St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-23
WHAT is msoUND MoyEys,

The G b e took the occasion of
the declaration of Col. Morrison that
he was Sin favor of sound money"
to regret that he had not told what
sound money is in his Judgment
This is not because there is anv
doubt as to what it is; but because
the head of the interstate commerce
commission had wished that the pres
ident, in his Chicago letter, had ex-
planned the term, after having made
an explanation superf1uous by his
public Statements. In his December
message the president discussed the
currency question fully, and said
that the secretary of the treasury
had prepared a measure which, if
accepted, would, in his opinion, give
the country sound money.
An evening contemporary takes
the comments of the Globe on Mr..
Morrison's reticence for the basis
of some. remarks which betray sur
prising ignorance or forgetfulness
on its part Of current history. 1t
says that Mr.. Cleveland '.has not
condescended to disclose to 1.-THE
country-what ne regards as Sound
money and it is kind enough to
say that 'the G o will confer an
inestimable benefit on the public" if
it smokes out" cleveland, Carlisle.
German, and the rest of the Demo-
cratic sound money crowd" This be-
trays an ignorance of the public
events of the last session of the Fiji
ty-thfrd congress, Of the message Of
the president, of the two bills pre-
pared by the secretary and Of the
debates, that is objectionable in any
newspaper.
That any explanation of what is
sound money would be, as our con-
Temporary admits, "an inestimable
favor" is SO merely because the
party in which it is such a brilliant
luminary of the evening sky has, in
its experimenting for a sound mon
ey, given the country the crazy-oriIt
patchwork, the commingling of
sound and unsound money that now
affiicts it. Contemplating it one can
appreciate the desire of that party to
have some one tell it what a really
sound currency is. That any explain
Stion should be asked for from anv
quarter, or that there should be anv
doubt about it, is probably due to
the fact that the evolutionary de-
velopment of money is not known
| to the querists, quite as much as it
is TO the error prevailing in other
| quarters that money is a creation of
governments. Much of the fog would
| be dispelled if it We're remembered
| that money antedated governments:
that these do not create it; that it
| accompanied the evolution Of COM
merce and has differentiated as COM
merce expanded and became more
and more diverse; adapting itself.
or being adapted, to the ever-ex-
banding conditions. Where govern
ments have recognized this natural
| growth and confined themselves to,
their proper function of supervising 4
and aiding; there has always bee41f
sound money. Where government *
| have been possessed of the idea. now
prevalent in this nation in locaGtiegr
that they could create money and
make it what they willed, there has
uniformly been unsound money. ov,I
1t is quite probable that the final
stage in the development of money
has not been attained. 1t yet has,
national limits, while serving a com,a
merce that is world wide. 1t is prob
| able that slowly, as such things al
ways grow, there will deveIoD al
| money suited to the wide purposes
Of trade. What it viii be, what shapa
| it will take, what basis it will have
whether metallic or credit or both.
| is matter of conjecture merely
The development of the past and
the present inadequate methods are
foundation for the belief that tna
| evolutionary process will go on to
| effect the needed end. But for the
/ present, and the purpose for which
this is written, it is sufficient to re-
| fer our contemporary to the records
| of the third session Of the Fifty-
third congress for a full explana-
| ton of what the president and his
financial secretary mean when they
use the term sound money"
it's a colo day when j. Sterunr