Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-09-30
Making More Money.

Does it ever occur to the people who in
slst upon an increased issue of greenbacKs,
IN order that there shall be more money!
mat money in any form, paper or coin,
can only be obtained in exchange for la
Dor or some of the products of labor?
Every dollar OF gold or silver costs dol.
lar 10 produce and procure it, and no man
can honestly get a coin dollar save by ex-
changing an equivalent value therefor or
ny GIT. 1t is the same with paper money
Inc government may print it in unlim-
lteo quantities. but it can only be honest
~ obtained from the Government by an
exchange Of something of equal value
1Ilere Is no more chance of getting money
out OF the Treasury honestly, without Civ
me an equivalent therefor, than there is
OF getting 1t out of any bank or out of any
otner PERSONS possession.
IL IS lmmaterlal how much money there
may De IN the country, the only way to
ootaln II IS by giving something in ex-
change for it. The owner or holder
Vi money may give 1t away, but unless
II be proposed that the United States shall
distribute 1t per capita gratuitously among
the people, in which case, estimating
the total population AT $4,000, 900, It
would require an issue of over
$l,OOO0OO 900 to give each person twenty
tour dollars. But that is not yet proposed
py anyone. There remains, therefore but
the one way IN which this money can be
got, ana that is by giving labor or some
other valuable equivalent therefor. For
every dollar of the additional issue of cur
rency there must be dollar in value
given. How, then, will the increase of
the issue of greenbacks make money
more plenty in the hands of the people?
Greenbacks can now be had by giving an
equivalent therefor. The man who has
anything to sell which anybody else wants
can get greenbackS in exchange, and he
can do no more in case the Government
should double the issue. There are $780,
OOO, O0O OF currency now in the hands of
the people, which has cost the people an
average Of So cents on the dollar in coin to
get. They have given of their labor and
their production to that value IN exchange
for the currency. They have exchanged
their property for the greenbacks. To get
any more of it, they must give other prop
erty in like manner This currency which
they have thus got in exchange Tor their
property is in their hands; it is on
deposit subject to demand in the
savings banks and other banks An IN
creased issue of greenbacks, if it have
CIAO ChCOV VI uCpICCIdGIuS tllc value Vi the
currency, will of course also reduce the
value OF the currency now outstanding,
for which the people have already given
its full value. Every cent of depreciation
IN the value Of the present currency is an
aggregate loss of several millions of dol
lars on the money now in the hands of
the people To get the new currency we
must give dollar for dollar in property,
and as we set it it declines in value,
sweeping away million after million of
dollars of the hard-earned accommodations
OF the past as well as Of the earnings of
the present AS we give of our substance
for the new currency, its value will be re-
ceding every day
Let any man who wants "more money!
or expects "more money" as the result of
an increased issue of legal-tenders, ask
himself how he is going to get it. Can
he obtain it without giving an equivalent
for it? Will he not have to pay for it just
as he does now? Can he get it without
paying for it in labor or property, unless,
as we have said, the Government makes a
free distribution of it ?-CHScaqo Tribune