The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1894-08-16

GIFTED States could not buy articles a
they had done in the past because theil
wages had been recently Cut down or en-
tirely stopped, aud on that. account thu
workingnien had nothing with which Il
buy. Nowhere did intimate that such
state of affairs existed because there wa!
no money in the country with which t
buy. The statement which / did make L
absolutely true. The wages paid each day
for work all over the United States fol-
many years past have been the greatest
distribution OF wealth known anywhere on
the face Of the earth.
The abatement which this writer Seems
to believe. and seeks to make me utter, Il
not true. Tho money Of this country was
not reduced in amount by the law Of 1873
The money in circulation per capita In lS7s
was S1S0i. In 1874 it was slSl3, 1t then
fell little per capita each year, chiefly IL
consequence of the population increasing
7,000.0o0, up to 1873, when it was S15.3a
Then the amount began steadily to in
crease, and in 1898 it had reached the snn
OF $3.50 per capita.
/ TODAY IT Is NEARLY TWENTY
FIVE DOLLARS for each man, woman
and child in the United States.
In the face of this well known fact why
keep asserting that there is such lack 0i
currency In this country? What we need
is revival of business, so as to make the
money circulate which has all this time
existed In the United States.
What Money Really Ia.
Because stated that We should make as
nearly as possible everything we need
right here at home, this writer asks:
"Well. why don't you make your money
| at homer"
That question is founded on the assump-
| tion that money Is a manufactured article
like cotton cloth or wooden blankets. 1t
is nothing of the kind.
| "Why should we borrow money and
| pay interest on it, when experience shows
| that we can make just as good money
| ourselves and pay no INTEREST,"" quOth
| 81 D."
That question could be asked only by q
i person who believes in ." fiat" money.
Experience shows this and nothing
! more: That our government can issue a
| limited amount of notes, payable on de-
| mand, and keep such notes at par SO long
as it redeems them when demanded. Elk
| perience also shows that when the amount
is so large that the government fails to re-
deem them on presentation, such notes
fall below par. A government might issue
| S60, Coz, 600 of such notes and keep them
good, when it could do nothing of the kind
with 10 times that amount. A man worth
$500 might issue promissory notes of 500
each to the amount of $1,000, and those
notes might all remain good. His we'll
known ability to pay that amount would
give people confidence in his promise. Let
it once be understood, however, that there
are SO, 900 of such notes out against him
and those notes will instantly fall below
par. Because a government can issue a
limited amount Of promises to pay and
keep it good, it by no means follows that
it can do the same thing with an unlimited
amount.
This Populist writer doesn't say how
much Of such money can be issued by q
government and be kept good. assert
that the amount Is limited. Does he deny
this? If not, why did he not name the
limitation? Or does he believe that the
government can issue money payable in
nothing, redeemable in nothing, and that,
too, without any limitations as to time
and amount, and yet that such stuff will
be good money as long as it exists? A
Populist may believe such thing posi-
Bile. i do not.
People earn money by all kinds of labor
Men who mine gold and silver furnish the
world with substances which have been
used for ages as money. The government
coins these substances for the purpose of
showing the quantity and quality of each
piece. The people furnish the metal out
of which the coins are made. By the
process of coming the government creates
nothing
Money is used to facilitate exchanges.
People make money by producing the ar
ticles out of which money is made or by
producing the articles that can be ex-
changed for money. When q man gives
his note for 800 in exchange for horse,
the man is worth no more than he was be-
fore he bought the horse, If 500 is the
fair value of the animal. He has the
horse, but he owes its full value. When
the government issues greenback or d
bond, no value has been created by the
transaction. The government may ex-
change them both for gold, but the gov
eminent at once becomes indebted for the
full amount of these obligations
No doubt it is better to make money
than to borrow it; but do not forget that
the government never received dollar
1OI q SihssiO SlCChDdCA VI lOT fsuy HON6TIl-
ment bond without borrowing the full
paper obligation leaves the treasury it
is promise to pay" real dollars, an |
the property of the nation Is pledged to
such payment.
These Populists are all the time crying
WOULD PUT A MORTGAGE OF
TrNrrnT n TTnNC ~
property existing in this country. Or do
these gentlemen think that demand notes
and govern ment bonds need never be paid?
To listen to their talk one would think
that they believe that kind of money is
possible simply for purposes of circula-
ton. and that such circulation can be
obtained for paper money without any
Lind of redemption. l have tried for
years to ge. some one of them to send me
sample of such wonderful paper money.
/ am anxious to look at 1t, to examine it,
so as to find out what it is like.
A Few Things Are Right.
Why wonder. then, that should have
said to my st. Paul audiences:
You've got to meet new party. A
party that believes that everything was
wSong aud that everything is still wrong;
that thinks that wisdom never struck the
earth until few years ago, when the
first Populist was born.
81 D." virtually admits that my claim
as to the belief of his party is correct.
Hear him:
And the new party, lie says, believes
that everything is wrong" Well, isn't it
wrong? VIII Mr.. Horr tell us what is
right today? Now, even the money-lend-
ers are not happy, for their securities are
turning into chaf. And If wisdom
struck the earth" before the Peoples Party
was born, where did it light
I assure this Populist writer that the
world is full of things which are right.
To name for him all such things would re-
quire volumes. To enumerate the bless.
ings that know about myself would be
towrite a book. For example, patriotism
is a good thing; it is right; patriotism is
not dead here in the United States.
Honest men and women abound all over
this nation. Our country is full of people
who are striving to make this world bet
ter. 1t is right that such should be the
case.
The great majority of the religious peo-
. pie of the world are sincere, are not hypo-
critics. They are struggling each day to
live pure and upright lives. That, too, is
! quite right.
Mo+Io,e n, n ,,,-1o ~4sII J3x,o 81 - - g.,