New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1895-06-12
New O1m RessiieW
JOHNSON & ,W|CHERSKI, PUBLISHERS.
Wednesday June IL, 1895.
Hence the Hard Times.


that in his great effort on the none.
question before the students of Macales
ter college, Prof. McCleary made use O.
the old negro minstrel gag, illustrating
the debt-paying power of money. Ii
goes something like this: Bones finds E
dollar. He owes Mr.. johnson, the inter.
locutor, three dollars, and pays it to him
on account. Sambo has a CLAIM ofthree
dollars against Mr.. Johnson, asks him fol
the dolla: and gets it. Sambo owes
Bones three dollars and Bones immedi-
ately collects one dollar. Mr.. johnson
again gets it from Bones, passes it to
Sambo, who, in turn, passes it to Bones
again. The one dollar goes the rounds
the third time, and having satisfied nine
dollars of debts, is again in Bones pock-
ct. To show his superior knowledge of
finance, however, Prof. McCleary INTRO
duces twenty instead of three men. They
pass the dollar three times around and
in three minutes liquidate $50 of debts
with 81. Ignatius Donnelly, or some
other leg-pulling populist, would prob
ably introduce 100000 farmers, each
owing $1,000, who, by a mere agree
ment to that effect, cancelled $3.000,0 00,-
900 Of debts without cent. There is
both truth and sophistry in this, The
act of the three MINISTRIES is real and
practicable. They work it on the stage.
Prof. McCleary's act is improbable but
possible, while Donnelly's fiat money
idea is pure imagination and solid fool
ishness. The distinction between the
truth and the sophistry of these three
propositions is purely one of practice
and theory. One man may bodily lift
300 pounds of solid metal. Theoreti-
cally 900 men would lift, bodily, 30O,-
900 pounds of solid metal. Practically
we know it IS not so. With tree and
unrestricted circulation one dollar may
be made to do nine dollars of business.
With plenty of 'falth" and coincidence"
it may be made to do sixty dollars of
business. The more ''fa1th'' and the
more "contidence,' the more it will do;
and the more it does, the more "faith"
and the more coincidence" will everybO-
dy have. The more ''taith'' and the
more "confdence" everybody has, the
more will private checks and personal pa
per circulate. and the more will gold be
retired into vaults. All that the gold
men, then, have to do to wreck the fnan-
cial machine and appropriate the plum
der is to withdraw gold from circulation
and let the devil take the hlndmOst.
Every man who has lost possession of
property or been driven out of business
on account of deprecated values has
simply been ''dcne up" by the bulls of
the gold market. Money is the motive
power of commerce and industry. The
circulation of money is the wheel of for
tune. The mo1e rapidly it circulates the
better times we Lave. But supposing
that, after exaggerating the old negro
minstrel gag from 50 to $50, and the
debtor class from three to twenty who
have to do business with zone dollar"
Prof. McCleary were told that the fellow
who CHANGED to hold the "dollar" has
locked it up: How, then, is he going to
pay his $50 of debts? The one man with
the dollar thus simply has the other nine
teen under his power. The fewer dol
lars, the greater the number of debtors.
and the more they owe, the worse it is.
Thanks to such professors and politicians
as Mr.. McCleary and Mr.. Cleveland, the
gold bugs of Europe have raised the die
kens with our circulation in the last few
years and thousands of our people are
penniless who otherwise would be we'll
off. Every man who pays interest and
taxes practically pays two dollars now
where he paid one before. We have the
twenty debtors instead of three, and we
owe $50 instead of SO, but John Bull has
locked up the dollar on us, and hence
the hard Midway News. St.
Paul.