The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-10-06

The moneyed class would, of course, lend
no money to an enterprise that was in
tended to diminish their profits, and the
friends Of the bank being all fellows with
land on which they wanted to borrow
money of course had no money to lend.
Rhode Island had . land bank in 17s6.
which loaned its bills to people who
pledged real estate flr double the amount
desired. This land bank money. like the
French assignats Of 1872, which had all the
confscated lands of the church, the court,
and the nobility behind them, or practic-
ally nearly all the land In France, was
never at par. but began to depreciate liter
ally with its issue. No merchant or trades
man would take it at its face value. Tho
general assembly passed forcing acts.
heavily fning all persons who refused to
take the bills on the same terms as specie.
These forcing acts were as Intellectual as
the forcing acts of the French republic six
years later, when the use Of coin was pro-
hibited; . maximum price in assignats
was fixed for commodities by law; the
purchase Of specie was forbidden under
penalty Of imprisonment in irons for six
years, and the sale of assignats below their
nominal value was forbidden under pen.
atty of imprisonment for twenty years in
chains.
The Rhode Island forcing acts only
drove merchants into doing business by
barter. or obliged them to close their doors.
The only people who used the land bank
money were those who had borrowed it ON
their land. The courts declared the fore.
ing acts unconstitutional and void. The
paper money dropped until fourteen paper
dollars were worth only one coin dollar.
Finally, in October. 1889. the general as
sembiy repealed as much of the paper
bank act as made the bills . tender at par,
and debtors were authorized to substitute
property. at an appraised value, for money
in discharge Of debts. The act which
effected the repeal fixed the value Of the
paper bills at fifteen to one. This was the
end.
The Continental, the Confederate, the
Rhode Island paper money and the
French assignats were all inconvertible
paper money that were never at par from
the day of issue. and yet it is just this
kind of unlimited, cheap money that the
Peoples party would like to place in cir.
culation. The land loan scheme of Sena-
tor Stanford is substantially the Rhode
Island experiment over again, and this
Rhode Island experiment was nothing but
an imitation on a small scale of the IA
nous mississippi Bubble' scheme of John
Law in France, 1880 The Argentine
Republic tried the same scheme and suf-
fered as fearfully as France did under John
Law.
The sub-treasury scheme supported by
the Peoples party, would be fat money Of
more worthless kind than any which has
been hitherto issued. A writer in the
Century last year said Of this proposed fat
money to b issued under the sub-treasury
scheme:
1t would be more worthless than the Land
bank money of Rhode Island, because that was
based upon the land of the state. 1t would be
more worthless than that OF John Laws bank in
France. for that was BASED upon all the prop
erty Of France. It would be more worthless
than that of the Argentine Republic, for that
was based upon all the landed property of the
nation. In all these instances the fiat money
was declared to be legal tender and to be pay.
able for public and private debts. In all OF
them IL was Issued for term of years. But this
warehouse deposit money is based upon moth.
ing except the arbitrary judgments of an ire
sponsihle body OF political appointees a. to the
value of products year hence and is to be de-
stroyed at the end OF . year. Nobody would
ever consent to take 1t at its face value in pay.
meut OF debt, or in payment for goods,
and IL would Be confined, a. the Rhode Island
paper money was, almost entirely to transac-
tions among its original holders. It would
enormously initiate prices In the communities
in which it circulated, and thus make dearer
everything that the farmer had to buy. But il
would never be received elsewhere except at
discount and consequently would have no effect
in raising the price Of the products of the
farmer, which have to be sold in the markets of
the world. Then, too each period OF enormous
Imitation would be followed by period of sud.
den aud almost paralyzing contraction, for at
the end Of each year all the notes and certif.
Gates must be destroyed.