Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-11-04
Senator Christiancy on the Currency
Question.

In the recent Hard Money Convention
at Detroit, Mich, a letter was read from
United States Senator Christiancy, in
winch, among other things, he said:
do not assert that it might not have
done better when the greebacks were orig
lnally issued to have made them. or Ger
tain amount of them, redeemable in bonds
at low rate of interest, and these again
convertible into greenbacks ut the option of
the holders. Nor do I mean to say that
this interconvertible plan might not even
now be applied for a portion of our out
standing greenbacks, so far as it might be
done consistently with their gradual with.
draWal, and the diminution of their amount
by actual payment and cancellation. But
To adopt this interconVertible system in con-
nection with, as a part of, the plan of ex-
pansion, and with the idea which necessari-
ly goes with it of permanently dispensing
with specie payments, even of interest, or
"specie basis" of our circulation-thus MAX
ing one promise of the Government, known
to be utterly baseless when made, redeem
able only III another promise of the same
kind, with the expectation of making the
receive such paper currency for money,
without rapid depreciation 10 the point of
utter Notwithstanding is simply an at
tempt to make one falsehood exactly bal
ance another, with the expectation of max
ing the public trust in both as true. 1t is
like the attempt to produce perpetual mo-
ton, and reminds me of the effort of a very
learned gentleman | once knew, who owned
mill-site upon a small stream, which, eX-
cept in extraordinary freshets, did not fur
nish water enough to run his mill. He,
therefore, for the best of reasons, went in
for imitation; and, as Providence refused to
initiate the stream, except on extraordinary
occasions, which did not furnish a steady
power, he determined to make the stream
initiate itself, and furnish a self adjusting
power, by the aid of an oyershot wheel,
which, after the water was used in turning
the wheel, should again take it up by means
of a pump attached to the shaft, and throw
it back into the pond to run again over the
wheel, and so on al imfnitmna. But it Is
hardly necessary to say he failed, and found
though he never understood the mystery
that action and reaction were equals, and
the friction was Is be overcome besides.
The stream would not initiate
l knew also q highly-educated clergyman,
who, having observed the hardship to which
teams have to submit in drawing loaded
wagons, and how much easier they were
drawn without the weight of the loads, and
that their weight rested upon the axle, in
the kindness of his heart undertook to re-
Heve the teams, and at the same time enable
thpO1 IN 6roNU raI1oh hoo, war 1pod fn tha
great profit of the owners. His plan was to
place upon each axle tight air-box, filed
with compressed air, and fitted with piston
head, with pistOn-rod extending upward,
upon which the wagon-body with all its load
would rest. The weight of the load, ne
reasoned, no longer rested upon the axle,
but only the air-boy, and the air was tight
and kept the weight of the load from the
axle. Well he constructed his wagon with
the air-bOXes, and, more lucky than the mill
owner, he succeeded in the imitation of his
boxes with affair, too, much more com
pressed than that generally used by the in
tlatiOnists of our day, though it did not make
half the noise. But, unfortunately, and
much TO the establishment of the good cler-
gyman, while his air-boXes would initiate,
the load would not, and, in spite of the air,
the whole weight of the load still insisted in
working in some mysterious way through
the air-box down on the axle, and the load
was found to be heavier by just the weight
of the air-boxes; hence the poor teams
have had to plod along the old way, draw
ing their loads as best they could, till the pres
ent day.
Both these were learned men. Their the
cries were beautiful in the abstract, and
would have been highly successful in prac-
tice but for one thing: the Almighty in ere
ating the world and fashioning mankind
had adopted quite different theory or plan
of the laws by which "men and things'
were to be governed. This was the sole OBJ
stacle to the success OF their theories, and
for this they were not responsible Both
these men, if living, would undoubtedly
have been leading lights in the imitation
world; but unfortunately they are in their
graves. 1t is some consolation, however, to
know they have left some worthy repre-
scntatiYes behind.
But for myself, believing the power OF
creating something or anything out of moth
ing is the prerogatiye of the Deity alone,
whenever l see man, however talented he
may be generally, engaged in such an at
tempt or in the invention of perpetual
motion, [ am compelled to believe
there is & screw loose somewhere, and that
upon this particular subject he is insane; and
so, for the like reasons, I am compelled to
think of those infationists who really be-
lieve the truth of their professed theories
and that there are some I have no doubt.
But one thing | do not hesitate to say, with
the best light I have been able to obtain of
their plans and theories-and | have read
great numbers Of their speeches and PAM
phletS-either they are insane upon this sub
ject or I am and, if am, it is some comfort
to find that the delusion under which I am
suffering is but the same which had taken
possession of ell the great statesmen and all
the great authorities upon finance, from the
period known as the dark ages down to the
very recent period when the national debt of
the United States began to press heavily
upon the resources of the people, and in
genious and interested theorists began to
cast about foc some method Of getting rid of
the burden of this debt (as well as their own,
sometimcs) without paying it, or even the
interest upon it. in ANYTHING of real value.
Now, | am so old-fogy in my notions and
opinions as to hold that, when an in dividual
or nation is deeply in debt, the true and only
honest way of getting rid of that burden is
the plain OId-fashiOned Way of paving the