Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1880-01-03
The Blessing of n Large In
tercst- Bearing COin-B Bond
ed DebL-to the Rich.
Editor Of TIE National VielO

puDilSHSu III luG lew OI N0Vcm-
Der %, touching the replacement
of our cheap and convenient frac-
tional currency by silver bought
by $40 bonds, the writer desires
TO call attention to the display oil
superior wisdom evidenced by this
exhibition Of modern financial
craftsmanship.
II the interest Of the bonds is !
per cent. the amount when due
will have aggregated only $780,
600, 900 at compound intersection
such it really Island labor and
productive industries foot the bill.
Besides, il is estimated that in
about thirty years silver coin be-
comes SO deprecated in value by
wear as 10 necessitate recorning,
and the loss again falls mainly on
the poor.
The currency retired was almost
costless, served all conceivable pur-
poses Of money, and was more
convenient.
The compliment of mild type
of lunacy," applied by Sherman to
the theory OF Greenbackers, may
be more than reciprocated in the
light OF the courageous indiffer-
ence to common sense displayed
in this fnanciering-on a specie
basis.
Issuing 5 per cent. thirty years
bonds, to the amount of 40, 000, 900,
with which to pulchase silver to
coin the trade dollars for the Chi
nese was another exhibition of re-
fined folly.
The total cost to the dear people,
the laborers, OF these bonds by the
time due, will be $172, 900, 900.
These two feats of legislation
on q coin basis-will have the eff
feet TO bless the Industries of the
country in a total aggregate of
over $500, 000,0 900 in the interest of
honest money!
What sublimely s,eadying eff
feet on labor, such financiering ex-
ercises! Reader, don't you see it ?
And the exceeding beauty, re-
deeming virtue and relieving
grace of the whole bond BUSINESS,
and what Is claimed by these let
ters-patent, consist in the interest
ing fact that capital invested in
that sacred security is free from
the annoyance of paying any taxes.
Let us be reverently thankful
that there is conscience sufficient
~ alive in our John Sherman pa
triots to preserve the nations hon
on sacred!
In the degenerate days of an
tiquity there could not be found
ten righteous men-enough to
save single city. Now, the coun-
try as we'll as the city is crowded
with that curiosity. Brethren, let
US sing and return thanks.
One would suppose that our
present breed of financial doctors
had graduated ia the school of DIR.
Sangrado in Gil Bias. His relia-
BILE remedy was bleeding his pa
tients, and when reminded that
his subjects were all dying, With
cool assurance he reminded his
questioner that the great object to
be accomplished was to vindicate
his theory of medicine as laid down
in the treatise he had written!
And besides, the toiling millions,
even If poorly fed, thinly clad, and
miserably housed, are like the wo-
men of the fifteenth century were
said to be, without souls. No
matter.
1t is needful to keep up a sharp
distinction between the sacredness
of capital and the worthlessness of
labor. Hence our system of fl
nance.
There is a deep and broad diff
ference between the divine rights
essential, importance and prescrip-
tive dignity of gold bugs, and the
humble condition, the deferential
dependence and inferiority of the
mud-sills of creation. Hence, rag
money was ample compensation
for the lives of our soldiers, but
gold was needful for the poor cap
italist, and hence the propriety and
necessity OF a large coln-bonded
debt to protect the sacredness of
the matter.
AS Sir Joseph Banks is said to
have remarked at the conclusion of
some experiment on insects:
"Fleas are not lobster, d--their
souls"
Money, the writer understands
to be a conventional, convenient
and cheap device for the distribu-
tion of the products Of labor and
to facilitate the exchange of COM
modities-an appliance valuable
ouly in use, and withal, of what
ever material made, duty stamped
and impressed by tho sovereign
power of the nation, backed by all
its wealth, all its resources, and by
the individual and collective in
y 4.