a proper rate of interest, to supply the poor
men and to keep the improvident young men
from spending all their means.
Mr. CLARKE. In my humble judgment this
is not a question in the determination of
which we are called upon necessarily either
to protect the poor roan or to protect the im-
provident young man, although those two
classes may more or less be affected; but the
question is what provision shall be inserted
in this constitution which is best for the gen-
eral interests of the State, which best protects
the wants of the community. It is the ques-
tion whether or not we should fix a certain
rate of interest, whether we shall leave it en-
tirely open to the private contract of parties.
It is a question the right determination of
which will decide what is the real value of
money when loaned out, looking to the gen-
eral wants of the community and looking to
the general value of money.
[It cannot be denied that however currency
may fluctuate, there is such a thing as a real
value of gold and silver, Money, as repre-
sented by gold and silver, has a real value.
The present experience of this land shows it.
You have legalized paper. You have made
it a tender, so that a dollar of paper money
extinguishes a dollar of debt. But what is
the result? Do you buy the commodities of
life at the same price at which yon bought
them before? Not at all. You can go, if
you pay the gold, and buy at the same rates.
Hence the result of it is that paper money is
all brought down to one standard, that of
gold and silver, which is real money, having
a permanent and fixed value.
Money having a fixed value, in the sense
in which I have referred to it as being repre-
sented by gold and silver, the value of the use
of money should be fixed and permanent.
Why is this? Could men engage in perma-
nent legitimate operations without any know-
ledge of what they are to pay for the use of
money except for the passing moment? How
can a farmer, for instance, purchase real es-
tate, and make improvements upon it, to be
paid for five or ten years hence, if it is uncer-
tain what value he is to pay? Who will loan
money unless there is some fixed value for the
use of that money? if you leave this matter to
the determination of private parties alone, you
will have the rate of interest dependent not
upon the real value of money for the legitimate
purposes of trade, but governed by the spas-
modic speculations of the commercial cities.
What will be the result then? It will be that
men cannot pursue, as they now do, upon ft le-
gitimate and fixed basis, schemes of operations
based upon fixed rates of interest. The far-
mer or mechanic, or any man in the commu-
nity who prefers to plan out a scheme of life
based on fixed principles, will no longer be
able to pursue it; but he must adapt his
schemes to the fluctuations of the money mar-
ket produced by speculations in trade. |
It being desirable then that we should have
a fixed basis, I would ask whether the rate of
six per cent, is not near the true value of the
use of money. At one particular period,
in any particular crisis, money may be
worth more than six per cent. to some men.
in the crisis which occur in the trade of all
large cities, brought about not by pursuing
the legitimate benefits of trade, but by spec-
ulative operations, money may to some men
be worth more than that. But we should be
governed in fixing the rate of interest by
what is the legitimate value of the use of
money. I take the case of farmers. I take
the case of any man who enters upon legiti-
mate trade, or legitimate business based on
prudential and wise principles. I take even
the man engaged in commercial business,
who pursues not a wild scheme of business,
but carries on his business on sound and just
principles. And I say it is very rarely that
men can make on sound principles of trade
and of business more than six per cent.
Take the case of the farmer. I know that
in our own county, I know that in the his-
tory of the State many men do by work,
hard toil and labor, realize six per cent. on
the capital invested. A man who has his
propriety safely invested, who toils hard and
works hard, is very glad at the end of the
year it lie has realized a clear gain of six per
cent. Yet the money lender can sit down
quietly at his desk and draw his note and
throw it upon the market, and sell it for that;
and you propose to raise the rate of interest
to protect him in taking advantage in any
way he can of trade at a particular period,
and making more in that way than men can
make upon safe and sound investments, where
they can bring their own labor and skill and
toil to bear upon their own capital. The high
price of money at certain pericods in our large
cities is based upon the demoralizing feature
of American trade, a character or feature
which never existed more prominently than
at the present time, when instead of the
whole .'attention of the country being turned
to schemes of speculation, we should turn to
the more legitimate duties of the hour.
How does it operate any better that at cer-
tain periods money brings seven or eight per
cent. and at other periods three or four per
cent.? How can men who desire to operate
upon fixed principles make loans, and make
any calculations upon such a fluctuating
basis?
Hence I prefer the present provision in the
constitution to fix it at a permanent rate,
and that rate six per cent.
The reason why some men are willing to
pay twelve, twenty, and even thirty per cent.
interest, is found in the character of the trade
in the large cities, where the great mass of
men operate not upon a fixed capital, but are
engaged in schemes of speculation. A man
goes and buys $100,000 worth of stock, and |
