Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-04-18
Cnnfaeians Currency.

1here IS now before Congress. q Dill
pending, the result of which will be to
cause the national banksof the United
States to call in their present issue, and
replace it by new bills.
There is no proposition now before
that body which so warmly commends
itself to the great mass OF the people.
| The currency of the country is now
mainly the bills of those national banks.
which bear date from 1861 and 1865,
and most of them have been in circula-
ton for many years. The result is that
they are generally exceedingly soiled.
offensive to the senses, and injurious to
the health. Many of them have been
handled by persons engaged in the
flthiest employments, to say nothingof
the comparatively clean hands Of black
smiths, butchers, fishmen, rag and fat
collectors. But worse than this, they
are saturated with diseases of various
kinds measles, itch, and more especi-
ally smallpox, are materially spread by
the bdhk-bill passing, thus impregnated,
from hand to hand, and from city to
country. The farmer who sends his
chickens and corn to market is badly
repaid by bunch of greasy bills, which
bear with them these foul maladies.
1t is stated by competent medical
men to be a received opinion that the
present smallpox epidemic is in no lit
tie degree advanced, if not caused, by
the public incubation through infected
bank-bills. Every man in the small
pox hospitals pays for his board, luxu-
RES, carriage-hire, and his thousand
little expenses, by a porous paper bill,
passing through his hands even when
Issuing disease through every pore.
When our circulation was metallic, such
accidents were possibilities, not necessi-
ties; and these bills are never redeemed
by the national banks, but 20 on in
definitely, communicating and destroy
ing life.
1t is comparatively small matter to
say that these bills are, many of them,
so tattered and mutilated as to be very
suggestive of the rags from which they
were created. Little by little they wear
away, until q time comes when some
sharp one suggests that an eighth or a
quarter is gone, and this loss falls-not
upon the bank that has issued il, and
who should have been compelled to re-
deem it years ago and supply its place
by fresh bill--but the loss falls upon
the last holder. This one is generally
among the poorest class in the country.
The rich man will refuse such bill
from his debtor. 1t is the day-laborer
and the poor washerwoman-the de-
pendent who receives his wages like a
charity, and who is supposed not to be
too particular, or who Is too ignorant to
know better.
In cities there are some clean bills.
The husband strives hard to furnish his
wife with clean money for shopping; but
in the country, money Of every kind is
so scarce, thai the farmer is glad enough
to take any blll for his products, but
when he goes to pay off his mortgage OF
its interest, then he has to make up the
loss.
So great is the demand for "clean
, money" that any city bank might in
) definitely increase its circulation by de
, claring itself ready to exchange new
money for old. We call upon Congress
to pass an act compelling the National
banks to call in their notes for q reissue
every two or three years; to form a
bureau In every large city where clean
, money may be demanded for dirty anC.
diseased bills. There is more disease
engendered by bad bills than by bao
meats in our markets. The Officer
should be compelled to exchange anc
! burn all the money paid out at Black
. wells Island Small Pox Hospital
, Would it not be cheaper to prevent the
small pox by destroying this method O.
public incubation than by general vacci
nation, which is now SO loudly called
for with the newspaper headings of the
"Great increase of this fatal epidemic 7
1t is impossible otherwise to account
!, for the fact that this loathsome disease
is now SO prevalent, in the country a:
we'll as the cities throughout Europe as
well as America, except by the fact thai
there was never before such volume
: of paper currency so rapidly circulating
all over the world from man to man.
This necessity we admit, but its evils
can be mitigated. We at least can have
fresh circulation, as of the United
States Treasury notes and the fractional
postal currency, which are constantly
Cancelled and renewed.
1t is bad enough to think that these
rags were once the refuse clothing Of
the vilest and worst of Italian lazaroni
and filthy Asiatics and Africans-per
haps the exhumed cerements of Egyp.
tian mummies-but let US at least think
that water, soda and chlorine have
since purified them, and not that they
are foul and noisome with recent
denominations. Leslie's Illustrated
Newspaper.
, The Prince Imperial of France.