The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-10-22
The WAY of Ruin.


During the last five years OF Frustrated
enterprise and industry, attended by unpre-
cedentcd distress in the midst Of abundant
crops, and OF exports exceeding all former
experience, various financial schemes have
been proposed as pretended modes of relief,
none Of which has the merit Of n substantial
basis, and all Of which, when subjected to
the test Of practical examination, are found
to rest on nothing. II is but natural, when
millions OF men and women are unemployed
and ready to listen to artful appeals with
attention, quickcned by personal suffering,
that these projects Of making cheap money,
and enhancing ostcnsibly the value OF labor.
should make larger Judgment than in
ordinary times.
The leaders take care not to make IL clear
that just In proportion as this process OF
imitation might augment wages, the price Of
rent, Of meat, and bread and clothing, and
Of every household article would be raised,
and when the collapse came the loss would
mostly fail ON the great mass who toll with
| their hands.
More than one hundred and fifty years
ago. JONI LAW became Comptrollcr-Gen-
eral Of the finances Of France, upon the
strength Of project for establishing
bank and Mississippi Company, by the
profits OF which the nationwide was to be
paid of. Three years before he had opened
a bank in his own name, under the protec-
ton Of the Duke OF Orleans, then Regent Of
France. The prospect Of immense gains Sc
duced people OF every condition TO subscribe
| for shares In the bank and the company, so
that In two years they rose upward Of
| II. 3 L..
nominally worth more than eighty times
the amount Of all the current specie In
France. But when LAW reached the climax
OF his artificial power, he fell, as JAY COOKE
did in 1873, and involved tens of thousands OF
families in utter ruin.
Seventy years later, when the Revolution
uprootcd the old social foundations, the
chiefs devised a scheme for issuing notes.
called assignats, bearing interest at three
per cent II was known as project for
looming the whole land Of the country into
money" except that no coin was used TO
| carry it out. The french people were told.
as the American people are told now about
the fiat money!" that wealth, comfort.
and happiness would follow in the train Of
the assignats.
BARNAvE denounced LAWS scheme, the
memory OF which still survived after two
generations had passed away, as based
upon the phantoms Of the Mississippi
ours upon the solid basis Of ecclesiastical
lands" MIRABEAU threw all his weight
into the scale and maintained that the as
signats could not be better secured than
upon the land on which they were issued.
| In his fiery way, he exclaimed: Il would
rather have a mortgage on garden than on
| n kingdom" Perverted elOquonce, passion
ate power misguided craftsmanship, and
mighty intellectual vigor could not avert
the calamity which the few who remained
calm in the midst OF the violent throes Of the
Revolution knew to be inevitable. The crash
came and with 1t widespread bankruptcy,
and the assignats were as worthless IA the
notes and bonds Of JEFF DAvIss Conied-
| eracy.
II the blow had fallen on the artincers Of
this huge fraud and their confederates it
might have been borne with patience by the
rest Of the world, but 1t crushed the fire
sides Of labor. aud spread misery among
those who were least able TO bear it, The
result is summed up by philosophic his
torian, in these instructive words:
Before the end Of the year the paper money was
Amos, exclusively In the hands Of the working classes
employees and men Of small means whose property wa.
not large enough invest in goods national
lands The hnAncicrs and men Of large means, though
they suffered terribly shrewd enough 10 put much
their property into objects OF permanent value The
working classes had such foresight skin means
On them finally the great crushing weight Of the
loss After the first collapse up the cries Of the
starving, roads and bridges were neglected. manuac
generally given up In utter helplessness
None iet any confidence in the future In any respect
|
and 1t accounted folly curtail the pie
OF the moment ~ accumulate 10 save Tor uneer
| tain future
This is the sort OF entertainment TO which
the people Of the United States are invited
Indeed, the advocates Of the so-called fiat
money propose something worse than the
French assignats, for that had ut least the
lands OF the Crown and the Church to fall
back upon. Our magnificent fnanclers who
would like to food the country with paper,
reject gold, silver lands, and everything
valuable and expect to create money by act
Of Congress, with printing press and paper
as the only representatives Of value! Who
ever proposes to establish false basis for
the currency not known TO the Constitu-
tion Is an enemy to the public prosperity.