Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-11-08
Labor First, Then Money.

Now that the election is over we
trust some of our Greenback friends
may be able to open their understands
ing and reason little. 1t is seri-
Gus comment upon the intellectually
of our age and people that so many
are so easily duped. If you asked an
old Republican, on Tuesday, with an
Allis ticket in his hand why he was
going to vote the Greenback ticket,
he would show you the hole in his
boot, the patch on his knee or the
rent in his sleeve, or he would tell
you the Republicans have been in
power long enough to make times
better. If you asked him how the
CIR eenbackers would make times bet
ter he would tell you they would give
us more money. Times were easier
in war times he would say, when
money was plentier. 1t does seem to
us that any man who can talk and
who can read ought to be able to see
that the poor man cannot get green
backs, however plentiful they are, I'M
less he can earn them. If the Gov
eminent should make them by the
billion the poor man would be none
the better unless he is put to work,
for which he receives pay. If the
Government puts him to constructing
railroads, building custom houses, or
improving rivers and harbors the cry
becomes, ooh, how the officials are
taxing the people and squandering
their money!" A war also brings
high taxes and Government debt.
Money is like water. 1t will not
flow unless there is a way for il to run
down hill. There are many thousands
of people idle. They have work to sell,
says Cary. Money-simply the max
ing of more money, will not give them
work. Load the bondholders with
50, 900, 100000 of greenbacks in place
of the bonds they now hold. That
would not help the poor man. Let
the Government print $4,000, 900, 900
more that will not help the poor
man. The late bondholders would
have Their pools, lakes and seas, and
the Government its ocean of
ssmoney," but unless way
opened through which it would flow
no poor man would be helped. Even
if set in motion it only flows back to
it's "home," and no one is richer. All
wealth comes by toll. Paper is not
wealth. The man who digs down in
to the ground and finds gold, silver or
lead is gamer by what he finds. The
man who plows the ground, plants
and grows bushel of corn has gained |
to himself and to the world a busbel |
of corn. It is a useful article. The |
man who with tools makes a chair
adds that much to his own wealth |
and to the wealth of the world. But |
the man who simply writes on a piece
OF paper, "This is a dollar" makes
nothing useful and neither he nor the
world are any better for his act. The |
bottom fact" of all healthful pros
perity is industry, not fiction, not
promise. There is labor for sale
thousands of it. But it can profit the
poor man nothing unless there is de-
mand for his labor. In 1861 there
were many thousands of hands in this
country with nothing to do. The
war created a demand for labor.
When labor was put to work money
came to pay for it. The philosophy
on which political economy rests is
not that money creates labor. 1t is
that labor creates money. When all
hands are at work, all hands will have
money. He who finds way to put
the idle men of the world at work has
solved problem that no Greeenback.
er will ever comprehend.