Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1847-02-04
THE GOVERNMENT PAPER-MILL.

But few years ago our ears were stunned with
the cry that this was hard money Government
Rag money, as it was called, was denounced until
the vocabulary Of abuse was exhausted Banks
were hunted down like mad dogs because they
manufactured and emitted paper money, which, it
was said, was unknown to the Constitution. The
U. S. Bank was bitterly assailed as the chief of
fender, for it not only put forth rags for circulation
but did so to such degree as to unsete tho value of
property by its expansions of the currency-It was
said that gold and silver were the only true cons,
tutional standard of value, and that whenever YOU
substituted any other currency in lieu Of them,
you gave fictitious value to property which led
TO revulsions in business, SC. These arguments
were stereotyped and rehcarsed in every form
and shape that human ingenuity could devise,
from 1910 to 1914. The Sub-treasury was to be
the great cure for all these evils.-That rejected
all paper-money, and dealt only in hard-money,
gold and silver-the constitutional currency
Well. the Democrats got into power. They de-
feated the establishment of national Bank by
their intrigues with John Tyler. They re-enacted
the Sub-treasury, which repudiated all paper-mon-
sy. This bill took effect on the LIST of January
1917. And what do we now see within less than
one month after the hard-money law goes into eff
feet The very Congress which passed it author-
ses the Government to become great Rag Bank |!
"a regular paper money making -rachine! with
power to flood the country with Iscenty Eight NIL
lions Of Treasury Notes, which are nothing more
than paper money of the worst kind They are
very near akin to the old continental money J.
HANK a.
gold and silver which is kept in the vaults to re-
deem them. But where is the specie to redeem
these Treasury Notes?
What, too, has become Of the constitutional scru-
pies about rag money! Where is the metallic cur
rency2 Whittier have the apprehensions about in
Hating the money-market and unsetting the value
Of property fled
We are upon the eve of a great monetary crisis.
and 1t behooves all men to be prudent The e.
mission OF twcnty-eight millions of paper in the
form of Treasury Notes, and the large imporiations
OF gold and silver necessary to pay for the bread
sus required to support the starving population of
Europe, must lead to a vast augmentation in the
amount of money in circulation. This, for a while.
will make times easy, and cause rapid advance
in the prices of property. A wild spirit of specu
latlon will be likely to ensue, but the causes of
the apparent prosperity temporary in their cha
racter and must soon pass away, and then a revul-
sion will take place which will shake society to
its centre.
Our advice to all is ''be cautious-makc no hea-
Wy engagements founded upon the idea that the state
OF things which is now approaching is to continue.
Seize the present advantages yourselves of
the opportunities which high prices will afford to
get out of debt, and when you get out, keep out |!
and let no wild spirit of speculation entice you in
TO dangerous adventures"