The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-11-06
Illinois Money Based upon the Faith
and Credit of the Nation.


| Tn 1921 the Legislature of Illinois, feeling
that the times were hard and everybody in
debt to the full amount OF their credit,
~irded up its loins and went to work TO
bring in prosperity by statute. 1t created Il
| State bank without money, based solely
upon the credit and resources Of that mag
nificent State. It was authorized to issue
bank.bitls OF various denominations bearing
two Der cent. interest, and payable by the
State in ten years. The Legislature elected
all the bank officers from among the
most gifted politicians OF the State, hay
ing due regard to the claims OF locality
and the personal needs Of the candl-
dates. The new money, when printed, was
to be lent to the people to the amount OF
500 head upon "personal " security
that is to say, one voter signed his note and
another voter endorsed 1t. Before the Dill
got through the Legislature some ''hlde-
bound minions Of the money-power,' men
who could read and write and had casual
acquaintance with the notwithstanding,
| fortoId the consequences OF such ldloflc
| legislation, but were answered with due
| scurn by the statesmen OF the lntultlye
school, who proved, by the processes
familiar to such geniuscs as Ewing and
Bland, that the new money would re-
| main at par with gold and silver; and TO
make this sure they enacted that it
should be legal tender for all State pur-
poses, and If private creditor de-
clincd to take it on execution the debtor
should have the remedy OF replcyln ana
stay of collection for three years. They
even went so far as to demand, by joint
resolution, that the United States should re-
ceive these notes as payment for pubic
lands. Colonel Menard, an old French
man, who was president Of the Senate, put
| this motion to vote IN the following words,
which show cheerful CLEAN Of common
sense amid the lunacy OF the hour: "Gen-
tlcmen OF de Senate, it Is moved ana Sec
onded dat de note Of dis bank be made
Land Office money. AL in fafor OF dat mo-
ton say Aye; all against it say No. 1t. is
decided in de afhrmatif. And now, gentle
men, l bet you one hundred dollars he
never be made Land-Office money"
This wild scheme was vetoed by the Gov
ernor and Judges, acting as a council OF re-
vision, but was passed by a brute majority
in both houses, and the bank went gayly
on its course. 1t may easily be imagined
that no voter who wanted hundred do
lars was refused. Any friend would lend
an endorsement for drink. In short
time 100000 was distributed among the
people, with no prospect OF repayment.
The money dropped instantly twenty
tive cents, then fifty, then seventy he.
low par. Silver fled like a ghost; gold
was already gone. To get small change, the
1 people had 10 resort to scissors, and cut
their doIlar-tiIls into halves and quarter.
By the year 1924 it was seen that the State
could not carry on the public business with
such rubbish. For while they got on by
taxing .non-residcnts with increased Sc
verify to pay State expenses and by paying
| the resident land-taX into the county trea-
suries. The members OF the Legislature,
| finding their three dollars day shrunk to
one, rose equal to the occasion, and trebled
their own salaries and those OF the State
officers. Tn this way, the expenses OF the
State being reblea, and its revenues re-
duced two thirds, the end Of the insane eX-
| pertinent was soon reached, and the State
! had to come down to hard realities and 1und
| this load Of trash in siX-per-cent. bonds.
This edifyng story is told by Governor
Ford in his history of Illinois, written thirty
| wears ago. No apologize OF The Wittiest and
most sagaciolls political economist could
more clearly show the consequences Of igno-
rant meddling with financial questions.
Men now living in that State aud neighbour
ing communities can remember the progress
and the failure OF this crack scheme