The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-10-05
"foEs OF The FARMERS
Something Everybody Should
Read (!
PROF, PERRY'S ADDRESS AT THE
NEBRASKA STATE FAIR.
An Admirable Discussion OF
Pertinent Topics.
Such IS Taxes, Tariffs, Finance, Etc.
INFORMATION FROM AN IMPARTIAL
AND COMPETENT TEACHER.
Who Has Studied These Subjects for Many
Years.
(Continued.)
PAPER MONEY.

The greatest Toe the farmers OF thiS
country have had for the past dozen years
has been the paper money. Some OF you
have suffered fearfully this year from the
devastations of the grasshoppers would
not belittle your losses. for they have been
great, and they moved me to pity; but
the sNath of your grasshoppers has been
comparatively narrow swath, and the
losses, though great, have been local and
not national; but the swath OF the green
back qrasshoppers has been q wide swath
and the losses have been national and not
local. | hold in my hand silver dollar.
1t is long time since you have all seen one
You all seem to be as glad to see 1t as II
it were an old friend In truth, it is an
old friend, whom you have unwlsely dis
carded, but who is as ready to serve you
faithfully as he ever was. This dollar is
yealitu There is no sham about it. Their
is nothing mysterious about it, There
nothing magical about it. II is just ST
much silver metal stamped, but the staml
adds only slight fraction to the value. 1
took honest lobOr to get this silver out o.
the earth, refine. alloy and coin it, and
therefore 1t is just the thing to help ex-
change other things that have cost us hon
est labor. This dollar is like a bushel OF
wheat, it has cost something, it is adapted
to a human want, and therefore it is good
for something. Labor for labor is the law
of exchange, and therefore the dollar that
has cost labor is the only honest dollar. II
is the only dollar about which there is ne
trick. 1t is the only dollar which deiraud>
nobody. 1t is n real equivalent. 1t is
indeed only q tool to help exchange other
things, but it is an honest tool. We take
it only to part with it again, but when we
take it we get an equivalent for what we
give, and when we part with it we give an
equivalent for what we get. Money is In
deed medium to exchange other things
with, but it is of vast consequence thai
the medium be good medium, real me
dunn, an intelgble medium, a medium
that gives no advantage in the exchange tC
either party.
Movereover, this silver dollar is the sam
thing year in and year out. The first silve
dollar was coined in this country in 1874
lust eighty years ago, and there was put IN
to it 37l IA grains of pure silver, and tina
quantity of pure silver has been put int
every silver dollar coined since so that
so far as the word dollar has depended Of
the silver coin of that name, land the sam
principles of course apply to the gold do
Iarl the word has had steady signiGcenc
Men knew what they were talking abou
when they were bargaining in dollars. Tn
thing dollar was perfectly definite thing
and consequently the denomination dolla
was steady denomination. In values yo
reckon in dollars just as in grains you reel
on in bushels. Gold and silver money Civ
you steady denomination dollars to recko
in, to bargain by, to make calculations will
As things, dollars are medium to ex
change other things with as denOmini
tions, dollars are measure of all othe
values whatsoever; and it is impossible t
have steady denominations unless you hav
steady coin dollars behind them.
| now hold in my hand so.called pape
dollar. 1t is not dollar at all. 1t is onl,
a promise to pay dollar Read it, an(
you will see that it is So The United
States will pay to bearer one dollar"
carries the truth upon its very face. 1t i
only promise. Unfortunately also, it is
promise that has not been kept. 1t is a
unfulflled promise. Worse than that, it
promise that the promiser refuses to flu
fill 1t is a broken promise. 1t is "a di
honored promise. II as tujted paper. BIZ
cause it is an unfulflled promise, it Us {
course worth less than that which it prom
ises to pay. 1t is deprecated. 1t Away
has been deprecated, and it is depreciate
now. 1t has been at times very much de
preciated Now, we have seen that tn
dollar as a thing is medium helping ex
change all other things, and also that tn
dollar as a denomination is measur,
oil othar ,-at,.ao P,,ka
ure of other things should itself be uniform
A bushel measure should be the sam
thing year IN and year QUITO buy by an
sell by. A yard stick should be thirty-s
inches long, no more and no less, made O
sold material that just holds its own, an
not OF lndla rubber expansible and contraC
uDie, OF one length to-day and another tC
morrow and nobody knows what length tn
next time.
FLUCTUATIONS OF THE PAPER porLAF
Why, this very dollar bin has fupctuat
ed in value as compared with gold do
lar all the way from thirty five cents up
ninety-three cents and fraction, and We
We have been calling it dollar all Il
while; We have been estimating our pro
erty In these dancing dollars; we ha'
been buying when the dollar was at Of
value, and selling when it has been at a
other; bushel measure holding thr
pecks at one time. four pecks at anoth
time, and five pecks at another, is muc
more sensible than such variable dolla
inasmuch as the bushel only measur
grain, while the dollar, in the way Of est
mate, bargain, or sale, attempts to mea
ure all values whatsoever. Even duriI
the last year, 1875, there has been var
alton OF thirteen per cent, in the value
this paper dollar as compared with gold
from 1864 to 1874, and now aimol