Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-10-02
WoRKIhoMEh AND the CUR.
RENCY.


rIuHA tne ST. EOst
If the workingmen of the United
States could be made to understand
the currency question, they would be
for resumption to a man. We pro-
pose in this article to point out one of
the less obvious but none the less real,
ofthe many ways in which the green
back currency has inflicted upon them
incalculable damage. The savings
bank is one of the pillars of modern
civilization. 1t is the hope of the
poor. 1t is the persuasive teacher of
economy.
1t is the most efficient teacher of
some of the most valuable lessons of
engines vet invented for lifting the
masses out of the slough of poverty
and setting them on their feet on the
firm land of independence. To the
toiling millions the savings bank and
the principle embodied in it ought to
be sacred. They should be taught to
look upon whoever and whatever lays
violent hands on this Institution as
their most deadly enemy. But the
legal tender currency saps the very
foundation of this pillar of civiliza-
ton. 1t destroys credit, upon which
alone the savings bank rests. How
can confidence exist in the absence OF
all securities for the just repayment
of deposits? What motive has the
tired laborer for taking his scanty
savings to the bank when he knows
that a mob of ranting demagogues
may, under the miserable pretense OF
issuing "a currency commensurate
with the demands Of commerce and
trade and the wants of the people, -
rob him of a percentage Of the fruits
of his toll? "1t is mOnstrOus to strip
a man Of his savings as to reduce him
to reduce him to slavery"
Says Edmund About: "From the
time that the wOrkingman has begun
the small hoard which must either
emancipate him from labor or else as.
sure the repose of old age, the face Of
everything is changed; he sees the
end at which he aims; he walks with
confidence; he gladly admits thateact
step brings him nearer to it. The
mOnotOny of his occupation disap.
pears from his eyes, because each day
leads to a personal change in himself
he feels himself another man in pro
portion as he grows richer. He who
labOrs without acquiring any, does
not know why he labors; he who sees
his savings increase, says to himsel
every morning with redOubled cour
age, 4 labor for my own behoof.'"
The thought of future comfort anG
leisure, the hope that by present tot
and frugality and self-denial, he may
lift himself out of the slough of pow
erty, nerves the arm Of the weary
worker with three-fold energy. De
stroy this hope, create a suspicion il
his mind that by some trick his hare
earnings may slip from his grasp ant
go to swell the ill-gotten gains of som'
INSCRIPTIONS Spectator, and he viii
sink into an apathetic despair, con
sumo, from day to day, the entir,
product of his daily toll, die paupe
and leave his children heirs to hi.
hopeless poverty.
There are thousands to-day all owe
the country depositing, from week t.
week, and from month to month,
portion of their earnings in saving
banks, in the hope that it will com
back to him after many days, not on
ly unimpaired, but increased in valu
by the interest accrued. Whoeve
encourages that practice is publ
benefactor. Whoever discourages
is public enemy-an enemy to civil
ization. You discourage it by you
clamor for imitation and depreciation
by demanding a tickle, unstable, fiuc
tuating currency, whose value no ma
can predict, currency that vitiate
all calculations about the future b,
introducing an unknown element,
currency that says to every laborel
every mechanic, every clerk, book
keeper, salesman, every teacher o
clergyman: "Spend as you go. ]
you save anything and loan it out yo
cannot tell what you may receive il
payment. What good to deny your
self for the benefit of others? Eat
; drink and be merry"
! There are thousands and thousand
and thousands of these classes savin
and lending part of their scanty earn
: ings who would cease to save an
lend and begin to consume and dc
, stroy if they really believed that tn
doctrine of the greenbackers woul
be carried into practice and the goN
eminent would violate its pledge
faith and refuse to keep its oft-repeat
ed promises.