The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1893-10-25

be obliged to submit from lack Of funds to
maintain their cause. This is why the Brit
ish government promoted so extensively
the business Of counserfeiting. But General
Clinton wrote 20 his home government in
January, 1880, Every day teaches me the
futility of calculations founded on its fail
ure.' In his letter be said:
No experiments suggested by your lord
ship, no assistance that could be drawn from
the power of gold, or the arts of counter
feiting have been left uninterrupted. But
still the currency, like the widows cruise Of
oil, has not failed the congress. My hopes
on this head, must acknowledge, were
much higher twelve months since than to-
day. With the appearance of an enormous
quantity, still it is all the debt the people
have to struggle with, and in this view and
when compared with that of other nations,
it shrinks into a very uncomfortable sum.
I shall, nevertheless, my lord, continue
assiduous in the application of those means
instrusted to my care; if they cannot work
its destruction, yet they can embarrass the
government and make the carrying on the
war mora preCarious, buEdensome and less
energetic. -Almon's Rememb,, 1880, part
2, page 40.
Il will now be seen that the continental
currency, like the assignsts, were revo-
lutionRry money. There were none Of
the conditions necessary for the success
Of a paper issue. They were both founded
on nothing but patriotism. They were
both over issued; they were both largely
counterfeited and thus were brought to
the point of worthlessness. Yet when
they failed they left the common people
in the respective countries in better con-
dition than before the currency WAS
issued. In France when the Rssignsts
were issued the estates Of the nobility
we're the largest in Europe and the peo-
pie were homeless and starving. When
the assignsts failed there were in France
few large estates but there were millions
Of small homes occupied by the common
people. The lands Of France were changed
from estates to "public domain" The
Rssignats enabled the people to subdivide
them into small homes. The continental
currency found our fathers at war with
the longest purse and one Of the greatest
nations Of Europe. They had no money,
nor any Of the usual means Of floating a
paper currency. But they did the bsst
they could in the emergency. The paper
failed of course but it carried us through
five of the most perilous years Of the war,
and in 1920, Albert Gsllstin, secretary Of
the treasury, said, "It cannot be denied
that it saved the country"
In the light Of uniform history, it may
be stated as q general fact that paper
money has never been issued until coin
has failed to meet, through it's cost or
absence, the monetary requirements of
the country. In all cases where paper
has had q fair trial it has never failed
while the issuing government remained
intact, and continued to collect and dis
burse revenues. And in all cases when
the paper has failed it left the great
body Of the people in as good or better
condition than it found them. The shy
locks who desire to oppress the people
through the scarcity and costliness Of
their gold, have wesried the universe
lecturing the people on the failure Of
paper, in cases where the conditions Of
ancnaaa Wara absent. They never men