Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-01-24
FINANCE The ISSUE.


One Of the greatest reforms which demand
Immediate attention is the financial problem
To the present generation finance is a new is
sue in American politics. 1t is altogether I'M
familiar TO the customary thoughts of the peo-
pie, because the course of our politics for
more than quarter of a century has been
turned in other directions. and away from
that great issue by sham fights over the tariff
and sectional strife engendered by slick poll
ticians for personal gain. Financial knowledge
is now the demand Of the hour, and the people
must study the question thoroughly, for if
Shyleck holds sway much longer in the coun-
ellis of our nation, national bankruptcy and ir-
retrieyable dishonor will be the result
There is but one way out of our dilemma,
and we shall be obliged to pursue it, even
should it involve as thorough an overhauling
of the whole question as that through which
the country finally prepared to grappIe
with the slavery issue and settle it forever
Why is our currency question now involved in
so hopeless muddle? Why arc so many of
our politicians, in dealing with it, 80 fearfulIy
afflicted with mental vertigo? Why do they
lead US into wilderness of metaphysics and
spread before US such a famine of ideas? How
can the leaders of the old party explain their
frequent somersaults, and their marvellous
performances in ground aud lofty tumbling?'
Since the republicans gave the control of the
volume of money over to the national banks,
the financial question has not until recently
found It's way into the halls Of congress at all
until the country was on the verge Of moral
and political ruin. What we need is a nution-
al education in the elements of financial
knowledge, and it should begin in the common
schools. Indeed, most of the old party leaders
aud latter-day statesmen seem in need OF this
knowledge quite as much as the rank and file
of the people. If possible, teachers should be
sent to them that they may be taught as speed
lily as possible, the definition of money: That
it Is a medium of exchange, necessary in the
transaction of business between citizens; that
it is the first duty of the government to pro-
vide this medium for its citizens directly and
at the least possible expense; that there is no
such thing as cheap money under proper
system, as only commodities are cheap or dear
according TO the market price of them, and
money is not commodity that money can be
issued by the government. safely and honestly
in but two ways: Ia return for services rem
dered or materials of value, and must always |
represent days of toll material of value; |
that the present national bank system by !
which money is farmed out to few pets of the |
government for private gain, is a reliable our |
rency solely because the government is back |
or 1t ALL but 1t is an eXecrable means of distr- |
butIou, for 1t imposes tax under the guise of |
interest upon every dollar of nation |
al bank issues in circulation because it |
gets into circulation only as it is loan |
ed by some bank; that the government can |
make money out of anything it chooses; that |
1t should create only the best money-that is |
ful legal tender money; that the country is |
now cursed bya currency whose volume is |
regulated by the owners of private banks, and |
its volume varies with the caprice of the few |
who hold and control it; that the country to- |
day is suffering from contracted and con- |
tracing currency, which has scaled up every |
debtors debt aud scaled down his ability 20 |
pay. That what the people need is currency |
expansion and for that reason if no other |
free coinage of silver should be favored: that |
contraction of the currency has preceded ev- |
cry financial panic in the history of the coun- |
try, while the debt payer, producer, labor, has |
always been prosperous under currency eX- |
pausion; that bankers, spectators, money |
lenders, and all dealers in money, are strange |
ly interested in keeping money scarce, so that |
the dollars which they possess will purchase |
as much as possible of the products of labor !
and for this reason fought gold IN 1860 when |
greenback in Lincolns time ana are now fight
ing siiyeri on the other hand that any scheme |
for relieving the debtor of Indebtedness with
out payment is a violation of the command |
thou shalt not steal" What is needed is a |
stable currency that debts may be paid in |
the dollars of the contract. Undoubtedly |
there are many questions of political economy
yet unsettled but there are certain elementary
principles of finance that are as well establish
ell as any facts in physical science: AMI if /
these elementary principles and axtoms had |
been taught in ou- public schools, the politi-
Clans who are now preying upon pub ic iguOr
ance and disturbing the country would have
been more worthily employed.
The remedy for all this is the destruction,
root and branch, of the whole system of spoils
and plumber, and this will require the bold sur
gerry OF reform. 1t calls FOR an instruction
OF honest men against the disciplined parties
of Shylocks who have so long ruled them.
Neither congress nor the executive depart
ment of the government, will lake a single
step until compelled to do 50 by public opn-
ION. we can no more depend upon the old
parties and politicians to begin this work, than
we can expect the saloon keepers to organize
to suppress the liquor traffic. If any man
doubts this, we need only refer him to the
spectacle of duplicity and demagogism which
our servants in Washington have exhibited in
dealing with the silver question in the past
few months, and to the general Chuckle of de-
light which followed the final overthrow of
one-haif of the constitutional money of the
people, while the faithlessness Of the present
to its pledges in dealing with
the silver question and its slippery game of
fast and loose have provoked the disgust of
and contempt of honest men of all parties. The
remedy must come from the people, and the
people must be rallied and organized against
the horde OF rogues and maefactors who prey
upon the nation and make political honesty a
The republican slate tor the state
ticket is about made up, with E.. N
Morrill, the banker at the head for gov