Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-09-23
LAND CURRENCY.

Money is Fiat Money Unless Based Upon
Land.
We make the straight proposition
that there is but one class of property
or goods fit to be the security for ma
tional money. And then reinforce that
statement by the assertion that all the
nations of the world, in all ages, have
relied upon this class of property as in
demnity for debts-often Selling vast
domains after conquest, in satisfaction.
This class of property is land. It il
not gold or silver, or merchandise, or
ships, or chartered franchise. Com
mercial paper, buildings. cloths, gems,
metals, may depreciate, decay, melt
away. But land is the one great secur-
ity for exchange.
This Is a fact with which the COM
mercial world Is familiar. It is impos-
sible to question it. And yet the Ma
tional Bankers association secured a
banking act by which the value of cur
rency of this vast empire was to depend
upon unsecured bonds; and these same
upon land, being compelled to loan
upon that wretched security known as
commercial paper"
In the end all taxes rest upon land.
This, it is true, is doctrine of the sim
! gle tax people. But it is none the less
true for that It is true. All taxes
finally rest upon land and its produce.
Therefore even a money security based
upon taxes is actually based upon land
production Webster said:
Paper currency, based on the wealth of the
| nation, not on any one commodity, but all
| the wealth, secured by the pledge of the
| people to receive 1t in payment of all taxes,
dues and demands. issued in in quantity suf-
ncIent for all demands of legitimate trade
IL the best money In the world.
This is essentially the greenback doc
trine of to-day. And the land-loan bill
goes but a single step further, and that
is to define the character of the proper
ty which can be used as security-name-
". indestructible land
Thomas Jeffersan said:
The best money in the world is a treasury
note. bottomed on the taxes of the country
and receivable for all debts and dues.
Again, we find that land is practically
the basis of the issue-but the land.
loan bill goes step further, again, and
makes specific portions of the tax paw
ing property security for specific por-
tions of the money issue. One thousand
dollars secured by that identical piece
of property-and that kind of property
which pays all taxes.
Benjamin Franklin said:
Paper currency Issued under proper
limitation, regulated by law, receivable for
all dues and taxes, answers all demands for
business, and Is the best money any govern
ment can coin.
How much more trustworthy and re-
liable Is that same currency when
every dollar represents ST. so in actual
land property, pledged for its payment?
Even Roscoe Conkling, the great re-
publican statesman, whose very nature
was plutocratic in its development, said;
All money Is fiat money, whether it be
coined OF gold. silver. copper, paper or any
other substance 1t is the flat of govern
ment that creates money.
And to this we may add, that such
money, issued by the government,
gold, silver or paper, is always fiat"
money, but money de faoto only when
secured by land.
But now let us call in for witness
Carnegie's boon companion-the prince
OF modern plutocracy-James G. Blaine.
1t was said years ago-but he will not
deny the utterance:
NO COuIu Ill Volumes WITH the statements
OF eminent men as to the swindling charac-
ter of the old state banks. Every bank that
failed defrauded the prople of many thous-
ands of dollars, but those that were con-
sidered sound robbed the people, if posi-
BILE, more than those that failed. Every
where over the country, the bankers grew
rich without work by having control of the
paper currency and 1Oaning it to the coun-
| try at high rates of interest Bonds, stocks
and mortgages on which the people paid
k--A.
bank notes. and on them such notes were
| issued to The extent of two to four times the
| amount OF capital the bankers had, and this
| stuff was loaned to the people at high rates
| of interest, to be used money of the
| country. Could there be a scheme devised
| that would legally enable a certain
| GLASS of men to get money without work, to
| grow rich by robbing the people, to swallow
up the fortunes of the masses more effect
ually than tho system of banking pursued in
this country. up to the time of the introduce
ton OF greenbacks? If it Is possible to in
augurate greater system of robbery of the
peoples money that system has been inau-
gurated In the present system of national
banks The money lost by the people under
the old system of state banks, is a mere bag
atelle when compared to that which has
| been and will be taken from them under the
present system of national banks.
And now for Salmon P. Chase, before
he became chief justice of the Wall
street courtarchy:
My agency in procuring the passage of the
national banking act was the greatest mis-
take of my life. It has built up monopoly
that affects every interest in the country. 1t
should be repealed, but before this can be
accomplished, the people will be arrayed on
one side and the banks on the other, In Q
contest suoh as we have never seen in this
| country.
Under such damnable system of is
suing currency-absolutely under the
control of the banks, and every dollar
of national money drawing interest into
private purses-is it any wonder that
Monarch Depew told his fellow-despots
at dinner party: FIFTY Of these men
have 1t in their power, by reason of the
wealth they control, to come together
within twenty-four hours and ar
rive at an understanding by
which every wheel of trade
and commerce may be stopped from re-
volving; every avenue of business
blocked, and every electric key struck
dumb. These fifty men control the cir
culation of the currency, and can create
panic whenever they will All lines
of business in the United States are at
their mercy"
NON AOO OS 0oA O'SAJ hHoh "a JUG
ment, and of ordinary sense, if cur
rency based on landed security, bear
ing only expense-interest land that to
the government, and issued on demand
for loans, would not be better than the
internal robber system now in vogueg
st Paul (Minn. Great West.
HE GOT MARRIED.
That Was Why He Quit Bossing the
Town.
A Detroit drummer was standing in
front of store in Bad Axe one day
talking with the proprietor, when {
fairly respectable looking man passed
along on the other side of the street
DO you see that man over there?'
asked the merchant
YES, what of him?"