The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-10-24

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cold will be and remain the standard of value
NJ To the fiat dollar Your fiat dollar will be
brought up before that tribunal TO have judg-
ulept pronounced as to its worth, and the idea
shat by introducing here apaper- money system
sJf your own. you can withdraw from the rules
9tat govern the commerce of the world, and
change the real standard of value in your bust
ness transactions, will appear as one of the
most absurd and childish conceptions the human
brain has ever been guilty of. At last, when
yosir fiat dollar, having been made very plenty
30 accommodate the people, has run down so
Low in its purchasing power and cut SO sorry
6gure in
INEVITABLE COMPARISON WITH GOLD,
that you begin to grow uneasy about it, you
the American people, and that some forty or
Fifty thousand millions worth of property stand
as mortgaged security behind it. Of course,
with such security the fiat dollar onght to be
worth its face in gold and thus you may think
of foreclosing that mortgage on the wealth OF
the country. May be you ask a laborlng man
who has some money in savings bank, which
formerly was worth enough 10 buy little
house with, but in its fiat condition, money
being plenty, appears just sufficient to pay for
a Jack knife. You may 60 to the next best
public building to see whether you can find
any of the wealth of the country there which
4 security for your fiat money to lay your
hands upon ! would, however, not advise
YOU to seize upon specific article of property
as part of the wealth of the country, for you
would be in danger Of being arrested and put
all for larceny The wealth of the country,
although it is security for your fiat money, can
1ot be handled in that way. You may think
it best to present your fiat money to the Secre-
aary of the Treasury, who must be presumed
30 be sound fiat man, and knows what the
mortgage on the wealth of the country means.
You ask him to give you good dollars for the
bits of fiat paper you present, or so much OF
the wealth of the country as is required to
make hat fiat paper worth something. What
xgiIl be the answer? sEMy dear sir, you desire
good dollars these fiat dollars are good dol
Lars, they are the only dollars we have. The
Government has not promised you anything
else. You want share of the wealth of this
country upon which these fiat dollars are based
Why, these fiat dollars are themselves part
of the wealth of the country Besides, you
have clothes upon your back your wife and
children have the same. If you have no house
of your own you have furniture in your rented
dwelling. You have tools in your workshop
All these things are part of the wealth of the
country upon which ySr fiat money is based
OF course, cannot give you what belongs tc
anybody else"
Now, you begin 10 perceive that the forty o.
Fifty thousand millions worth of property ii
the country may be
MAGNIFICENT SECURITY TO BASE FIAT MON
EY UPON,
bit yow cannot foreclose the mortgage UPON {
.a>rIaL Yezya
TO you. But il is the peculiar beauty of fla
money, based upon the who wealth of the
country.
FIAT MONEY IN THE PAsT-HISToRICAL
PRECEDENTS.
There is nothing more ridiculous than tt
hear these fiat money doctors pretend to have
made great original discovery and to parad
it before us as the most progressive idea of tn
age. Why, it is story thousand years old
They had such money in China in the nintl
century of this era. They had it in Persi
toward the close of the thirteenth century
They had it in the American colonies in thu
seventeenth century in the shape of bead an,
clam shell currency. They had it in Franc
st the beginning of the sixteenth century unde
the management of the great progressive
SCOTCH FINANcIER, JOHN LAW.
They had it in France during the great Revo
7uton in the shape of the assignats
They had it in this country again during tn
war of independence in the shape of the Con
tinental money. Always in all essential fea
lures virtually the samoa paper money baset
an some indefinite way upon an indefinite some
thing, in some cases without it, in some case
issued under the stress of circumstances, in som
cases for financial speculation; and wheneve
an imitation of paper money was either a par
OF the scheme or forced by necessity, the hna
result always the me,-depreciation OF tn
money, that depreciation leading to new issues
Abe new issues bringing forth more depreca
zion, and SO on,-everybody believing himse]
rich for a slime, until finally the whole air
fabric broke down in general confusion, bank
ruptcy and ruin, when it became apparent tina
the grand indefinite something upon which tn
paper money was based, be it the power c
the Emperor of China or the wealth of tn
country, practically amounted to nothing as
mortgage security; and uniformly in the break
down, the poor people,
THE LABORING CLASSES, SUFFERED THE GREAT
EST DISTRESS,
and in every issue after the great collapse pee
pie came painfully to the old conclusion agar
that, after all, the precious metals were tn
only safe basis OF money system. And the
gathered up the few coins they could lay thei
hands on, and, upon the ruins of their foolisl
hopes and windy fortunes, they began senslbl,
business once more in a cautious and pruden
way And now the same old scheme, exploded
again and again, with thousand years his
sorry on its back, full of ruin and disaster, i
Eiished up to us again as brand new discover,
and as the great progressive idea of the cen
&ury. Why, gentlemen of the Fiat Money per
slasion, the Chinese thousand years ago wer
gust as wise and progressive as you are now
and, when they had got through with thel
great progressive fiat money experience the,
were great deal wiser. 1t is a matter o
wonder as well as regret that at this day their
should be so many good people giving ever
or moment, countenance to fallacy 81
noary with age, and SO utterly condemned b,
sne painful and repeated experience of man
kind.
THE POSITION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
think may now take leave of fat-money
and turn to our Democratic friends, who are DOS
sessed with the Soho idea" If I understand
correctly, the newest phase ofthe sOhio idea,
as put forth by the Democratic convention O
this state and several other conventions in othe
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