Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-09-02
NO wildcat Dollar ?

To the intelligent man whose memory
goes back to the period when the notes OF
State banks were in circulation, one Of
the amazing features of the present po-
litical am2aign is that it should be found
necessary for Republicans to argue against
the revival of that system and In favor of
the national banks. 1t seems like having
to argue in favor of the railroad as against
the stage coach, in favor of police force
as against the cid system of watchmen
armed with slaves and going about with
lanterns, in favor of gas and electricity as
against oil lamps for street lighting, in
favor of a water supply for cities as
against the well and the town pump.
1t would be just as wise and just as
convenient and comfortable to roll back
the car of civilized progress in any of the
respects above mentioned as to revive
State 5ank circulation. Now, when a
man earns dollar and gets a dollar he
knows that he has dollar; he knows
that the dollar he receives, whether gold,
silver, greenback or national bank note,
IS just as good in Texas as it is in New
York, and that the only question, and
that one so remote that it is hardly worth
considering, is whether the dollar is
genuine. II genuine it is good every
where. Behind it IS the highest credit in
the world-the credit of the United
States. Under the old system of State
bank circulation the only credit behind
so called dollar might be that of some
bankrupt business man, masqueradiDg as
a bank, some candidate for the peniten-
tiary as yet undetected, some band OF
conspirators, borrowing the livery Of
finance in order to rob the public. Under
that system the workingman could go to
bed at night with dollar or ten or hun
dred dollars in his purse and wake up in
the morning to find. on looking in The
newspaper, that while he still had
the same stuff in his possession, it was
now worth no more than waste paper.
Under the present system, if the dollar
has the genuine stamp of the United
States-and a thorough and marvellous
system of detection has reduced counter
feiting to a minimum-it will be the same
tomorrow as today it is the same dollar II
Florida as in Maine, in Alaska as in New
York, and its value will be recognized al
over the globe, wherever the name of the
United States has been heard and the
stability and prosperity of the govern
ment are known. The credit of the
United States is superior, and justly su-
perior. TO that of any other nation on the
face of the earth, England not excepted
and that credit marks the value of the
national bank dollar.
What would the business man, what
would the laboring man think, if he saw
political party urging that the water
should be taken out of houses and gas
and electricity out of the streets, that
car tracks should be torn up and the
numbering omnibus take the place of the
railway and street car He would think
that the managers of such a party had
parted with common sense and were in
sulting the intelligence of the people,
Yet such is the attitude to-day of the
organized Democracy when it invites the
business man and laborIng man to ex-
change their national bank dollar for the
wildcat shinplaster Of the days before the
war.-N Y. Press.