The crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1877-1878, 1877-08-30
THE CURRENCY PROBLEM.
Its Exposition by II Greenback Candidate for
Governor. TIL. Mission oi the Party and
Necessity of Conversational Relief

Its Exposition by u GreenbaCk Candidate fol
Governor. TIL. Mission oi the Party an,
Necessity of Congressional Relief.
E. p. Allis, candidate on the green
back ticket for Governor of Wisconsin
discussed the principles of the party il
Milwaukee recently, before large au
dience, and his speech was generally
regarded as in every way worthy of the
remarkable campaign to which it is the
prelude. At the outset of his argument
he laid down the principles which guide
the Greenback party. The demand fol
conversion into something we have moi
got he characterized as a subterfuge OF
fraud not to be tolerated; the demOne-
tization of silver was IAN unparalleled
blow at the already dawning prosperity
of the people" Money is not wealth
but simply the medium of exchange
greenbacks are to the poor only what
checks and bills are to the larger dealer
and finally, if nation has advance need
of the material and services of its peo-
pie, or rather, if the future of a nation
has need of the services of the present,
that the satisfying such need is the legi-
innate function and property of all the
people, and that the fultillmcnt of such
need should be exchanged in paper, and
that such paper should not be used to
borrow money, but that of itself it is
money.
PROMISES To PAY IN GOLD.
1t would seem superfluous, Mr.. Allis
said to detail the great degree in which
the precious metals fall short in volumes
of ability to perform the exchanges of
the world, but it is so small in COMPARE
son as to be almost insignificant, The
loanable capital of Great Britain alone
is greater than all the gold in the uni
verse, and yet that loanablc capital is all
claimed to be gold, as is also the loana-
bic capital of other nations of the earth.
The public debts of the principal civiliz-
ed nations of the earth, all payable in
gold, are five times over all the gold in
the world. Mankind have seen the
necessity of more of the precious metals
than the world had or could produce, and
instead of boldly meeting this want by
truth have PERMITTED the fact to be used
for individual profit aud have premitted
their volume to be iictitiously increased.
An increase was certainly needed, but a
fictitious increase was wrong. One Of
these fictitious means of increasing the
volume of the precious metals in orT
country, you will remember, was the So
called specie paying banks" A bank
was PERMITTED to issue 50 or more in
paper for every 81 in coin it possessed,
promising to redeem it all in coin on de-
mand. In this way the volume of coin
for practical purposes was largely multi
piled and such banks were great aids to
business and progress in their days and
while they prospcred. These banks
might have other things just us good as
coin, but the promise was coin, and it is
evident that their ability to redeem the
promise only lasted while they were
called upon to do So Wherever people
have attempted to supplement the
volume of gold it has been by means of
debt, and they have called the debt
gold, and the enduring quality of the
substitute depended upon the character
of the debt.
a EULOGY ON DEBT.
Commencing with individual obliga-
ton of the slightest form, it has been
ever present and ever increasing, and is
to-day the largest and most important
structure on earth. We hear it said the
present trouble is caused by debt. Why
did you get in debt? Pay your debts,
etc. Our debt can only be paid in bar
barism, Debt! it is debt everywhere
Debt above us, and debt around us and
debt beneath us. urprogrcss is debt
to the past and our civilizntioni is debt
to the future. The millions piled upon
ow insurance companies is only debt.
The quarterly reports of your every
blnk are all made up of debt. The in
ventory of your every merchant is large
ly made up of debt. The savings of this
great people for thc'last century, piled
up by millions in saving banks, are all
debts. The rich man counts his thous-
ands in debts, and the poor man re-
ccives his days wages in debt. The
widow drops her mite in a debt and
robbers burst vaults and carry off hun
dreds of thousands in debts. 1t is n
debt everywhere and in everything, and
its true measure is not numbers but
wisdom
THE REFINEMENT OF DEBT.
The highest form of physical debt,
and consequently of value, now known
is that of nation to its own people.
An individual Or corporation may be
unwilling to pay debt to his neighbor
creditor; State may fail to pay its
debt to foreign State, and the foreign
State must be the loser; but Il nations
debt to its own people cannot fail. The
people have had the value of the debt,
and they cannot be deprived of it, and
the only question is the Just distribution
of its benefits and burdens, which is
purely question of method, not of
value. A national debt to its own
people, therefore, is the refinement of
debt, the very height of value. 1t can
not be lost. We have in our national
debt what is either mine of wealth far
exceeding all the gold mines of the