borrowed, that while they cannot borrow any more, it has made it unprofitable for those who can borrow to do so, as no business ventures are now profitable.
"The only money coming back to us at present from the East, which first goes there to pay interest, is about one hundred and sixty million a year paid by the government in pensions ; salaries paid to government employés, and money received in payment for produce on which there is no margin or profit.
"On one hand the law of the land says these debts must be paid, and there are the courts and sheriffs to enforce it.
"On the other hand, the people cannot pay, as a new monetary unit makes it impossible. The law spends its force by confiscating the property of the people. The people will retaliate * * *. Under the effects of this legalized robbery, which has been in operation for twenty years, the future of the republic looks serious and threatening.
"While not directly interested in our neighbor's debts, we are indirectly ; and general paralysis may come to our business on that account.
"In adjusting ourselves to a lower plane of prices, we are at once confronted with the fact that debts do not depreciate with other property, and that on account of its great size it becomes an oppression affecting all, more or less, and directly confiscating the property of millions.
"To expect these debts to be paid under present conditions, when it is so far beyond the power of the people to pay them, is too much. It is like trying to fit a 6-foot
