The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-25
TARIFF
SECONDARY.

ing president or the
Is nation who is to be
elected next No
SFcONRApv vember could and
should do Ito re-
lieve the existing
mun III felt want of prosperity"
mere are substantially. two views on
tnat subject, and really only two, for
the tarln question is relegated in pub
Tic opinion. and properly so, to a very
secondary place.
We may get rich at some future day
by building a customs fire around our
porders like the snake who stings
himself to death under similar circum-
stances; but. for the moment, that is
postponed till we know what that
wealth is to be counted in At this
moment, some of the statesmen of the
Great West have arrived at the con-
cluslon that the shortest way to the
universal millennium is by debasins the
currency. Kings had that theory once
and used to practice it, but their SUBJ
9ects did not appreciate it's beauty, and
1t has been reserved for the citizens of
our enterprising republic to take it up
again and propose to try it once more.
universal prosperity is to be brought
ABOUT then. according to the belief of
hundreds of thousands of persons.
above all OF those of the debtor class.
by counting every dollar we own or
owe as two. This seems simple: every
millionaire will be two millionaire
and every man with a dollar In his
pocket will then have two. Of course
material things will soon be higher: in
time, they viii be twice as high as thew
are now, and if prosperity consists in
that we will have got part of the way
towards the millennium. and only have
10 go as far as we want by continuing
the process.
We can make a cent into a dollar
and enjoy the development Of our mag
nlhcent copper mines, and be fifty times
nearer universal happiness with a cop
per dollar than we could be with a
silver one. while our domestic debtors
would pay their debts fifty times
cheaper.
1t is true-that a good many people
are creditors; but their prosperity does
not seem to be involved. The Great
West insists that it is a debtor coun-
try, and so thinks Of the happiness
nearest at hand. Then it never ex-
poets to borrow again. Perhaps hay-
ing diminished it's indebtedness in this
simple way, it may never have to,
and will in the future be a creditor
nation. In that event, though the spe-
cific could not be renewed with it's
approval and we might never get
nearer the paradise of reputation
than fifty-cent dollar, the glorious
one-cent dollar might remain forever a
lost possibility
Having gone thus far in my remarks
on the theory that the commonly re-
ceived notion. and the one which
today seems to be expressed by the
resolutions Of conventions and public
meetings. is really the Western one,
let me add that, personally, 1 do not
believe word of anything Of the Sort
There are some people who are in
desperate straits, and are catching at
straws to save themselves from ship
sO1ly aud lit
wrong remedy. There are others who
have not given very complicated sub
ject sufficient study and a few think
our wonderful country can defy the
laws of finance and gravitation. But
believe there are only a few, a very
few who are dishonest enough to
want to repudiate debts contracted in
gold by paying them in silver. and
fewer yet who believe that fifty cents
would be any more useful if called
dollar than if called a half-a-dollar. or
that the currency of Mexico, where. if
you need a thousand dollars you have
to hire horse and cart to carry them.
would be blessing to this commercial
nation, which bids fair in a few years
to be the leading financial and COM
mercia1 center of the world.
There are some individuals who have
the pleasant notion that if we coin and
stamp fifty cents as a dollar it will
pass as such. and be worth as much as
IL it were made of its proportional
amount Of gold, from being suddenly
called into wider demand. But the
trouble with this theory is that it is
only theory, and if 1t don't happen
to work the pertinent inquiry might !
be made. where would we be at?''
Spirits don't always materialize even
in the best regulated Spiritualistic
families. and so far, that blessed result
has not come about in our neighbor
republic Of Mexico. Nevertheless. If
the incoming president believes this he
will try to remove the existing dearth
of prosperity by advising congress to
coin all the silver dollars our mine
owners or the foreign or domestic own
ers of silver may desire to have coined.
Whether they will want many coined
after all the gold shall have disap-
peared from the United States treasury
and the banks, and gone into the hid
ing of the stocking and the safe de-
posit, will be question which only
time can solve, but which may have a
decided influence on the impending
prosperity that free coinage was to
bring to our doors. If. on the other
hand. president shall be elected who
believes in maintaining the standard
of values that has prevailed for sixty
years. he will recommend that gold be
kept the unit of currency value and
that the people take up in their pri-
hdlG anu puDttC Cd1dCillGS UIlS
drum virtue of economy; for, of all vir-
tues, that most despised and villified
one of mean, contemplate, low-down
economy is the most valuable in the
long run. If he should happen to take
this course we will become a greater
debtor nation than ever. England.
France, Germany will send us their
surplus money. They may ask us a
ridiculously low rate of interest for it's
use; but they will ask something, pos
sibly even 2 per cent a year, and the
silver-dollar statesmen may denounce
them for their usuriouSness and des-
pise our country for remaining In debt
when it could reDudiate it's obliga-
tions. But there are people who think
a good deal of prosperity could be got
out of money at that price. even if it
had to be repaid In full and repaid in
gold when borrowed in gold.
Robert B. Roosevelt.
t. i,,da