The Progress., 1893-08-05
WELL WORTH READING.
Another Phase of the Money Stringency
and It's Probable Causes.
iTo The ProgTess.l

1t Is with profound difference tC
you and your readers that [ present
some ideas on the question that is
wracking the public mind.
One of the greatest thinkers has
truly said that while the average man
is confident that he krows all there
is about money, yet the question pre-
sents mysteries that puzzle the wisest
statesmen, fnancier5 and philoso-
piers.
Your friend J. \. T., of Robeline,
some two weeks since gave you an
able and admirable article on the
question of money, and founded as
it is on sound reasons no one can
question it, and yet that article is
misleading. becaItse the author seem
ed to think that he knew and had said
all that could be said ON the question
of money, when in fact he only treat
ed money as an exchange of values,
when that is the most simple aspect
of the question and does not reach
further than the remote pursuits OF
the uses, the properties and powers
of money; and he who knows moth
ing more of money than an ey-
changer of values knows but little of
the portentious import involved in
the question.
But it is money as a producer of
values; money as conservatOr and
protector of values-and money as a
distributor of values-that prevents
its grandest and most munifcent
powers. And as good and evil are
interviewer IN the web and woof of
all things human.
So money as distributor of val
ues and money as destroyer of val
ues are of the most dangerous pow
ers, and are menaces and threats to
liberties and we'll being of the people
1t is the business of both the pres
ident with his cabinet and Congress
to keep money in Its legitimate chan
nels and is equally their duty to pro-
tect the people from the unscrupu-
lous gamblers who prostitute money
to the corruption of these gamblers,
who defy all honesty. and disturb the
values of produce, and to throttle
those gigantic trusts and moGOpolies,
whose Overpowering use of money
buys their power to destroy the val
ues of every one that stands in their
way.
Money is like the most volatile and
insidious liquid, and like blood flows
to every molecule of the public body.
and as water is subject to all the
known laws of hydraulics, so money
is more uncertain in its po vers.
Asa producer of values it gives
life and vitality to agriculture, to
to mining, fisheries,
numbering, in thousands of ways. 1t
is the ajax titmouse of civilization, re-
and happy contented
homes so long as it is confined to its
legitimate powers and uses.
And in legitimate commerce and
banking it becomes the conservator
and distributor of values.
But when it falls into the hands of
those Arabs of commerce, the gam
blers in futures, over the carcass of
the produce made by the toll and
sweat of labor money becomes dis
turb,r Of values, and when in the !,
hands of combined millionaiJes in
into trusts with the power
of corruption of the government It.
seit and the rcw-cc:: 20 crush every in
terest in corruption, money becomes
the arch destroyer of values.
Now with all the boa sted knovl- |
edge of science and hydraulics, the !
visest blunder and show their ignor-
ance-how are they expected to be |
nfallable to money?
Take one instance, fresh in memo
y, wise statesmen, grave scientific
engineers made tour of inspection
If our levees from the Arkansas line
lowp, aud these men after a careful
scientific inspection pronounced those
evees secure and could be in no dan
ger, but these wise men were scarcely
1t home direct, before these levees
we're swept away; the mighty river OF
liquid water bade defiance to all their