The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-05-31

thing to say; and let each letter
have motive and teach something
to the reader. Try to make your
readers better and wiser by what
you write. Never mind about the
grammar or the spelling. The prin-
ter will fix all that. Good sense and
an honest purpose are rarer things
than book learning.-THE EDITOR.
THE CURRENCY QUESTION.
Errors of Fact and Conclusion
Made by the St. Paul Globe
Pointed Out by Judge Macdonald.
A Crushing Rejoinder.
Editor Representative:
cheerfully accept your invitation
to reply to the criticism of the Globe,
upon the facts and figures published
by me in my letter to the Shakopee
paper last fall, which you copied in
your editorial, upon the Globes f.
nancial vagaries, in your last week.
issue. I wish it understood that
hold myself ready to defend every
statement l have made upon the sill
yer question, or financial situation,
and Tin view of it's present import
ance) would be pleased to discuss
these questions, in one of our daily
papers, with any one who believes 1
am wrong.
The financial writer of the Globe,
instead of answering the questions
you PROFOUND to test the correctness
of the remarkable propositions" adj
vanced by him-again attempts to
dodge the issue, by trying to ridicule
statements made with reference to
another matter, as "stuff," etc.
| This is the only answer. 1t may suit
his purpose to refer to undeniable
facts as populist rawlings, but the
people are now awakening to the
fact that there is something wrong,
and they insist that those making
such assertions as this financial
writer has, will, at least, try to sus-
tain them. The Globe man cannot
give any other answer, because he
| cannot sustain his assertions, and in
his last article he is as much blum
erer as in the first. That [ may not
leave an opportunity for the charge Of
misrepresentation 1 will quote what
both he and l have said. He quotes
from what l said, the following:
eve also remember, that the next
conspiracy was to secure cOntrac-
tiOn of the currency $50 that the
banks could control the money Cir
culation) by the passage of the act Of
April II, 1866, authorizing the sale of
5-N bonds for greenbackS and United
States currency; and the destruction
of the same. At that time the green
back was the only evidence of indebt-
edneSs which, as money, everybody
was satisfied with. They amounted
to over two billion dollars, and, as the
war was over, there was no necessity
for converting this vast sum into an
Understanding Indebtedness. But
the money power was OmnipOtent,
and this crime was cOnSummated.
This contraction went on from 1866
to 1876 at the rate of 5000, ZOO, 900 per
annum."
So confident is this would-be crush
ing critic that he has discovered a
mares nest'' in the above, that he
INDUCES in lot of balderdash about
structural steel being replaced in
building with moonbeams," and
then proposes to annihilate us with
the following, which he evidently
deems conclusive:
When the retiring act was passed
in 1866 there were in circulation
$3.50 10000 authorized by the acts Of
1863, instead of cover two billions
When retirement was stopped in
1878, $36, 900, 900 had been cancelled.
and $346, 900, 900 have remained in cir
culatiOn ever since. If the writer in
the REPRESENTATIVE had the facul-
ty of using figures for purposes Of
computation. instead of for asserva-
tion merely, he would have seen that
his contraction of 5000, 900, 900 year
for ten years would have wiped out
the two billion of greenbacks with
which he started in 1866 and have left
nothing of his rag baby in 1876.
| cannot wish this ''second Daniel
to come to Judgment" any severer
reply than a statement of the facts
will be. In his anxiety to find some
thing to say, he made a rush for his
statistics, and brought out, and pub
lished the above "whopper." When 1
read this, wondered where he could
have found the figures which he
gives, as the amount of ''green-
backs then in circulation; but am
no longer in doubt. He is under the
impression that every "greenback"
was a legal tender note. and he some
where read that the act of June 20,
1874, fixed the maximum of these
legal tender notes at $685., zoo, 600.
The fact is, that when that act was
passed, there were outstanding of
these legal tender ssgreenbacks''
| $449, OOO, 900, instead of his 1882, coo, 900