The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1876-05-20


ing the stock and supply Of the precious
metals throughout the world, and conform
able to the constitution OF our country" Z"
l sincerely hope that the concluding ad-
vice Of Senator Jones will make living
and lasting impression, when he says,
speaking to the present Senate: "We
cannot, we dare not, avoid speedy action
on the subject. Not only does reason,
justice and authority unite in urging US
to retrace our steps, but the organic law
commands us to do 50; and the presence
OF peril enjoins what the law commands. !"
The Senator states a most important
tact, and one that all know to be true,
that by interfering with the standards
of the country, Congress has led the coun-
try away from the realms Of prosperity,
and thrust it beyond the bounds Of safety. !"
He says, truly, " to refuse to replace it
upon its former vantage ground would be
to incur responsibility and a deserved
reproach, greater than that which men
have ever before felt themselves able to
bear"
1t will require all the wisdom that can
be gathered from the history and expert
ence of the past to enable us to work out
our salvation from the evils that an unwise
legislation has brought on our country.
1t will be found that nothing short Of a
full, fair and frank performance Of the
hrst duty enjoined on Congress by the
Constitution will ever restore permanent
prosperity to US as a nation.
The Constitution has made it the duty
of Congress to enact the laws that are in
dispensable for the establishment of Just
tna ha l,y -. L -
the general welfare can be effectually pro-
noted.
Where power is given, the duty is made
fairly to devolve on all who are sworn to
make or to execute the laws in accordance
with the letter and spirit of the COnstitu-
tion.
1t is a remarkable fact that the most
essential element of our colonial and ma
tional prosperity was obtained by the use
OF the legal tender paper money-the
very thing that our present rulers seem
now determined to hold up to ridicule and
contempt. We are apt to forget that the
continental money" secured for us a
country, and that the "greenback" cur
rency saved us a nation.
Sir A. Alison, the able and indefatigable
English historian, has borne testimony to
the superior power and value Of paper
money. He says when sixteen hun
dred thousand men, on both sides, were
IN the continental wars with France and
Germany and Spain alone, where nothing
could be purchased except by specie, it is
not surprising that guineas went where
they we're so much needed, and bore so
high price. "In truth such was
the need OF the precious metals, owing to
this cause, that one tenth of the currency
of the world was attracted to Germany as
. common centre, and the demand could
not be supplied; and by decree in Sep
tember, 1878, from Peters~ alden in Ger
many, the allied sovereigns issued paper
notes, guaranteed by Russia, Prussia and
England. These notes passed as cash from
Kamskatchka % the Rhine, and gave the
currency which brought the war to sue
cessful close
In a recent edition of the " History of
Europe, Sir A. Allison gives an addi-
tional evidence Of the important advan-
tsges which experience has demonstrated
to result from the use Of paper currency.
He says; "To the suspension Of cash
payments by act Of 1897, and the power
in consequence vested in the Bank of
England, of expanding its paper circula-
ton in proportion to the abstraction Of a
metallic currency, the wants Of the country
and the resting of the national industry
on q sound basis not liable to be taken
away by the mutations of commerce or the
necessities of war-It is to these facts that
the salvation of the empire must be as
cribed." % 1t is remarkable that this ad
mirable system which may be truly called
the working power of nations during war,
became at the close of the war the object
of the most determined hostility on the
part of the great capitalists and chief
writer's of Political Economy in the coun-
try" "Here, however" says Ali.
son, as everywhere else, experience, the
great test Of the truth, has determined
the question. The adoption of the Op.
posite system of contracting the paper
currency in proportion TO the abstraction
Of the metallic currency by the acts Of 1878
and 1874, followed As they were by the
monetary crises of 1926, 1889 and l847
have demonstrated beyond doubt that II
was in the system OF an expansive cur
rency that Great Britain, during the war,
found sole means Of her salvation. From
1907 TO 1915, commerce, manufactures and
agriculture advanced in England in spite
Of all the evils of war with a rapidity
greater than they had previously done In
centuries before. This proves beyond
doubt the power Of paper money to in
crease the wealth of a nation
1t is worth while to observe that thi:
same Sir Alison, who speaks so wisely on
this subject in reference to the history Of
his own country, while scanning few
years ago the prosperity Of our country
during the War Of the Rebellion and i'm
nediately after, has foreboding Of what
might happen, and remarks: Z" The Amer
ican government may make financial and
legislative mistakes which may check the
progress of the nation and counteract the
advantages which paper money has already
bestowed upon them; they may adopt the
unwise and unjust system which Eng land
adopted at the close of the French wSr
they may resolve to pay in gold. and with
low prices, and pay the debt contracted
with paper, and with high prices. 'But
whatever they may do, ne adds, moth
ing can shake the evidence which the
experience of that nation during the last
SIX years affords of the power Of paper
II
money to promote a nations welfare.
Sir Walter Scott, in his Malachi Nal
growther's Letters, shows how the wealth
u q nation is increased by paper money.
Z" assume" he says, without hazard oi
contradiction, that banks have existed in
Scotland for near one hundred and twenty
years; thai they have Aourished, and the
country has Aourished with them; and
that during the last twenty years Partlcu.
larly, the notes, and especially the small
notes which the banks distribute, supply
all the demand for medium Of currency.
This system has so completely expelled
gold from Scotland that you never by any
chance espy q guinea there, except in the
purse Of an accidental stranger, OF in the
Golfers of the banks themselves. But th'
facilities which this paper has afforded TO
the industrious aud enterprisirg agricul
turists and manufacturers, a. well "a t.
the trustees Of the pubic, in executing
national works, have converted Scotland