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

men of honor, and as men of business. NEE
it with all the scom it deserves. The sense o
honor of nation is the source of its credit
and its credit is one of its best paying invest
ments. The second prerequisite Of a revival o
business and prosperity is stated to be SOUND
currency, "a currency of real and stable value
, Let me put to any thinking man in this assem-
bly,, be ne farmer, or laborer, or tradesman, Of
merchant, or banker, or manufacturer, plain
simple question, and ask for a candid answer
In what kind of money will you prefer to re
ceive the wages of your labor or the profits o.
your business, in kind of money whose value
in purchasing power is stable and can be de
pended upon to remain virtually the same from
day to day and from week to week, or in a
kind of
MONEY WHOSE PURCHASING POWER Is FLUc-
TUATTNG AND UNCERTAIN,
SO that YOU do not know what it will buy
from one end of the week or of the month to
the otherf Every sensible man who in the
least understands his own interests will answer
nstinctively, s'Give US the FIRST the money Of
stable value, the money that will not cheat us.
SO that we may know what we haye:n and
that instinct is natural and right. 1t would
seem especially natural at moment when,
after long and painful period of depression,
we see at last the glimmer of daylight again.
and begin to hope that with industry and pru.
dent management we shall work ourselves up
once more to reasonable degree of comfort
md prosperity. Why will you prefer the
money of stable value? We hear much talk
about the necessity of confidence as one of the
most necessary perquisites of revival of bust
ness, and justly so. Now, the most essential
element OF that general confidence which is so
| necessary is confidence in the money YOU ham
die. when | earn $Io,n says the WORKING
man, 'as the wages of labor, want to know
that | can take that money to the baker. or
the butcher, or the shoemaker, or the clothier.
and that it will buy about so much of bread.
or meat, or shoes, or clothes, not only TODAY,
but month hence. And when / have saved
some money, and put il into savings bank TO be
used at some future time, want to know that
when take it out again for use, be it month
or year or hive years hence. it will not have
materially decreased in value, but have about
the same purchasing power which it now has. .
THAT IS SENSIBLE.
When have sold lot of goods on time,
| say one, two, or three months' says the mer
chant, " | want to know that the money COM
| ing IN after that time has not meanwhile depre
ciated SO as to deprive me of my profit, or even
to involve me in loss. must have money of
stable value, for it is the only kind can base
safe business calculations upon in buying and
selling" Sensible again. "When make a
contract says the builder, 81 want to be able
to figure out beforehand how much money will
buy the material, the lumber and the bricks.
and stone shall need at a future time, and
tthat the money get after the performance of
the contract will be worth as much as the money
! contracted for" and SO on through the list.
This, | say, is your natural instinct This is
what you really need and desire, all Of you, ex
cept perhaps the gamblers, who rely upon tricks
that are dark to fleece their innocent neighbors.
Yes, even those OF you who do desire this, al
though honest men, have permitted yourselves
to be affected by the fiat-money disease or kin
dred ailments. You necessarily want money
of stable value, especially in difficult times like
these, when careful and safe business calcula-
tons are more than ever required. II you are
sincere with yourselves, you will all admit that
you really think so.
MONEY OF STABLE VALUE THE ONLY SURE
FOUNDATION OF PROSPERITY.
Now, what is that money of stable value
and how can we get it Let me put another
question to you Many of us remember the
tlme--it was eighteen years ago-before the
war, when gold and silver were current in this
country, and bank-notes convertible into gold
and silver. The gold and silver coin of the
United States was then the only legal tender in
the payment of debts. Did you then think, or
can you remember anybody who then thought,
that would be best for the people of this coun.
try to do away with gold and silver, and to sub
stitute for them an irredeemable paper money,
worth SO much to-day and so much to-mor-
row. Am right or not in saying that man
making such proposition in times of peace
would have been universally voted fit for a
place in a lunatic asylum The only thing you
complained OF, and Justly so, was the existence
OF wildcat bank paper under bad banking sys-
tenn, because it could not be converted into gold
and silver, contrary to the promise on its face
And is il true or not that, when under the pres
sure of war necessities, an irredeemable paper
money was issued and gold and silver done
away with, all Of you thought it great danger,
fraught with misfortune ? Surely you cannot
fail to remember this What was it that made
you all regret SO much the disappearance OF
coin money and the substitution of an ire
deemable paper currency for it Simply the
instructive feeling that when you had a gold
dollar in your pocket you knew what you had.
But when you had an irredeemable paper
dollar you didn't and that apprehension has
been justified by subsequent events. You may
tell me that for ten years after the first heavy
emissions OF the paper legal-tenders in 1868
you prospered That is true at least
it looked SO. But in 1873 the fearful
day arrived when the balance sheet was
struck, and where were you then? All of a
sudden the balloon burst and we came to the
ground so heavily that our bones are still
aching. And repeat that this collapse was
not brought about by contraction of the
paper currency l have sufficiently shown by
proving with official figures, that for FIVE years
preceding the crash the currency had been, not
contracted, but steadily expanded, until in 1877 3
there was over $50 900 more of it out than
in 1867, and nearly $50, 100000 more than in
1868. You will remember also that during
that whole period of so.called prosperity it
was as if an evil conscience had haunted the
American people on account of that very paper
money; that for years following the close OF
the war every political convention, every meet
ing OF merchants, every respectable, Board Of
Trade or Chamber Of Commerce, declared and
resolved, again and again, that the country
must rid itself OF the curse of irredeemable and
fuctuating paper currency. That every con
! sideration of national honor, or good policy
and business interest, demanded a speedy re
turn to the specie basis AS late as 1876, both
the great political parties of the country
affirmed most solemnly their devotion to this
great object. Even most of the very men who
advocated initiation as means of temporary
relief loudly protested that the restoration o.
~ A.