Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1876-09-14
EARNING MONEY.
Some Light on the Financial Question
by Senator BOOth..-SOme Fall
lacies Examined.

" cchatOT DOOtn..-SOme raj.
lacies Examined.
The Hon. Newton Booth, United
States Senator from California ad
dressed a large audience at Terre
Haute recently In which he presented
the money question in a plain, com.
nonsense manner. We give the fol.
lowing extracts:
Il have long been of opinion that
the Government could issue a long
fund interconvertible with currency
interest payable in gold, at lower
rate OF interest than any other de-
scription, and that through the in
strumentality OF such bond the vol
ume Of currency would be self-regu-
lating, and would be supplied with
less friction than through the more
complicated machinery OF banks OF
issue. The gain would be In a reduc-
ton OF the interest the Government
would be compelled to pay. I do not
see how 1t would make money more
abundant, for any one who has a
bond can get money for
1t now. Whoever expects through
this or any other instrumentality that
money is to be made abundant so
that it can be earned without toll,
accumulated without frugality, is
doomed to disappointment. Individ-
uals may get rich by fortunate ac-
cident uuder any system, but COM
munities can only grow in wealth
and prosperity by labor and economy.
With these, and with fair natural ad-
vantages, their prosperity can not be
long retarded. The seasons of spec
ulative excitement when everybody
seems to get rich by buying wild
lands, town lots, fancy stocks, and
discounting the future are uniformly
followed by depressions-when flcti-
tious values vanish like fairy gold.
real values are depr eciated, and labor
has to bear the double burden of pay
ing for past imprudence and present
support. In last resort it is labor
which pays the whole debt of society.
There is no legerdemain in finance,
10 magic In law, no Aladdin's lamp
even in invention by which we can
escape the primal sentence: In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou earn thy
bread Whenever a community at
tempts to make short cut to pros
perity, it will realize the truth OF the
old proverb and find the longest way
round.
There are those who recall the
business activity and apparent Pc
cuniary prosperity OF the country
during the war and few years sue
ceeding 1t, who believed that this
could be restored by some legislative
scheme for
ISSUING MORE MONEY.
These mistake cause for effect 1t Is
D common and insidious error. In
this country. so rich In natural re-
sources, and so intimate In it's con-
nection with the civilized world, 1t is
the contraction of business that con-
tracts the money In circulation, and
not the contraction Of money which
contracts business. Values fall first.
day, when business Is 80 stagnant
and property is so low, the Government
Is putting loan upon the market
at At per cent interest,
and upon undoubted security money
ian be borrowed at as low a rate OF
interest certainly as was paid In our
most prosperous times. II money
,ould be made to grow on bushes or
De had for the asking, 1t would not be
worth any more than anything else
hat grows on bushes or can be had
or the asking. Air and water are
more precious than money, even
.hough gold and silver. Thank God
hey are free (at least the air is), but
{ does not follow because they are
rec that they would make a good
circulating medium
@The war was q great business car
led on by the Government. It en-
,loyed a million Of men In the field
md million more supporting them
t created q demand for every article
Produced on the farm or manufactured
n workshops. True, it was the busi-
less OF destruction, but 1t was the
most gigantic business ever carried
IN In the world, and It constantly de-
handed the use Of vast sums of
money. To obtain that money we
vent In debt to all the world and dis
our own future at usurious
ates. Then everybody was market
Ible,-even human life. II the ex-
'enses OF the war had been paid at
he time by immediate taxation, we
hould have realized that we were
poorer and not richer by the
destruction OF property and
diversion OF labor. It is the Office Of
! national debt to
TRANSFER THE BURDEN
Il one generation to another, or to
distribute it over many generations.
The national debts of the world
to the appalling sum of $25,-
90. 100000. They have nearly all
'een created by war, and the interest
IN this vast sum is the price which
his generation is paying for the wars
. the past. A great war, carried on
lpon credit, gives to a nation that
fictitious prosperity which deceives
nan into believing he is rich while he
, borrowing on unlimited credit.
comes at last to both. But
ONE one may suggest, the activity
( business and a general pecuniary
rosperity continued some years af-
Or the war. Yes, a railroad train
7ill run some time by its momentum.
N effect often continues after the
ause, and a moral effect will long
urvive a physical cause. The close
{ the war was a period Of hope. of
Nothing seemed impos-