The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-11-01
FINANCIAL TRUTHS.

Good Points from Governor WOOd6Ord.
Perhaps the speeches of no man in the
country have attracted more attention
in the present discussion of the finan-
ciaI question than those of Govern
or Woodford, of New York. He re-
Gently made very forcible argument
for honest money, at Jackson, Michigan,
from which we make a few extracts
which are to the point just now. Read
them:
WHAT is MONEY?
If were asked to give a definition
that should he clear to my own mind,
and that think will make it most clear
to yours, should define money as being
a measure of value. Let me go into a
little detail to explain what l mean by
this. You use yard stick to measure
length. You say piece of cloth is so
many yards long. You say of man he
weighs so many pounds. You use a
bushel to measure quantity. You say of
grain there are so many bushels OF wheat
or corn. You say of piece of land, it
is worth so many dollars; of days Ia
Dor, it is worth dollar and a half, or
| two dollars, or whatever the price may
IN" JO0 W Vi
measure the value of an article, you use
money to measure it by.
Now what is the first necessity of any
measure? Why, of course, that the meas
ure should be stable. If not only does
the thing measured change, but that
which you measue it by also changes,
you never know where you are A yard
stick thirty-seven inches long one day,
and thirty-siX the next, and thirty-five
the next, would be sure to cheat some
body, would 1t nots
1t would cheat either the seller or
buyer. A bushel that should be made
of India rubber, which you could stuff
one day and stretch, and I'LL the next
day without stretching and which the
third day would shrink, would certainly
cheat somebody, would it not? Either
the man that sold or the man that
bought? Just SO dollar that is not al
ways dollar-does it not inevitably
cheat somebody? Then the first condi-
ton of money is that, as far as possible,
1t shall always have the same relative
value. That your yard stick shall be
thirty-six inches long the year round,
and your bushel always a bushel-no
more, no less-and your dollar always a
dollar, no more and no less.
IOu CSAhOt poruld1enttY CLONE mat
which is nothing with the power of
something. Pray think this over for a
moment. Can you put on q piece of pa
per, This is bushel of corn" and make
it bushel of corn? Can you write up
on piece of paper, This is a house."
and thereby make it house? Can you
write upon piece of paper, This is a
dollar" and make it a dollar? The
whole thing ciphers down to this little
proposition. You cannot make some
thing out of nothing and keep it some
thing forever. This Is the riddle.
You are trying no new thing with this
attempt to make fiat money. It has been
tried over and over again. But you in
sist on trying it once more, hoping that
the measels will not prove the measles
now, just as they did one hundred years
ago.
TARTAR EXAMPLE.
There was traveller, one Marco Polo,
who went to Tartary. Marco Polo Wis
tied Tartary some centuries ago, and in
the account of the wonderful things, he
gave this most wonderful statement =
de said that there was a ruler named
khublal, who was the Khan of Tartary,
who had invented the most wonderful
thing. He made money by having the
officers of his treasury write the amount
of the money on little bits of paper and
seal them with wax in the name of the
empire. Then he made every man who
had gold, silver or jewels, or ANYTHING
to sell, take these pieces of paper in pay
ment therefor. Now, the Khan of Tar
tary was wiser in his day than even my
fiat friends are now For he had
this additional law: That if any man
refused to take the bits of paper, he gen
erously cut the skeptic's throat Laugh
ter. Now, the Khan, by this gentle
process of persuasion, kept those bits of
paper afioat as long as he lived. But
when he died what was the result The
jewels of the people were in the strong
chest of the Khan, and the people had
only the bits of paper. When the Khan
died the money died also, and there was
bankruptcy, even in Tartary.
JOHN LAWS SCHEME.
There was Louis of France, the spend
thrift, the Bourbon monarch, who got so
deeply in debt that he invented nation
al party for his own accommodation.
He got for his helper and adviser one
John Law, of Scotland, himself liber-
tine, fleeing from punishment in Eng
land. Law came to France and devised
a scheme of paper money. He pledged
for security all the great tracts which
sissippi valley. He backed his money
with these Mississippi lands. Then
these twin patentees of the idea of the
national party Laughter printed paper
money, and they made it the law of
France that it should pay all debts and
that every man should take it in the
payment of debt. They started the print
ing presses and issued the money. There
ought to have been prosperity, according
to the National idea. Prices indeed
rose. There was imitation. For a few
years everything seemed to be going
well. Prices mounted to the skies. These
were good times. They printed more
By and by men began to hesitate about
selling, and prices went still niger. And
the king had more of it printed. Prices
kept growing higher and higher, and
the King printed more. By and by the
very bakers and butchers in Paris refus-
ed to take the stuff for bread and meat.
The bubble broke and France was bank
rupt.
What was the resultY Who was hurt >
The rich were not. And why? Because
as fast as the rich man got paper money
he bought more land; he bought more
houses; he paid it for labor; he got rid
of it. And the result was that when the
bubble broke, the laboring men of
FRANCE naQ every dollar OF the worthless
money, and the rich men of France had
every pound and square foot of valuable
property in the Kingdom. Then what
other result came sadly but surely after ?
The Reign of Terrori Louis grandson
came to the block, and the streets of Pa
ris ran with blood.
You, gentlemen, who are dreaming
that you can legislate prosperity by leg.
islating lie, and then calling it money.
will at last have this state of things,
The rich will be richer, and the poor
will be poorer. The only man who can
be benefited by this scheme of money
that is not money, are the gambler on
the one side and the spendthrift on the
other. [Applause,]
Gentlemen, have come to preach no
new doctrine to you. 1 have not come
TO tell you that by holding political
meetings you can get rich. You cannot. |
have not come to tell you that by turn. |
ing the crank of the printing press Won
can get rich. You cannot. have not
come to tell you that by printing lie |
upon shingle, or a soap bubble. or |
piece of paper you can get rich. You
cannot. There is but one way to get
money and that is to work for it. There
is but one way to get rich, and that il |
to save something of the wages you earn
for work And every attempt to undo |