The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-04-16

two cents worth of paper and printing
in the form Of a treasury note.
The fact of the fiat idea" is that just
SO long as the Government IS regarded
by the world as good for it's debts.
it can make money out of straw. but the
Impairment Of its credit is bound TO bring
such money nearer and nearer to the
true value of straw. and the straw money
Is sure to be subject to daily fuctua-
tions Of value. according as the pulse of
pubic confidence beats high or low.
The notion that the p~lentifulness or
scarcity of circulating medium can have
any effect on National prosperity or on
Individual fortunes-any further than
mere convenience IS involved-.s one OF
the queer fallacies that get into half
ignorant brains like those Of many of our
Senators. and cannot be eradlcated. The
notion that, because more dollars are
| work or a bushel of wheat or a plough
or a locomotive or a corner lot is simply
idiot!c unless it is based on the presump-
| ton that dollars have become of smaller
relative value through Their greater
plenty. And If this is the case, how does
anyone profit by receiving a great num-
Der of dollars for his time or his prop
| erty If he in turn has to give a greater
number for the things he needs?
If the carpenter who earns SIS q week
| has only to pay $40 a month for four
rooms, s12 for a Sunday suit and SIS for
| a coffin for his dead child. is he not as
well off as he would be with $2o a week
coupled with a corresponding increase In
prices all around-say s12 a month for
the same four rooms. SIS for the suit of
clothes and $40 for the coffin? But
where would he be if he were paid his
presence of a failure in the Western
crops or a of war, or an I'M
favorable turn in the balance of trade
might in a night so fall in value, that
IN the morning it would not buy him and
his family one-fourth of what it was
good for the day before. Yet this is
the condition of all fiat" money.
Those who nave read Victor Hugo's
g 's3.'' not to refer to any more learned
work. VIII remember how the beggarman
would approach one in the street and
say
"Citoyen, please give me 5000 rancs
I am short 10000 francs on the price of
my shoes. and my feet are frozen"
A loaf of bread, we are told. was
worth a thousand francs in the fiat"
money of the day, the ~assignats, which
are now sold for a few pence to cur:os-
ity seekers like Continental or Confed-
crate bills. Yet that money was issued
at its face value and for a few days held
it. And when it melted away into air,
1t was nominafly backed by the wealth
of France and the authority of the Re-
publican Government. 1t was cheap
money, and it remains, with a few other
similar exhibitions of insanity, a monu-
mental warning to the nations of the
earth for all generations.
We cannot better conclude these re-
marks tina by quoting the closing pass
ages Of the Presidents letter, filed as
they are with that earnest patriotic
spirit which distinguishes him from so
-ooDrr onnfaponaroru SfafaSmap and
which contributes so much to bring his
utterances home not only to the intelli-
gence but to the hearts of the people,
If reckless discomfort and wild ex-
pertinent should sweep our currency
from it's safe support. the most de-
fenseless of all who suffer in that tim
of distress and national discredit will
be the poor, as they reckon the loss in
their seanty support, and the laborer or
workingman, as he sees the money he
has received from his toll shrink and
shriyel in his hand when he tenders it
for the necessaries to supply his
humble home.
disguise it as we may, the line of
battle is drawn between the forces of
safe currency and those of silver mono
metaahsm.
II will not believe thai # our people
are afforded an intelligent opportunity
for sober second thought they win sanc-
ton schemes that. however cloaked,
mean disaster and confusion, nor viii
they consent, by undermining the foun-
dation of a safe currency, to endanger
h beneicent character and purposes
of their Government"
N