Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1879-08-14
POLITICAL MENTION,

POLITICAL MENTION,
BEWARE greenbackers OF Maine on
what ground you are led to tread by desire
to get some of the State oiiicesl Beware
lest you lose the opportunity to send men
to Congress nextyear, who would set down
on this doctrine that "coin is the blood,
the life Of business genuine ring of
specie payments.
Nor to exceed one.half of the laboring
element Of the country finds full and
speedy employment, and that at prices
which barely sustain life, leaving nothing
for education, recreation, or old age; and
still we are told that we need no more
money, which alone can bring higher
prices and better pay.
The public credit has been strengthen
ed during the last ten years by 100000
business failures, by loss of $4,000, ,000,-
000to debtors, by the shrinkage of national
wealth at least $l5,OO0,0O0,0O0, by the
developemcnt of 1000, 900 tramps, and an
army of beggars, criminals and idlers
larger than the army required to crush
the rebellion and restore the union.
"Mucu has been said about paper mon
ey, and gold and silver and copper money;
but all such language is deceptive. There
is no such thing, legally, as gold and sill
yer money and paper money. Money is
the sovereign authority impressed upon,
and attached to, that which is capable Of
taking and retaining the impress of that
authority. It's value is the sovereign will
recorded on its face"
WHY is money valuable? 1t will pur-
chase what the holder wants. Fiat mon
ey-the sovereign authority of government
imprinted on paper-does it. The same
authority imprinted on gold or silver can
do no more. Gold and silver, let their
price be what they may, are as useless of
themselves to supply the wants of man as
paper is. Things are valuable to man as
they supply his necessities. Neither gold
Or silver can supply single need. They
are of no value to man. Like paper, they
simply exchange values.
HONEST money for the laborer means
money that pays him good wages for his
work; that makes his home smile with
happiness and plenty. Dishonest money
is money that pays him poor wages for
his labor and brings anxiety, scarcity and
want to his family; that scrimps his al
lowance Of food; that compcls him to buy
the cheapest kind of provisions; that
clothes him in coarsest clothes; makes him
wear shoes with his feet on the ground;
that denies his wife and children the COM
forts and enjoyments of life,-this, let it
be what it may, gold, silver or what not,
is dishonest money.
In 1863, when our currency was wholly
greenback, every department of industry
was in prosperous condition, every Ia
borer found lucrative employment, and
but $40 business failures occurred in the
whole United States. During 1878, on
the eve OF specie resumption, 10000 busi
ness failures occurred, business Of all kinds
except banking was prostrated, the high
ways were filed with tramps, the prisons
with criminals made so by want, the aims
houses with paupers, tie streets with beg
gars, and the laboring mans house with
want and woe. During 1868, England.
with 100000 less population than the
United States, and after enjoying un-
intrupted specie payments for fifty years,
left a record of 10000 business failures,
and degree of pauperism, destitution,
degradation and demorlzation among
her laboring population that is simply ap-
palling.
A rIECE of paper bearing the imprint of
sovereignty, this is dollar that will pro-
cure anything-cverything-that gold or
silver bearing the same imprint will pro-
cure. This imprint is the statement of an
account between the great public which
first gave the dollar for value received,
and the person who for the time has it in
possession. 1t says to him that this great
public owes him dollars worth of some
thing of value. 1t is the same in fact as
if the great public kept book accounts
with every citizen, and between each citi.
zen; the same as if the government had
credited each soldier on its books with the
services he rendered, each farmer with the
produce he furnished, and charged them
with everything they purchased. The
great public would then owe by book ac-
count the balance of each mans account
that he now has in money. The only diff
ference between the two methods is that
one would be the transfer of credits on
the books of the nation, precisely like the
Bank Of Venice method, while the other
would be the transfer of credits stated on
paper, like the payment of the greenbacks
by the government.
WHAT WE WANT.
What we want is money that won't
go to Europe bat will stay at home-a pa
per money to be issued by the government
IN tha ,,oo,1a 1;rn,t g., E,ll lo,.,l To-, I o,