Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-11-28
the fiscal affairs of the Government

the fiscal affairs of the Government
as a government, not as a bank.
No change made in our currency
system will afford relief unless it pro-
vides for the legal tenders. The Cir
~culation of legal tenders has a ten
dency to drive out of the country the
very coin in which the Government is
compelled to redeem them; and it has
expelled millions of dollars from our
borders. Although the Government
and our own people are compelled to
receive them, they will not discharge
international obligations, and gold
must go out to settle all final balances
against us. No other Government in
the world is required to supply gold
from its Treasury to discharge the
private obligations of citizens.
While the pecuniary loss to which
the people have been subjected by the
issue and continued circulation of
legal tender paper has been almost in
caIcuable, this has not been the only
injury inflicted upon the country.
The theories that the Government
can create money by placing its stamp
upon paper or any other material; that
8 legislative enactment can make so
cents equal in value TO 100 cents; that
artificially inflated prices, paid in a de-
preciated currency, are better for the
people that natural prices, paid in a
sound currency, and various other
vagaries nov floating like bubbles in
the political atmosphere, r all d.
rectly attributed to the ong-continued
use of legal tender paper. The prop
osition that a promise of the Govern
ment to pay money is money is just
as absurd as the proposition that a
promise to deliver a horse is a horse,
and yet there are eminent men, high
in public councils, who believe that
the United States promissory note is
actualmoney and that the statute which
compels all the people to receive it as
actual money is constitutional, and
ought to be continued in force.
FREE SILVER AGITATION.
The agitation for the free coinage of
legal tender silver is predioated upon
the same vicious principle that under
lies the legislation making paper
promises legal tender; but there is a
practical difference between the two
systems. The United States note was
a forced loan from the people to the
Government, which the Government
promised to pay in dollars, but the
free coinage of legal tender silver at a
ratio of 16 to 1 would be a forced loan
from the people to the owners of sill
e bullion without a promise of re-
payment by anybody. The campaign
against the proposition to debase our
standard of value should not be aban-
doned or suspended.
If the friends of a sound and stated
of value are vigilant and ac-
tive this effect can possibly be sue
decided, and the question will soon re-
cede from the public view. But the
United States legal tender notes viii
remain to complicate the currency
system and embarrass the Govern
ment. In my opinion, legislation In
this direction, at the earliest possible
aay,s imperatively demanded by
every substantial interest In the coun-
try, and its postponment upon any
pretext of political expediency, or
upon the assumption in advance that
no satisfactory result can be accom-
plished, would be a very grave mistake.
No nation can reasonably hope to con-
troll the trade of any considerable part
of the world unless its exchanges are
based upon a standard of value rec
ognized as sound IN all centers of COM
meree. The pound sterling has made
London not only the principal market,
but the clearing house of the whole
world. England not only realizes
great profit from her own trade, but
takes toll out of the international
trade of all other countries. With an
inferior currency, we could never sue
c~essfully contest her supremacy, and
the belief that we can punish her or
enrich ourselves by destroying the
value of our own money is one of the
most remarkable decisions of the age.
EFFECTS Of POLITICS.
nMuch of our financial trouble has
been caused by doubt and speculation
here and abroad concerning the views
and purposes of our people at large,
and the policies of the political parties
to which they r attached. This is a
Government by parties and investors
watch with the greatest interest and
solicitude every manifestation of pop
ular opinion, especially when changes
are to be made in the chief executive
office. 1t is of vast Importance that
these doubts and speculations should
be set at rest in order that the world
may certainly know what is to be oul
permanent monetary policy. Vague
and indefinite declarations by the
great political organizations of the
country not only increase doubt and
distrust abroad, but encourage harm
full agitation at home, and I hold,
therefore, that it is the duty of all who
are, or may become in any degree, re-
sponsible for the welfare of the coun-
try, to insist that there shall be- nc
further equivocation or evasion IN our
treatment of this great subject. Let