Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-04-04
Finances BY Simple Arithmetic.

that are designed to procure the cir,
culation of what is called cheap mon
ey are candid in their opinion that il
is all for their good but it seems to ut
the demonstration is so clear that ev.
cry cheap dollar takes a margin away
from the producer and laborer that
we are justified in INVITING the delud-
ed man upon his folly. Before the
passage of the late silver money law,
we cited instances where money deal.
ers had sent to the markets and OBJ
tanned silver by the $1,000 for green.
backs, by the 1920 The silver dol
lars thus obtained were paid out to
our farmers anG laborers the same as
if they were greenback dollars. When
they purchase imported goods with
this money-tea, coffee, sugar, fine
dress goods, china, and hundreds of
other things-they must pay enough
to make the silver equal to gold. 1t
is presumable that the reader of this
can understand that s per cent. of
500 is So. If he can he surely can
understand that $4,000 exchanged in
Grant County in the manner above
stated is loss to the industries of
the county to the amount of $500. 1t
was loss in nine cases out of ten to
the men who were clamoring for the
exchange-to our foolish Doc Arm
strongs, our crazy ALT Palmers, our
deluded Lees and our tree-swindled
grangers. On the other hand, if there
was anything made by the exchange,
it was made by the bankers and mon
ey brokers who, they say, opposed
setting up the silver images.
This is one demonstration, short
and conclusive, but the Ephraims
who are joined to their idols will con-
tinue to knaw at their noses to spite
their faces. We proceed to other
arithmetical solutions of the money
question. We now have the silver
law. The dollar in silver is legal ten
der. 1t has been current for some
time. The eastern money changers
bought it up at 90 cents on the dollar
and sent it out here to buy our wheat
and meat, the dollars worth, for the
90 cent dollar, until it has become
plentiful. 1t has taken the place of
its numerical quantity in greenbacks.
The silver men wanted the silver
money law so that there would be
more currency. If our greenbacks
have gone into the vaults of the east
ern money lenders and in their place
they have given us silver, how
much more currency have we? The
compliments may now complain like
the ass in the fable. "You burden
4
me too heavily with the weight of
yourself and your barrel of rum on
my back" "Ah," said the master,
"you are carrying me but / am carry
ing the rum; is that not fair ?" The
banks and brokers are carrying the sill
yer law but the industrious people are
carrying them. People affect to be
surprised that the premium on gold is
not higher since the passage of the
silver law. 1t is higher. The people
are in the vice but having allowed
themselves to be opiated they do not
feel it. Gold and greenbacks are
nearly at par but there is a wider
margin between gold and silver.
When the law passed, that margin
was about 81 cents on the dollar, now
it is about 10, and yet greenbacks
and silver are current with each 9TH
er. 1t will be remembered that early
in the war gold and silver were used
here among the people dollar for dol
lar with paper money long after they
commanded large premiums at the
specie markets. But they were grad
ually retired and at length there was
no money in the country. The brok-
ers, not the people, pocketed the
premiums. Just SO now the "hon-
est money" is gradually going into
money vaults, and the cheap money
-silver-is taking its place. And
here is another aritbmetical illustra.
ton: Fritz Schmidt comes from
Germany. He lands at New York.
He has $3.50 of"Eurorean exchange. y
He goes to a broker and gets one
hundred and fifty silver dollars for it.
The legal tender donar is very
pretty and his eyes dance. He comes
on West and his eyes dance at the
beauty of the land. He concludes te
send to Germany for the whole family
of Schmidts. He goes to Mr.. Ryland
or to the European money order
Post Office at Csssville to get "Euro
pean exchange" to send over to the
poor Schmidts. He expects to gel
$3.50 worth Of it but is informed that
his silver dollars in Europe will bring
only slS5, and learns that the New
York broker made SIS out of the ad
vantage that the silver law offers.
Then he gets mad, declines to buy
one of the many cheap farms offered
him and goes back to Europe for fear
he loses the rest of his money, through
the advantages that fools give tc
rogues by ignorant tinkering with the
finances. And here we end this lessor
| in financial arithmetic.
ACCORDING to the official state,
ment of the Secretary of state, il