Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-11-12
Illinois Money Based upon the Faith
and Credit Of the Nation.
New York Tribune.


In 1921 the Legislature of Illinois
feeling that the times were hard ant
every body in debt to the full amount o
their credit. girded up its loins and wen
to work to bring in prosperity by stat
ute. 1t created State bank withou
money. based solely upon the credit ant
resources of that magnificent State. L
was authorized to issue bank bills of va
rious denominations bearing two pei
cent. interest, and payable by the State
In ten years. The Legislature elected
all the bank officers from among the
most gifted politicians Ofthe State, hav
ing due regard to the claims of locality
and the personal needs of the candi
dates. The new money, when printed
was to De lent to the people to the
amount of 500 q head upon personal
security-that is to say, one voter sign
ed his note and another voter endorsed
It. Before the bill got through the Legis.
lature some "hide-bound minions of the
money-power," men who could read and
write and had casual acquaintance
with the multiplication table. foretold
the consequences of such idiOtic legisla-
ton. but we're answered with due scorn
by the statesmen of the intuitive school.
who proved, by the processes familiar to
such genioses as Ewing and Bland, that
the new money would remain at par
with gold and silver; and to make this
sure they enacted that it should be le-
gal tender for all State purposes, and ifs
private creditor declined to take it on ex-
ecutiOn the debtor should have the REM
edy of replevin and stay of collection for
three years. They even went SO far as
to demand, by joint resolution, that the
United States should receive these notes
as payment for. public lands. Colonel
Menard, an old Frenchman, who was
president of the Senate, put this motion
to vote in the following words, which
show a cheerful CLEAN of common sense
amid the lunacy of the hour: "Gentle-
men of de Senate. it is moved and Sec
onded dat de note Of dis bank be made
Land Office money. All in fafor of dat
motion say Aye; all against it say No.
1t is decided in de affirmatlf. And now,
gentlemen, bet you one hundred dol.
lar he never be made Land-Office
money"
This wild scheme was vetoed by the
Governor and Judges, acting as coun-
Gil of revision, but was passed by brute
majority in both houses, and the bank
went gayly on its course. It may easily
be imagined that no voter who wanted q
hundred dollars was refused. Any friend
would lend an endorsement for a drink
In short time $500, 600 was distributed
amo. the people, with no prosprect of
repayment. The money dropped in
stantly twenty five cents, then fifty,
then seventy below par. Silver fled like
ghost; gold was already gone. To get
small change, the people had to resort to
scissors, and cut their dollar-bills into
halves and quarters. By the year 1924
it was seen that the State could not car
ry on the public business with such rub
Dish. For while they got on by tax
ing non.residents with increased &C.
verify to pay State expenses and by
paving the resident lapd.tax into the
county treasures. 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. In this
way, the expenses of the State being
trebled, and its revenues reduced two
thirds, the end Ofthe insane experiment
was soon reached, and the State had to
come down to hard realities and fund
this load of trash in six percent. bonds.
This edifying story is'told- by Cover
nor Ford in his history of Illinois, writ
ten thirty years ago. No apologize of
the wittiest and most sagacious political
economist could more clearly show the
consequences of ignorant meddling with
financial questions. Men now living
in that State and neighboring commu-
mites can remember the progress aud
the failure of this crack scheme.