The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-04-20
GOOD. SOUND SENSE .

much it may have been befogged and bemud
died by fine spun theories and soul-wcarying
disputations. Nothing is more common among
the precinct political economists and currency
doctors of the day than to point to France and
say, "Sec there now. There Is a nation which
| by protecting her industries by II high tariff
and making her paper money Il full legal tend
er for all purposes has been able to maintain
good and prosperous times while in most Other
countries business stagnation and dizziness
prevail
The Chicago TincS after quoting from Il re-
cent report to the French chambers and show
ing that these statements As to the exceptional
prosperity Of France are Elusive and that in
reality trade and industry in France are in an
alarmingly depressed condition." and in Ger
tain manufacturing districts "the crisis has
reached an almost unbcarablc point of extreme
severity" makes the subjoncd very sensible
and iudicious remarks. We copy them the
more readily because they are really depart.
ure from the usual harsh, rbald style of the
! Times in treating such subjects:
1t is too much to expect that our protection.
lists and fiat money philosophers will ever be
able to perceive the facts as they are or accept
the conclusions to which they Enthusiastically
point The industrial disorders Of which there
is so much complaint, extend to many COun.
tries which are under the most diverse fiscal
conditions and policies. They exist in this
country where there is more paper money than
in any other country in the world except Rus
LA, and where protective duties are higher than
in any other country, without any exception.
They exist in England, which has compare
lively little paper money, which has the single
gold standard, and which is not at all protected
by duties on imports, the duties being laid al.
most exclusively on articles not produced IN
that country They exist in France, which oC,
Icupics n middle ground with respect to both
protection and paper money, which is under the
bi-mctalliC system, and which has paid the
enormous cost of IA great war within the past
seven years. They exist in Germany, which
has the gold standard, Il very moderate supply
of paper money, and almost no protection, and
which has received from France much more
than the cost of the war Of 1870 They exist
in countries where the cost of government is
very great, as in France and in countries
where the cost is comparatively small rs in
England and the United States.
These facts point Enthusiastically to the con
neither paper money nor hard money, neither
Ibmctallsm nor mono.mctallism can rightly
be assigned as the sole or principle cause of the
hard times epidemic. And of course they
point "a Enthusiastically to the conclusion that II
cure for the maady is not to be found in lcgis-
lative prescriptions. No doubt the great dis
turbanccs IN the fiscal systems Of France, Ger
many, and the United States during the past
sixteen years, have contributed much toward
the production Of the existing disorders, and
il is highly probable that return to Il sound
currency in the United States would go far TO-
ward restoring confidence and reviving indus
try. But the great cause of the evils we are
called upon to endure is excessive production
in some directions, and deficient production in
others. The cure can only be affected by re.
adjustmcnt-by the withdrawal of capital and
labor from improbable fields, and setting
them to work in profitable fields. This read
justmcnt has been going on for some time, and
it will take some time longer to complete it.
Meantime, the best thing for Legislators to do
is to let the currency and tariff alone for the
present
In similar vein, and equally commcndable
for its solid, good common sense, are the fol
response to u correspondent who wants to
know "why az abundant issue of paper money
now would not bring back the same prosper
Gus times we had eight or ten years ago, when
greenbacks were so cheap and planty?" The
RepubiicdH answers:
We do not believe the times eight or ten
years ago were as prosperous and hcalthlul
as they are now. The former were called
flush times. They were marked by an
abundance OF cheap money, eXorbitant prices,
fictitious values, great private and public eX.
travagancc, and II universal going in debt for
things that were not needed, and that we could
not afford. That we could not afford these
things is sufficiently proved by the present
hardship of paying for them. If COmmuni-
ty of farmers 20 to building houses, barns and
mills, buying horses, pianos furniture, cloth
ing and household supplies beyond their
means-this would be an apparently prosper
Gus state of things, for time But would it
be really prosperous Would not the arrival
of payday put different face on it?
Gold and silver are and must be the ultimate
measure of values. We may double prices
and thereby imagine we are doubling our
wealth, by discarding gold and silver and sub
shutting cheap, mCOnVCrtiblc paper money
but in the end we shall get back TO metal mon
cy and true values. No civilized nation has
ever been content with irrcdccmablc represcn-
tativc money. If this representative money,
generally paper is based on coin and is con
yCrtblc into coin, il is as good rs coin, and
there is no objection to it. But if it be a false
promise that is not to be redeemed, il becomes
dcbased and bcgcts extravaganza and disaster.
The fact that the paper money of France was
so well maintained is due to the conviction of
the people that 1t would be redeemed. The
French dSSigadts of 1893 and our own cont.
mental money of the Revolution lost their value
because the people knew they would not he
redeemed.
The great kcarney, who leads the commun-
list organization in California, and holds that it
is a crime to accumulate and possess property,