The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1880-01-16
XXI.


would only make what we have OF less vaiue'
1t needs to stop the war on well-guarded Ma
tional BANK, which 10 now waged in the interest
of men who want to plumber the people by set
ting MP wildcat banks under State laws. Cap
itsl should be encouraged, as 1t IS by the Ma
tlopal system, to establish safe banks wherever
they are needed. and the substitution OF green
backs for bank notes would be an unmixed evil,
even II it would not involve reputation and gen
ersl bankruptcy. The country needs no more
silver than II now has coined. The sooner we
stop coming dollars which the people refuse to
take or use, the sooner something may be done
to promote the proper use OF silver alike in
this and in other countries. In short. the
money that we now have is doing right we'll.
As matters stand. prosperity is dawning. 1t is
good sense not to plough up promising crop,
until we can see what it will come to. WehAve
paid oil the cost of resumption, and struggled
for years to reach it. Now il is good sense to
give it fair trial, and to see what ii is worth.
There is work enough in this country for every
who ought to be kept ont Of work entirely for
some wears to come.
The root of al agitation about the money
question, as has been shown, Is desire either
to get md Of debts more cheaply, or to cell
things at higher prices. For that poison there
il but one antidote. The one thing needful Is
for the plain people to see clearly that, where
one person can be helped by such change,
many others must surely be hurt. Farmer
Smith is in trouble, it is true, because he mort
gagged his farm for $4,000 in inflated times and
did not pay of the debt in the days Of large
profits and high prices. Now the farm will not
sell for the mortgage. But he kept his money
or spen; 1T in the days when large paper profits
were being made in cheap paper money. He
sold wheat at 90 bushel, and other produce at
inflated prices. but did not use his money to
wipe ont his debt. He has bad his fair chance.
Now the proper question is, not whether Smith
shall have relief but whether ten workingmen,
whose hard-earned savings Smith has borrowed,
had contrived. by long self denial and much
pinching, to get together for old age, or sick
ness, or other time of need. they had put into
bank, and the bank had loaned the whole to
Smith, taking mortgage Now the question
is whether Government shall take away their
money and give it to Smith. who did not save
or pinch himself. The question is whether
these ten men shall be robbed, by making
monev cheap or by destroying the public credit
and sweeping away the banks, in order to give
to one man "relief" to which he has no claim
| II is true, too, that Smith could get more
though poorer dollars, for his wheat and pork
il he could sell them at soft money prices
But there are ten other workingmen who are
even now trying hard to save something for the
needs of wives and children, aud they i've on
the wheat and pork which Smith SELLS Make
their food cost more, and they can save moth
ing some OF them, indeed must then hear the
piteous wall Of hungry little ones. II Smith i:
worse off. as he really is not because there j;
too much hog IN the dollar" and all the work
ingmen are better off because the dollar snt
the days labor will buy more hog. Here are
two sets OF people to be hurt, by giving Smith
soft -monev prices the consumers OF his pro
ducts, who would have to pay more for theil
food and clothing, and the men whose savings
he has borrowed. for their dollars saved ht
would make as cheap and valueless as possible
The country has no business to help the few a
the expense OF the many. And it would turr
out that inflated prices would hart the man,
without really helping the few. With soft
money prices. the farmers would not be able al
they now are, to undersell foreign producers
The country could not send, as >; Will with
in 3 year, 2OO,000,000 bushels OF wheat Il
Europe. vast surplus o. wheat, corn, cotton
pork, butter and cheese, which now goes
abroad, would be thrown back on our own mar
kets, After vain attempt TO sell il at inflated
prices, and the prostration which would follow
would be infinitely worse for the farmer
than the present state OF large sales and low
prices. Soft money would make il cost more tc
produce all things. With grain and pork cost
ing more, and with fewer people to consume
them. would the farmer fare well in the end .
Nor could the country continue. with cheap
money to sell more than it buys, as 1t does
now, so that foreign debts get paid. and the
Nation grows ach year more Independent and
stropg.
1t is the particular business Of the working
men of this country to set foot on the dema
gogues who have lied to them 80 long. They
have not single real interest which these dem
agogues have not tried to make them sacrifice
by their own votes. 1t is high time for the
workngmen Of this country to show that they
are not altogether dupes. Every prediction
made to them by softmoDey politicians has
proved false, Every theory or statement, from
that source, has been found utterly worthless
when confronted with the solid facts OF every
day experience. The money question il pecu-
lisrly the workupgmen's question. No other
class has - deep IN interest a. they have in
securing good money They need for their