The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1864-06-03

THE BUBBLE.

From the New York Aercuy.
THE BUBBLE. t
Why is it that when the aeronaut loses
sight of the earth he has no knowledge of
the height his balloon has attained or the
speed with which it is travelling, or of the
spot over which it floats? Because he
has lost sight of I'LL familiar objects--every
landmark has disappeared. He knows
not whether he be one nile or FIVE miles
above the earth, except by the uncertain
and dangerous criterion which his difficult
and bated breath affords; nor does he
know whether he is driving furiously over
the dark ocean or quietly suspended above
some quiet village in the interior. Lati-
tude and longitude, elevation and progress
sion, are alike forbidden to him. He
must patiently wait till the Inflated bag
above him gradually throws of its gas,
and lands him gently upon terra frma
again, or until it suddenly collapses aud
hurls him violently upon some desert
spot, there to perish of hunger aud bis
wounds. His course is guided by neither
compass ror rudder he is entirely at the
mercy of the elements.
So it is with Legal Tender paper cur
rency. The uuerring standard with which
We once could measure our wants and the
cost of gratifying them, is thrown away.
We know not how much we earn, how
much we use, how much we save, nor
how much our savings are worth. We
are afoat upon an unknown sea, without
single landmark to denote our wherea.
bouts-without guide without the pow
er to hold back or the means to 90 for
ward. We are wholly at the mercy of
the elements. Those elements-under
the unexampled laws which, at the insti-
cation of the present Secretary of the
Treasury, cur Congress has passed-are
the President of the United States, the
Secretary of the Treasury, and the numer-
GUS DEFENDANTS Of both those officers.
People are deceived who take the pres
ent price of gold as standard by which
to measure the depreciation of the curren-
cy. 1t is not true that tho paper is still
worth from SO to so cents on the dollar.
Neither Is it true that provisions are any
more costly, in truly relative sense, than
they were before the war. We are in
balloon, and the only standards we pos
sess of elevation aud distance are derived
from that scientific knowledge which as.
sures US that We rise so many feet per
second and drift with such and such cur
rent Of air. ..-.
In spite of the obscurity which this
Legal Tender paper, this false standard of
value, has thrown over every species of
caicp lation, Financial Law steps in and
removes the veil. 1t cannot guide US with
entire accuracy, but its fnser-boards are
sufficiently corre;t to point to something
like true direction. If no restriction
laws forcibly kept down the traffic in the
precious metals, and no civil war inter-
fered with the normal prices of things,
we should find the price of gold to-day
something like 440, while the average
prices of stocks would be compared to the
prices of 1860 as $40 is to 100. Crude
and imperishable staples--by which are
meant such products as have very little
labor bestowed upon them, e. g., copper,
iron, coal, tin, lead, wool, etc., etc, would
be slightly higher than they are to-day
So. too, with manufactured fabrics, and
with brain work--or the labor Of the arr
fist, editor, inventor, etc., etc. But the
law has largely depressed the price of
gold, forced it down to an arti6cially low
price, and transferred its energy to stocks,
which consequently show more than .
natural imitation, while the war has inter-
fered with the others, and depressed them
all three little. The war, though, has
acted very materially upon real estate,
and from an advance of 70 per cent. upon
old prices, which it ought to-day to ex-
hibit, it has fallen to the tri6ipg advance
Of 40 per cent.
These curious facts are better illustra-
ted by the table we give below, where,
starting from their normal prices of 100,
previous to the war and to the passage of
the Legal-Tender Act, nine different class
es of the products of human labor are first
shown in the natural order of the imitation
occasioned by a Legal-Tender Law, and
afterward exhibited as they have risen or
fallen under the continued influence of
legal tender, restriction acts, and war
Stocks, it will be seen, which to-day ought
not to show greater advance over old
prices than as $40 is to 100, have been
inflated ~ 525, in consequence of the
Gold Bill, which directs money from in-
vestmeus in the precious metals, and forces
it into more speculative ones. Hence, we
have to thank that Bill for its encourage
ment of gambling very opposite of
the effect it was Intended to produce
And unskilled labor, which ought not,
under the natural laws of iufation caused
by legal tender, to DO over 120 where it