Some, Demented Morsel Of Humanity

whohasevidentlyburned incensé at the shrine of the Cleveland Joss so long that he isunableto properly distinguish between forms and fundamental principies, favored The Demockat with a communieationjthis week. Agreement with the views of the editor is not necessary to secure an audience in The Democrat, but as our presumedly distinguished correspondent lacked the tact to givepoint to his eff usion and the courtesy to sign his name it has gone where many good things have gone before- to the waste basket. The Democrat is ia receipt of a communication from the committce opposing a two dollar tariff on lumber which incidentally states that a tariff should be framed in the interest of the people. That may be true, but who ever heard of a tariiï being constructed on those principias. The committee further assures us that the tariiï is not a matter of party politics but a matter of business. Bless you of course its a matter of business and no small matter either wheu the protected manufacturers of the country put up. he "dough" to run a president ial campaign with. But it is a business at vhich the people are holding bag. Since money became a factor in ommercial transactions law makers have been legislating against usury and usurera. And the question is jiist as near to a solution, after some hundreds of years tinkering, as it was when the flrst pronunciamento against tho collection of unusual rates of interest was issued and yet, like the problem of perpetual motion and the research of the alchemist who sought toworm nature out of the secret of converting base metáis to precious gold, there is ever a freah erop ! of fools to undertake the impossible. I We need not look for a cessation of this kind of business until legislators beeome conversant with the true functions of 'money and the part it plays between borrower and lender. No one would seriously propose to lix the rent of houses or the price of horses. Why then atteijipt to lix the rent of money which is but a representative of other forms of wealth ? The man who borrows money does so that he may exchange it for useful forms of property of which he may be in need. He borrows money instead of the property because experience has taught himthat it is the most expeditious method of reaching the desired result. The interest on the money he borrows will always be regulated by the average rate of business profits and legislation is as little likely to change this flxed law of economics as it is to determine whether or not the moon is constructed of green cheese.