Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-09-04

Wv ~. aOOCauoc tutIc Wao . AOVoA CuuluS
issue for expenses. The payment Of 40
million in the first kind Of money in 1869
cid bring It, to par because there could be
| no greater issue, and they would save
gold in payment of duties as far as they
| went. Had our war been with a mari
! TIME power, duties would have shrunk too
low to have sustained at par even the
small issue of 60 million. During the
war or 1919 duties were only one sixth
what they We're the year after it closed.
During the war with the confederates,
not port was blockaded and our i'm
ports were not lessened, though the
quantity brought on our own ships was
diminished.
AS an instance of how the law may
confer "a debt paying quality on its
money ana not keep up It's purchasing
power l refer to Macauley's History Of
EN- No. VGl' III page "a, James was
had become king of England. James
thought with you. I'm short time
Jumps of base metal, nominally worth
near million sterlinss, intrinsically
worth sixtieth part of that sum were
IN circulation royal edict declared
these pieces to be legal tender in all cases
whatever. A Mortgage for a thousand
pounds was cleared off by bag of coun-
tiers made out of old kettles, &c, &c,
See also Vol. " page 81. Nominal
prices were enormously high. Those
traders who remained within the I'm.
happy region were ruined. Every ware
house that contained any valuable prop
erty was broken open by ruff1ans; and
the the owner received IN return for
bales OF cloth and hogsheads of sugar.
some fragments of old kettles and sauce
| tc1,S
the bay of Galway or in the Shannon,
her cargo was carried away aud the pro.
prietor forced to content himself with
such quantity of cowhldes of wool and
OF tallow as the gang chose to give him"
Merchants escaped with what goods they
could and ships refused to put into such
ports and there was much greater
scarcity and distress than there would
have been if king James, had not issued
base money and enforced taking it as
legal tender.
History is full of instances during the
middle ages, where kings diminished the
quantity of silver in their new coinage
while still giving it the same denomina.
tiop. I never read of any fault in the
'|debt paying quality" of the new coinage,
and on the other hand never found an
instance where the purchasing power of
the new coinage remained greater than
the intrinsic value of the precious metal
it contained. longer than the new value
was enforced at the point of the bayenet.
The history OF these successive debase-
ments of the coinage is embalmed in every
modern language. The English pound
IN A. D. GIL weighed pound Since, by
successive reductions it weighs about one
third as much and is worth 1854 The
French livre also weighed pound and
was gradually reduced to a value of 18f
cents. On page 1877, vol. T. of Macaulay,
is an account of the effect of derange-
ment of the currency in England and
existence of money of different values
''The simple and the careless were
plllaged without mercy. The price of the
necessaries of life, OF shoes, of ale. of oat
meal rose fast. The laborer found that
the bit of metal which when he received
it was called a shilling would hardly,
when he wanted to buy bread go as far
as a sixpence.' In the midst of the
public distress one class prospered greatly,
the bankers You will find IN Motley's
History of the Dutch Republic, Vol. I,
that Philip II. of Spain paid large re
ward to a chemist for an invention for
making silver by mixing certain gray
powder with quicksilver. 1t stood the
test of the hammer but not of fire.
He was with difficulty persuaded not
to make fiat money by this process by his
confessor, on the ground of immortality.
You can find the history of the issue of
paper money and it's effects, in the colonial
history of each of the iginal Is states;
in the issues of the continental congress,
and most of the modern nations of
Europe. Such paper has uniformly de-
preciated except when backed by reserve
fund ($100 100000 in this CASEY like the
greenbacks now out, or so limited in
amount that they would be speedily ab-
sorbed for taxes-like what remained of
the 90 million demand notes, after they
had paid them in for duties under the
Morrill, tariff for or months I did not
claim that Article XIV would be for the
interest of moneyed men. l think it
would be disastrous to every interest.
The debt paving quallty"-lf the green
backs depreciated- injure all per-
sons to whom debts were due. Men who
own r RS, manufacturing establish
ments and farms, and owed half or more
for them, it would benefit, and stimulate
to such new expansions Of business as to
eventually ruin, The mass of debts are
from rich men TO rich men. The little
the ]aborer could save by paying his
debts with less than their value, would
not compensate him Tor the daily loss
from deprecated money. The banker
would lose on his dues at first but gain in
exchanges and shaves as long as deprecla.
ton continued. have seen bankers and
wealthy men, greenbackers, but admitting
that they generally oppose Article XIV, it
. is not conclusive evidence to me, that
the principle is proper and right. am
not quite certain that patriotism and
financial ability to see what is for the
general good, Is extinct among the
wealthy, and universal among the Knights
, of Labor. And by no means admit that
!, whatever will diminish the property of
the wealthy, will benefit the poor. I do
=, not believe that the prosperity of one
class is Numerically opposed to that OF
! another, but that the wellbelng of all
classes is interdependent and bound w
: together.
= Lost.
4 Aug. %, between Fl. III. Hubbard's
t and Austin, or between A. j. French's
and Austin pair of spectacles Finder
1 will please leave at this office.