Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-10-24

gold will be and remain the standard of value
as to the fiat dollar. Your fiat dollar will be
brought up before that tribunal to have judg-
'nent pronounced as to its worth. and the idea
tisit by introducing here apaper money system
at your own. you can withdraw from the rules
that govern the commerce of the world, and
change the read standard of value in your bust
ness transactions, win appear as one Of the
most absurd and childish conceptions the human
BRAN has ever been guilty of At last, when
your fiat dollar, having been made very plenty
70 accommodate the people, has run down so
low in its purchasing power and cut SO sorry
figure in
INEVITABLE COMPARISON WITH GOLD,
that you begin to grow uneasy about it, you
remember that it is based upon the wealth of
the American people, and that some forty or
Atty thousand millions worth Of property stand
as mongaged 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 laboring man
who has some money in a 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 go to the next best
public building to see whether you can find
any OF the wealth Of the country there which
S security FOR your fiat money to lay your
hands upon. l 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 il is security for your fiat money, can
not be handled in that way. You may think
it best to present your fat money to The Score
tary Of The Treasury, who must be presumed
to be a 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 hat paper you present, or SO much OF
the wealth of the country as is required to
make that fiat paper worth something What
will be the answerP ssMy 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 your fiat money is based.
OF course, cahnot give you what belongs to
anybody else
Now, you begin 10 perceive that the forty or
fifty thousand millions worth of property in
the country may be
MAGNIFICENT SECURITY TO BASE FIAT MON
Ely UPON,
6a yon cannot foyeeiose tie MORTGAGE ubon a
single jtade of grass. That may seem queer
to you. But it is the peculiar beauty of fiat
money, based upon the who wealth of the
country.
FIAT MONEY IN THE PAST--HISroRICAL
PRECEDENTs.
There is nothing more ridiculous than to
hear these fiat money doctors pretend to have
made great original discovery and to parade
It before US as the most progressive idea Of the
age. Why, 1t is story thousand years old.
They had such money in China in the ninth
century of this era. They had it in Persia
toward the close of the thirteenth century.
They had it in the American colonies in the
seventeenth century in the shape of bead and
clam-shell currency. They had it in France
at the beginning Of the sixteenth century under
the management of the great progressive
SCOTCH FINANcIER, JOHN LAW.
They had it in France during the great Revo-
luton in the shape of the assignats.
They had it in this country again during the
war of Independence in the shape of the Con
tinental money. Always in all essential fea-
lures virtually the samoa paper money based
in some indefinite way upon an indefinite some
thing, In some cases without it, in some cases
issued under the stress of circumstances, in some
cases for financial speculation; and whenever
an imitation of paper money was either part
of the scheme or forced by necessity, the final
result always the same, depreciation OF the
money, that depreciation leading to new issues,
the new issues bringing forth more deprecia-
ton, and so on,-everybody believing himself
rich for a time, until finally the whole airy
fabric broke down in general confusion, bank.
fuptcy and ruin, when it became apparent that
the grand indefinite something upon which the
paper money was based be it the power .o
the Emperor of China or the wealth of the
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 PEG
pie came painfully to the old conclusion agar
that, after all, the precious metals were the
only safe basis of a money system And the,
gathered up the few coins they could lay theiH
hands ON, and, upon the ruins of their foolish
hopes and windy fortunes, they began sensible
business once more in a cautious and prudent
way. And now the same old scheme, exploded
again and again, with a thousand years his
tory on its back, full Of ruin and disaster, i:
dlshed up to us again as brand new discovery
and as the great progressive idea of the cen
fury. Why, gentlemen Of the Fiat Money per
suasion, the Chinese thousand years ago were
Just as wise and progressive as you are now
and, when they had got through with then
great progressive fiat money experience, they
were a great deal wiser 1t is a matter Of
wonder as well as regret that at this day there
should be so many good people giving, even
I or moment, countenance to a fallacy Sc
hoary with age, and so utterly condemned by
the painful and repeated experience Of man.
kind.
THE POSITION or THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
| think may now take leave of fiat money.
and turn to our Democratic friends, who are DOS
sessed with the "Ohio idea" If understand
correctly, the newest phase of the "Ohio idea, "
as put forth by the Democratic convention of
this state and several other conventions in other
parts OF the country, is as follows:
The resumption act is to be repealed. All
reduction OF the paper currency is to cease.
Greenbacks are to be legal tender for duties
on imports. All restrictions to the unlimited