The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-02-14


found so awful in all its consequences
both immediate and remote, rs a gov
eminent commits when il deliberately.
destroys the money of its own citizens.
Wherever in all the regions of tine
such measures have been accomplish
ed, the horrors of history have taken
place. No shrinkage in the am cunt OF
money, no contraction of the Currency
in the hands of the people was ever ell
forced by law to any considerable eX-
extent, except amidst broken lives,
ruined hopes, despair, lost honor, and
all the vices springing from the lowest
depths of poverty and human misery.
The worst ingredients of war, pesti
lence, and famine all flow from the
act OF a government violently tearing
from the hands of the labOring masses
the money they so much need. Murder,
theft, robbery, prostitution, forgery,
embeZZlement, and fraud of every hue
and mien curse the land that is de-
prived of full and sufficient circulat-
ing medium on which to give employ
ment to its tOiling men and women.
The social statistics of mankind will
show that wherever the supply OF
money has b. en- scant and labor poor
ly paid, or left entirely idle, there the
gallows tree has borne most frequent
" its hOrrid burden; there the jails
and the penitentiaries and all the
haunts of infamy has been most
crowded. The weIl-clOthed and we'll
fed Pharisee may OstentatiOusly thank
God that he is better than such as
! these, but he is not. When the strong
hand of the government is engaged
abolishiUg money, and thus inUerpos-
ing between the labOring man and the
| laboring woman and their last chance
tor bread by honest work, their sins for
| self-preserVation are less odiOus to
their merciful Father than the prayers
of the usurers who have driven them
to ruin.
1t is said in highly intelligent quar-
! tiers that at this hour there are three
millions of our own people unemploy-
ed, who have no other dependence for
food and shelter than the labor of
their hands, and One-half of whom
are now Jramping from place TO place
| for crumbs of charity. Pitiable and
| dangerous spectacle! 1t never happen
| ed before in this land of bOunteOus
nature, nor would it now but for the
fact that in these later days a class has
arisen in our midst which is benefited
| by the scarcity of money, and the con-
| sequent destruction of all those great
industries which afford employment
to labor. Nor does this frightful spec
tacle appeal alone to our sympathy
with human misery deep and indescrlb-
able as that must be. The loss to the
| country in actual wealth arising from
the absolute idleness of three million
persons is very great. 1t has been esti-
mated that at one dollar per day, as
wages, It would amount to enough in
two years to liquidate our public debt.
| The United States monetary commits
sion make the following valuable OBJ
| SerVati Ons in their recent report:
1.-The worst effect, however, econo-
mically considered, of falling prices is
not upon existing property, nor upon
debtors, but upon labOrers, whom II
| deprives of employment and cOnsigns
| to poverty, and upon society, which
| it depriVes of that vast sum of wealth
which resides potentially in the vigOr-
GUS arms OF the idle workman. A
| shrinking volume OF money transfers
| existing property unjustly, and causes
a concentration and diminution OF
wealth. 1t also impairs the value OF
existing property by eliminating
from it that important elemt Mt OF value
conferred upon it by the skill, energy
and care of the debtors from whom it
is wrested. But it does not destroy
any existing property, while 1t does
absolutely annihilate all the values
Producib!e by the labor which it con-
dennis to idleness. The estimate is
not an extravagant one that there are
now in the United States 5000 900
persons willing to work, but who are
idle because they can not obtain en-
plOy ment. This vast pOverty-stricken
army is Increasing and will continue
| to increase as long as falling prices
shall continue to separate money capt.
tai, the fund out of which wages are
paid, from labor, and to discourage its
Investment in other forms of proper
ty.
Labor, cooperating with the forces
of nature, is the source of all wealth,
and to reach the highest degree of eff
fectiveness; it must be clas sitied
through the aid of capital and sup
ported by capital during the process
of production and be measured and
paid in money, each unit of which is a
sight draft on all other forms of prop
erty, bearing value I'm proportion TO
the number of such drafts. In order
that any country may reach the maxi
mum of material prosperity, certain
conditions are Indispensable. All its
| labor, assisted by the most approved
machinery and appliances, must be
employed, and the fruits of industry
must be Justly distributed. These con-
ditiOns are only possible when capital
is absolutely projected against violence
and free from illegitimate Legislative
interference, and when the labOrer is
protected i'm his natural right TO dis
pose of his labor in such manner as he
may prefer. They are utterly impos-
sible when the money stock is shrink
ing and the money value of property
and services is declining. HOwsOever
great the natural resources ola country
may be, however genial its climate,
fertile its soil, ingenious, enterprising
and industrious its inhabitants, or free
its institutions, If the value of money
is shrinking and prices are falling, its
merchants will be overwhelmed with
bankruptcy, its industries will be
paralyZed, and destitu ton and distress
will prevail.
The instinct of sclf-interest is the
handspring of industrial and CONNER
cial activity. 1t is the animating
motive alike of the capitalist and of the
laborer. Without il, no labor would
be performed, nor would capital have
an existence. If money capital is
withdrawn from productive enterpri-
ses, it is from the apprehension of loss
and from the same instinct of thrift
through which it was acquired. 1t is
natural that the money capitalist
should exact from labor all he can in
exchange for his money, and that the
laborer should exact all the money he
can in exchange for his labor.
What is known as the conflict between
Al laf Is NJ so n
tlict between other forms of capital
and labor as it is between money and
labor. Indeed, the conflict between
money and other forms of capital is as
distinctly marked and quite as severe
as the conflict between money and
labor and Al that conflict
other forms of capital suffer fully as