The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-07-30
MONEY GAMBLING.


MONEY GAMBLING
We have more than once in our col
umns made the charge, that market
where money is trafhcked in is q gsmbl.
ing hell, and as much in violation of the
law, and at variance with the spirit of
Democratic institutions as that to which
we have compared it. But this is
sentiment shared by a few only. The
majority of our people scarcely know
what a money market is, while of the
few who do business in it,
there is not one but will, in the lsngu-
age Of Jay Cookies organ, the Phila'
delphia lnqA rer, "place money in the
category where it belongs, with all other
merchantable commodities"
The greatest harm is effected when
this fallacious idea takes hold of those
who are not directly interested in
money selling, but who read ofsll such
transactions simply from a desire to
"keep posted" These are generally
considered to be our thinking people;
but although the fact that they exercise
a controlling Influence in the policy Of
the country, i " evident one, their in
difference to the cost or effect Of such
Transactions upon the people as W hole,
is our vindicatlon, when We say thst
in theirs, our destinies are IA very bad
hands. A money market is as infam-
Gus as that mart in which is bought
and sold the favors of abandoned
women, and equally severe penalties
should be attached to connivance with
either.
A devotee at the shrine of msmmon
offends as much against the edicts Of a
Just God, as the caterer to lustful pas
sions. Some of our influential papers
are quite willing to hold up our money
market TO the people as pernicious in
stitution, averriDg that those in it are
not honest, while they have not word
to say against the principle ofthe thing,
which is essentially dishonest and hurt
fnl of the best interests of the people.
The Philadelphia Ledger, for instance,
in a recent issue says: cit is a well
demonstrated fact that what is known
in this country as the "gold market "
is a bubble and fraud, controlled by a
set Of as desperate gamblers on Wall
street, with aids and helpers in all our
principal cities, as ever congregated
around gaming table. Instead of
loaded dice, marked cards, and other
devices resorted to by professors in the
4" black art to get the better of the un-
wary, the gold gambler has recourse to
the circulation Of sensational and false
reports, no more honest or honorable
than the use of loaded dice, and used
for precisely the same purpose-to
make money at the expense Of deceived
victims" Money is not thing to be
traficked in. That is fact much more
plainly demonstrated, than that our
gold market Of all others is "a bubble
and fraud" 1t is that practice, and
others equally culpable, which have
grown out oft, that the National Labor
Union seeks to render impossible, by
the adoption Of the American monetary
system.
What is merely meant as a medium
Of exchange between those who pro-
duce, as convenience to the industrious,
can in no just sense be made source
Of profit to the few who do no real
service to the community. Money
should cost the people no more than the
actual expense Of its manufacture but
the one material out of which our
people have decreed that money shall
be made, possesses peculiar properties,
which will enable the handful who
monopolize 1t, to defeat any plan look
ing to a stoppage Of their nefarious
practices which may be resolved upon.
The only remedy than is to make money
out Of something else, that shall be
cheap and the supply Of which cannot
be controlled by the few, with the OBJ
ect of exacting an onerous tax from
abor for its use. 1t is not mere ques-
ION Of convenience, but it is one Of
vital importance; and upon Its solution
he life Of our Democratic government,
'r at least such parts Of it az are demo
cratic, depend. The money market is,
the greatest known obstacle to I
he adoption Of this system, and for !