The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-02-27
A FALSE TEACHER.

says, "tels US that rotating court must d
an ANNOYANCE and nuisance to everybod
but the half q dozen landlords who furnisl
the judges aud the barristers with their pou
Itry and their toddies.' Would the Age abo
ish ali the circuit courts and consolidate then
at one point IN the centre Of the circuit, so a
TO save "hs honor the court and the lawyer
of the circuit from rotating" from one coun
ty to anotherg The Age lodges the real ques
ton at issue, which Is, whether 1t is cheaper
for few judges and lawyers to do the "ro'a
ting" and paying landlords, than for the tel
thousand clients, witnesses and jurymen tina
must attend the courts?
The Age in this business is on the side o
monopoly, which is but another WORD io'
concentration or consolidation; and IN i''
assumed character of guardian OF the inter
ests of the industrial masses, is Us lalSe
guide as it is in its financial teachings we
take It as a settled proposition, that no man
of sound sense and ordinary intelligence can
honestly maintain thai the Interests 0! 'he Id
dustrial masses of this county can be promot
ed, as the Age insists, by giving the country
AS q permanent institution, currency that is
not on par with and convertible into gold and
silver. The case Is in nutshell. Currency,
we are told, is medium of exchage. A owns
Il horse worth 800; B owns two cows worth
500 3, wishes to exchange his cows for
AS horse but A has no use for the cows,
Thereupon c steps in and gives B 500 for his
cows, who then takes the 800 to A and
BUYS his horse. The 800 currency have
thus Ueen the medium by which the exchange
has been affected. 1t can make no difference,
in this transaction, whether the currency, or
medium of exchange, was gold, silver, green.
backs, rags, buttons or gamblers chips.
Whatever the currency consisted of, it was of
equal value to the three individuals engaged
IN the transaction, and neither stood shave to
effect the exchange.
But suppose A had lived IN Canada and b
in Iowa, and the 800 with which bought
BIS cows had consisted of Iowa stumptall or
L. s greenbacks, which, in Canadian estima-
ton, are about the same thing, what then
would have been the result? C's 800, by the
time they would have gone through the hands
of Chicago note shaver or currency clipper
to be converted into exchange on Canada,
would have been whitfield down to S75; $50
of the S25 thus lost being the actual depre-I
or difference in value between Canada
money and the greenbacks, and So being re
tanned by the broker TO make the exchange \
so that BIS real loss IN the transaction, Tor
not having gold in the first place Is 80 But
suppose c had been obliged, as the western
farmer actually is in all his purchases of for
,ign products, to send wheat, or corn, or beef
abroad to make his purchase? First his
wheat rs toled about two cents on bushel
by the local dealer because the greenbacksI
with which he purchases may rise or fall two
per cent. before the wheat gets to the foreign
market where it is to be paid for in gold the
shipper IN Chicago levies another CT or two on
the bushel for the same reason the transpor
tation company that carries it levies couple
Of cents more to cover the possible huctua-
ion in the value of glecnbacks, and by the
line the wheat gets to Liverpool, the western
farmer, in addition to all necessary expenses
Of mlddlemen, transportation and handling,
mas paid eight or ten cents bushel on &C
count of the possible fuc,uation IN the price
IF greenbacks between the time he sells his
grain in Illinois and when it is paid for in
gold at Liverpool. 1t is currency system
he inevitable attendant of which is this per
pctual attritlon or shaving at every turn, and
IF which the producer alone is the victim,
hat the Age makes its mission to teach the
working masses is what they are, in all their
political action, To strive after. If such teach
nrs are not dishonest, il is manifest they are
deluded.