The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-04-30
THE BANE AND ANr1DoTE


a legitimate grievance and all i'm
possible remedy. 1t insists that
something is wrong in the body
polite when three million men,
women and children can go hungry
and roohess i'll a land which has
nearly seventy billions of produc-
tive wealth and where fortunes are
held which rival that of Crpsus-a
country of focks and herds and
bursting granaries and OF abundant
shelter; and IN that insistance the
army is right. But when CoXey
and his friends propose, as an anti
dote, that there shall be an unlimit-
ed issue of irredeemable money,
they simply undertake to make a
bad matter worse. The success of
their plan could only bring back the
era ofContinental currency, French
assignats and Confederate shin
plasters, wherein men were wont
to 80 marketing with money i'll a
basket and bring back their pur-
chases in the vest pocket. OF all
the crude devices of a money-mad
world, the fiat dollar is the crudest
and the craZiest. 1t is simply a
declaration of value which confessed
" does not exist and which is not to
be impaired, one akin to the promis-
sorry notes Of rich man with the
promissory feature scratched out
and the man legally freed from the
obligation to take up the papers.
Such notes would be worse than
valueless, whatever the possessions
of the giver might be, just as the
fiat dollar would be a worthless
deception, be the government that
issued it never so rich and secure.
The great object to be aimed at
by those who work to remedy the
times in the United States is the
restoration of confidence. There
is plenty of good hard cash in
America to-day, but when the panic
came year ago the money was
locked up and was not, thereafter,
available for manufacturing and in
dustrial use. This misfortune
threw hundreds of thousands of
men and women out of employ
ment and these were forced to com
pete in the search for a job with
the tide of immigrants coming
from Europe. 1t is obvious that
if confidence could be regained the
idle wheels would start again and
the trouble, except that part caused
by immigration, would soon be
over. Yet here we have Coxey's
preposterous army declaring for an
idea that would utterly demoralize
the finances of the nation, bury
confidence too deep for resurrection,
close down all industries-for who
would produce anything which he
would have to sell for irredeemable
paper?-and return the retail bust
ness Of the country to the primitive
basis of the barter. The man who
cut off his nose to spite his face was
an economist whom Coxey must
have made his guide, philosopher
and friend.
If things could be as they were
in the United States two years ago,
there would be no hard times to
combat. Money circulated freely
then. Why? Because there was
an undisturbed protective tariff and
the wheels went merrily round.
Say what one may of the tariff
being tax, it is also an employ
ment agency and it yields the
money to pay the tax and a surplus
besides. Tariff for revenue only
produces nothing but distrust and
a dehcit-and that condition bears
most heavily on the wage Garner
and the poor. Perhaps the Pro-
tective tariff is not perfect in
its workings; nothing mundane is.
But it works best of the two oppos-
ing economic theories and secures
the greatest good to the greatest
number.
If then organized labor would |
band for the restoration of the |
tariff by a change in the politics of
Congress, it would be doing some
thing practical in its own behalf. |
Confidence would begin to grow.
Should it go further and insist up
on the closing of the ports for
twenty years to the steerage pas
senger it would secure for itself the
gains to be had from revival of
Awn .l,s T. |