The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-10-19
The Financea.

He that loveth silver. shall rot be
satisfied with silver said the preacher
OF long ago. After silver he wantsgreen-
backs-then more greenbacks. and alter
that still moregreep backs, until presently
he ia a az subject for a financial hospital
OF the Kelley sort.
Back OF the present silver talk is the
fat idea-scratch silverite deep enough
and you will usually find a greenbacker
"a believer In the efficiency oigovernment
fat. The trainers o. our national con-
stitution crushed the hatism responsible
for the worthless continental currency
and for rs years II seemed TO be dead.
But Ia 1862 we give IL new lease OF liie
by our mistake In issuing inredeemable
legal tender notes. No one need make
any excuse for the legal tender acts OF the
war since the supreme court decision con-
demning them delivered by Uhiei Justice
Chase. Though he sanctioned such meas
ures while at the head Of the treasury.
yet as a Judge, be says they were
wrong-were contrary to the constitu-
ton.
on course the populist viii tellyou that
the greenback saved the country" but
writer's OF financial history entertain no
such absurd notion. just how any
thing that increased the war debt nearly
a billion dollars and caused Losses OF
many times that vast amount to private
interest, could help "save the country"
only a brain With a pouulistic squint
could imagine. Nor is that all, or even
the worst. For though the financial loss
was tremendous, the evil worked by the
greenback was greater in it's moraleffect.
1t inoculated US again with the virus OF
fatism and the poison 10 still in our
blood. The man that shall discover
some germicide that will kill this bacillus
fiatum in the political mind, will rank
above the great Pasteur az mankind's
benefactor.
II the fiatist is right and government
has an attribute OF omnipotence. 30 that
by sheer force OF "Beit enacted, itcAn ere
ate something out OF nothing. II It has
such power il certainly ought to use It.
II il can create Al cents worth OF value |
IL can create value to the amount OF $40,
yes. or Sic, 900 lust as easy. There isno
excuse at all for US not being millionaires,
il money is simply a matter OF law" as
Mr.. Bryan says. Why. II government
can make something out OF nothing II
might even coin sense from the idle va
porings OF populistic orators on finance.
But you: say either 10 all too absurd,
nay, ii is but silver logic carried TO ITS
only conclusion.
Now, il by law, we can add 65 cents an
ounce to the value Of silver we ought to
De able, by the same process, to make
,wo and two equal five. No doubt this
night be grand thing, sometimes, but
NJ long as two and two persist In being
DUAL to four. and not five, we have the
assurance that they will never
'hrink 80 as to equal three. |
But we shall have to get rid oil this nat
dea-the mostpernlcious and costly idea
yer entertained by the brain OF man
before we get out OF the woods on the
money question.
During the revolutionary war fatism
8 on record as doing more damage to
he cause OF independence than the
armies OF King George. IL was caustic
observer OF those events that remarked
4 the continental congress, that it had
ried every means Of circulating it's de
'ased currency but one, !. e., being hon.
st."
Why does the silver argument OF today
eem plausible tn so many sober minds?
imply because OF the twist given to our
conception by the greenback
I 90. II we could blot out the exper-
nee OF '62 to 10 from the mind OF man,
be siver-tongued orator OF '96 would
ave no listeners.