Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-09-11


values upon something that has no intrinsic
value is the remedy for all financial ills. All
the advocates of this theory opponents of
the greenbacks, which is promise of the gov
eminent to pay its dollars. What does every
man OF common sense understand by q
dollar. The very term conveys to everybody's
mind the idea OF coin, of gold, of silver, or
some other metal representing that much Of
value. Abraham paid to Ephraim 400 shekels
OF silver for the cave of Machelah, because it
was current money to the merchant. There
we're shekels of gold and shekels of silver, as
there were talents of each, but either term sig
nlfied then the word dollar does now,
the idea of metallic value, and it has
been so doing all the intervening ages. When
man sells piece of property for 300, or any
other sum. this same idea of value 10 in his
mind. He may take bank bill for the
amount, but it is only because he ac-
cepts the promise of the bank to pay in
coin. If he had not confidence in that bank he
would not SO pay, he would refuse the bill. 1t
ia so with the greenback. If there was not con-
hdence in the ability af the government to pay
it in coin it would not circulate.
The Democratic party shook this confidence
so much in 1862 by declaring that the war was
failure and demanding that it cease; that u
greenback dollar was only worth 48 cents, and
now when by the Republican management it
has gone up to par. it is accepted as the repre-
sentative of a dollar in gold or silver be-
cause it can be exchanged for either. 1t
is the belief that this change can be made
that gives it credit. If it was known that it
could not be made it would not circulate. The
government has made it legal tender in the
payment of debts, and creditor may be COM
PEELED to take it from debtor for the purpose,
but the-e the compulsion ends. The govern
ment MAJ. mas :. no power to re-
quire that it shall be received for
property or anything else, and nobody will re-
,koxs NLo,k
is the relation it bears to the coin dollar; has
fixed value universally accepted. We call our
legal tender silver coin of 41214 grains dollar,
but suppose we should make q coin of 206l
grains and call that dollar, would it not re-
quire two of them to purchase much as
the legal tender dollar. Or if make one of
1885 and call that dollar would it
not require four. The mere calling one of these
last dollar would not give it the value of a
dollar or it's purchasing power. We cannot
evoke the settled laws of business which CEN
turtles have established and it is all folly to
talk about it.
What we want is confidence in the govern
ment and each other and stability in our fnan-
cial system. With these, our trade and COM
merce already reviving will be rapidly in
creased, and we shall realize the advantages of
the system VIC are now asked to overthrow. If,
on the other hand, we should be
persuaded to postpone indefinitely
and to repudiate the idea Of the specie value
of money and property, we shall again be
plunged into deepest financial distress, and
thousands who are now in prosperous condi-
ton will be irretffevably ruined. 1t was SO in
France during the revolution. 1t has been
in every country where an irredeemable paper
has been adopted, and it will be so as GER
tain as any effect follows its cause. Too
great imitation may increase prices, and for
time things may go on swimming, but in the
end the bubble is sure to burst, and then the
loss falls on the labor of the country.
The banker, bondholder and speculator in
stocks can generally protect himself against
the consequences of a financial panic to
large extent, but the laboring man never can.
CONSISTENTLY the bulk of suffering occasioned
by financial panic always falls upon
the laboring part of the population.
Instead of being friends of this class, the ad-
vocates of irredeemable paper are their enc
mics. While the present panic has produced
much suffering and many bankruptcies, it is
not whit worse than the panic of ls47, which
has more than doubled since then.
and because of the facilities of
intercourse, Geographic. ETC., we see and hear
almost everything that goes on over the entire
country. Therefore, bankruptcies and failures
had neither telegraph nor railroad, no daily
paper, and only few weekles; yet those, who
like himself, lived in those days, will remem-
Der how terrible the calamity and what
general paralysis In business it produced.
That panic was produced directly by
the Democratic party by tampering with the
currency for party ends. A branch of the
bank of the United States refuses to be made
party or engine at the dictation of Politicians,
and the excitement this occasioned ripened into
a fierce partisan war. The deposits were lille
gally taken from the bank, notwithstanding it
had paid under the law for the privilege
of keeping them and given to State banks to be
held as basis of their circulation. They were
instructed by the secretary of the treasury to
increase their issues SO as to furnish accommo-
dation to those who desired to borrow money.
They did SO, and the President, secretary of
the treasury and the whole party boosted of
the result Of high prices and good times which
were allowed Democratic prices and Democrat
ic terms. There were men elected to office in
this State by means of those boasts. The in
fluence If this imitation was felt everywhere.
As prices went up, the spirit of speculation,
the demand for money and bank issues all in
creased at a corresponding rate. Everybody
wanted to borrow money and to speculate.
The passion for the acquisition of land became
almost universal.