Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1883-03-15

/ ms Is the way that very littl
D Eagle, published in Il small interio
+ town of 'Sconsin, is talking TO its read
r ers. Just take off your hats, dea
readers, and listen rcverenty an,
, breathlesSly:
I "The bad influences OF the greenbacl
, craze Of years ago upon the finance
OF the government, are felt TO this da,
: IN some dcpartmcnts-sh showing how
dangerous and foolish it is for our law
| makers to yield to the public clamor
; in any matter, against their own iuGg
ment, experience and undcrstandin.
matters at issue. One of the mos
damaging concessions then made, b,
the party in power was to the unrca
sonablc demand made for the unlimiteC
coinage of silver dollars of IN inferior
value, and making that cheat luga
tender. The better judgment of The
people, and those news papers that had
not got insane upon this nOnsensc-ThC
Eagle among OthGrs-tOld that n coin
of inferior value would never be pop.
uIar circulating medium; and to that
extent it would get into circulation, by
Il sort of cpmpulsiun, to that extent
would it drive gold, or any other honest
money, out Of circulation and out OF
the country"
Did you ever see so much wisdom
condensed into such Il limited space
bcforr2
One would imagine that the editor of
The Eagle was q lincal descendant of
Solomon himself, and that the "bilcd
down wisdom of the old patriarch of
the several hundred wives and concu-
5incS had been running underground,
rs it were, never cropping out in all
these ages till it got into the Uranium
Of The Eagle man.
1t is easy for men, especially little
men, to predict things-and par.
ticularly things that never happen. No
doubt the editor of the little Eagle,
above referred to, has at some time
read in some organ of the gold bugs
the assertion that "lhe bascr currency
always drives out the most valuable. -
In other words, some old hen of
goldtc has laid an egg, and the little
Eagle, having just run across it, feels
called upon to "cacklc.'
Stubborn facts. however. will show
that the egg itself is added, and that
the "cackIe' has more sound than
wisdom.
For instance, in 1876 (about the year
that the ''prediction' was madc) the
estimated amount of coin rgOld and
silver , according to the best author
tiles fSre Fawcctt's "Gold and Debt
in the United States was SlO2, 1000, 600.
Provided that half of it was gold, we
had SjO,OOO,00O Of gold The next
year the silver bill passed, and govern.
mcnt began TO grind out the "cheapn
silver dollars. 1t has been grinding
Them out ever since.
Therefore, toverify the "prcdiclion,"
the $50, O,O0O,00O of gold that was in the
country in 1876 ought to have entirely
disappeared.
But what are the facts in the case?
Why, bless our dear little Eagles
heart, according to the statement of
the treasury department at Washing
ton, made Feb. l., 1883, there was
SIOj, ,5lO,jil of gold coin in the banks
and in circulation; Sl2l, $685. ijl more
gOld coin and SOL 100000 of gold bull
lion in the treasury-making total OF
j27,57S,992 of gold coin and $1,000, 600
of gold bullion in the country, and
most of it in circulation.
Wonderful rs it may seem to the
little Engle, and damaging as it in
eyitably proves to be to the ''prcdic-
tion,' there stands the fact that in
spite of the coinage of the "cheapn
silver dollar gold coin has increased |
from $jO,OOO,OO0 in 1876 to 1927, ,OOO,- |
600 more than ten-foldl in 1855!
II is too bad, we know, to spoil so
much wisdom with such Il little plain
matter Of fact statement of figures, but
still we cant help it. Facts and figures
the Sentinel's regular diet,
and therefore, no matter how many
idiots are smashed, the truth must be
tod.
The little Eagle chap then proceeds
TO prate about the expense of building
vaults, the hiring of night watchmcn
to stand guard over the surplus silver
that is piled up in the treasury, the
racking headaches which the officials
suffer in trying TO solve the problem of
how to take care OF it-and keep it out
of the hands of men who hold past-due
government bonds and at last winds
up as follows:
"The sooner that law is repealed the
better; and the sooner these hundreds
of tons of useless rubbish is reconed
into dollars that are worth their face,
and that people are willing TO take, the
better And as it is an invariable rule
Isle that, of two different circulating
the one that is worth the
most is driven out of circulation and
out of the country sic let them be
recoined of trlling higher value than
the gold dollar; and let us get rid of
the bulky and unhandy stuff, and have
its place taken up by the lighter and
easier handled gold coins or paper
money, or anything that is actually
worth what it purports to be. The
present silver coin-what gets into cir
of it's a sham, cheate, and
4 nuisance to both the government and
the people "
Let us get ridof the "bulky and un-
handy stuff" says the Eagle.
But how, ask weP
BY putting in more silver, and max
ng it still more bulky and unhandy,
says the little Eagle.
Because the medium that is worth
he most is driven out by the presence
If the cheaper (according to the wis
iom of the little Eagle), therefore, by
making the standard dollar as big as a
art wheel and thick as n grindstonc 1t
will be driven out, and gold will come
pouring in!
1t is ishardly worth our while we know
o waste very much powder upon such
mall game, but then these little chaps ,,
hat are so wise in their own conceit,
md who put on so much style, and ,
ak so pompously-why we can't help
topping to give them shot once in |,
while,
Monopoly Means War.
Justice" '
The census tables of 1870 showed t