The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1875-09-04
THE CALIFORNIA LESSON.

The failure Of the Bank Of California
has created a great sensation in monetary
centers everywhere, and the effects Of the
failure will be far reaching in the extreme.
We have been told times without number,
that paper money circulation g fostered
speculation. This has been repeated,
wrung in our ears. dinned and hammered
upon by the bullionists, until almost every
body had been compelled to tacitly or
openly admit that it was true, when i'll re-
atty we knew that it was as false as water.
shows that it was a stupenduous gambling
hell We knew before the failure, that
California was overrun with gamblers, that
everybody, from servant girls to million
aires, all gambled in stocks but this fail
IRE has brought this fact so prominently
before the public that it can no longer be
denied or ignored. With the admission
Of the fact that upon a gold currency
speculation has become mania with the
people on the Pacific coast, all OF the bull
lion arguments based upon the objection
that paper money encouraged speculation,
falls fiat, and becomes worthless, for no
instance is on record where paper money
ever led 20 more crazy speculations than
those engineered and engendered by
Ralston.
This, then, should be the lesson of the
failure The only solid ground which the
bullionists seemed to have taken, is now
removed from beneath their feet. Under
metallic currency, the worst kind of
gambling has been practiced in California,
until speculation has become second ma
ture to a majority Of the people. Hence
gold does not check speculation. gold does
not prevent panics, gold does not give a
stable market Gold, in short, has none
Of the attributes which the hHllionIsts pre-
tend it has, and fails us whenever it is de-
pended upon. For this reason the failure
Of the California gambling hell bank is
good thing at this time to refute the false
hoods Of bullion writer's and speakers.
But these brszen faced scOundrels are Just
as earnest in their defense of the gold god
now as ever. They misrepresent the facts
about the failure whenever they can, and
when Interpretations is of no avail,
they turn upon the PROSTATE gold bank
and declare that its failure was due to "a
lack Of gold" that the bank was Fan infla-
ted credit bubble" so it was, and 80
would every gold bank which these chaps
are trying to force upon the people be, if
they could only have their way.
Gold banks and gold basis banks always
have been Inflated credit bubbles In
the very nature Of things, they can be
nothing else. What we object to is that
the people shall be subject to the loss ne
cessitated by the confidence operations of
those chaps who are bowling 50 loudly for
specie payments. The whole plea of specie
payments is bare-faced fraud and conf
dence operation Of the worst kind. Take
a recent example. The first instalment Of
the 500 bonds have just been paid off.
The money sharks let the government
have S275. 900, 600 in 1862, and these stay
at home patriots have just received almost
81 800, 900, 900 for their advances, and yet
these cheeky scoundrels call for {" honest
money" and "honest payments" Can
there be any honesty in such sharp prac-
tice as produce such results as this Not
much. There is no honesty in the bank
ers' cry, nor in the bankers demands All
of their millions were stolen from working
men. How much longer will the working
men submit to such robbery