The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1875-11-13
ing winter, and apprensions are also enter

Ot government by incompetent hands, an
so nearly universal is this incompetency il
high places, throughout the world, that
may be safely assumed that one Of tn
greatest of the dangers to be apprehende,
by a people is that of it's central govern
ment finding itself in easy financial circum
stances. Should it be so, it will be free anC
almost certain To try experiments which ar
ruinous to the best interests Of the people
When such a government is hard up, |
is necessary for it to follow such a policy
as will vigorously develop the natlona
power. Hence it is that so long ago as th'
time of Montesquieu the people regarded {
national debt as a national blessing, find
! ing the burnens of debt less intolerablt
than incapacity among their governors
when that incapacity was freed from the
restraints of overwhelming public exigen'
cles.
Wholly unable to control the incomlnes
and the outgoings of gold, the government
of the German Empire has transferred the
foundations Of its entire societary fabric to
quicksand. Involving, as this does,
every interest of the nation, and with it the
happiness, the morals, and even the lives
of the people-being, III fact, the parent OF
countless sutferings and crlmes-lt Is in it.
self a crime 50 great that there is no ex-
aggeratlon i'll characterizing it as The s1,a ot
all crimes
But this crimlnaliiy Of the governors Of
Germany Is but type OF the dolngs of all
governments. If the world is to advance,
If the condition of the people is to improve,
if the rich are not to be made steadily
richer and the poor poorer, these people
must from this time forth determine to
take from every government the power to
select the qulcksand as the place fer
the foundations of the social fabric.
In ,rord, mone,,S must hereafter be
adopted the qttaiity ot money us ,chich, cdh-
not be destroyed lrithOt the total destruction
Of their raiue-it being essential that when
governments issue moneys that quality
shall be preserved until by concurrent
action of the government and the people 1t
is deemed proper To retire them from cir
culation Then will they cease to be ex
portable. Luckily for man we have not
far to seek to ind such moneys. Nearly if
not quite all civilized peoples are heavily
weighted with the interest upon their pub
lie debts, while at the same time paying to
banks annually immense sums for the use
Of the paper money of these banks. Let
the debts be turned to useful account, let
the interest paid to banks for circulating
mediums cease, let there be none but
''current moneys of the realms. " Eet
these current moneys of the realms be
wholly of paper, based on the credit OF the
respective governments and made mites
CONVEX tible, at the pleasure of the holder,
with the national bonds bearing low rate
Of interest. This provision of nItercon-
vertibility will always ensure a supply of
money in exact accordance with The de-
mands of the people.
But We shall be told that these moneys
will lack intrinsic value, and will therefore
not be genuine, good and honest. In re-
ply we would say that 1t Is not intrinsic
value which is most highly priced in money,
but that quality which flows from its being
either a legal tender or supposed To be in
terconvertible with a legal tender. The
quality Of accePtibitity for the payment C.t
debts aud the purchase of commodities Is the
great element Of po,cer ~ money. If ntrin-
sic value be what men most regard in
money, why is it that lands are not priced
above paper money Because, IN spite OF
intrinsic value, lands are neither legal
tender nor convertible into one. What
would be thought Of the Government OF
the United States if it should undertake
to force the holders of greenbacks to take
lands in exchange tor them at Sl.25 per
acre Such proceeding would most justly
be denounced as reputation, unless the
lands were made a legal tender at or above
81. 20 per acre, when the ownership of them
would pass from hand to hand as money,
as it did in Rome and Ancient Britain
The world has been led by the teachings
of false philosophy into belief that it
is the purely intrinsic value Of gold and
silver which gives to these metals such al
most universal acceptabiliGy throughout
the world The truth is, however, this
latter comes from the fact that so many
governments have adopted one or the other
of them as the material out of which their
legal tender is made. At small expense
they can, therefore, by coinage, IN almost
every country be made to take form which
gives them throughout that country uni
versal eptability for the payment of
debts and the purchase of commodities.
Let all civilized countries discard these
metals as the materials for money, as even
tually they will, and half Of their intrinsic
We have seen how the action of Germany
alone has robbed the silver thaler Of from
7 to per cent. of its old intrinsic value,
although it is still for time to be allowed
to circulate at that value. 1t needs but
the concurrent action Of two or three more
equally important governments to convert
this depreciation of Z to 8 per cent. into
one Of % per cent.
Knowing, as we all do, how impotent all
governments are to prevent the expectation
Of the precious metals, and therefore how
utterly unstable these metals are as basis
for the financial and business affairs OF a
great people; seeing, too, that intrinsic
value is not the quality which Is most re-
garded in money; with also the evidence
furnished by the blunders of the German
government good type of all govern
mental action in monetary atfairs-of its
utter incapacity properly to regulate the
volume Of currency, how, III justice to the
various peoples of the world can these peo-
pies any longer be prevented from having
supplied to them domestic non-exportable
currency. the volume Of which shall be de-
termined by themselves alonel There is
none. and in the ebb and flow of such a
CURRENCY, Hdue hlloICoHNoiuo'o WIN 0iie
national bonds bearing a low and fixed rate
of interest, viii be found "a subtle prin
ciple that will regulate the movements OF
| finance and commerce as accurately as th'
motion of the steam engine Is regulated oy
it's governor. Such paper money tokens
will be much nearer perfect standards o
payment than gold or silver ever have beeI
or ever can be"
HENRY CAREY BAIRD.
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 8, 1875.
ANY scheme which looks to robbing tn
greenback of its legal tender quality, or Q
forcing the holders of it to take from tn
government in exchange for it anything whic
is neither a legal tender nor convertible int