The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-03-20
THE INFLA4LONISR.
BE ALWAYS STANDS ACROSS THE
PATH OF PROGRESS.
He Must Be Dislcdged Before We

He Must Be DiSlCdged before we
Can Hope to Cure Our Financial
Ills.
In his speech at Boston. on Febru-
ary %, James H. Eckels, Controller
of the Currency, said:
it is fruitless to discuss our ability
to undertake the free coinage of legal
tender silver and at the same time the
maintenance of gold payments. If
the bill authorizing such coinage ever
becomes q law, the basis of our cur
rency and of our credit will be silver
and silver alone. It cannot be under
such circumstances gold and silver,
for the facts of all monetary history
bear ample proof of the impossibility
of maintaining silver and gold coins OF
differing commercial values in concur
rent circulation.
It is not difficult to trace the cause
of the weakened condition of the credit
of our American currency, weakness
made more shameful by the fact that
our natural resources are unequaied
by those of any other country, and
the enterprise and skill of our people
beyond that of every other nation. 1t
is to be found in the fact that, from
the issuance of the first treasury note
in 1862 to this very day, the initiation
ist has been the controlling force in
the American monetary legislation.
With the exception of the Greenback
Retirement act, passed at the request
of Secretary McCulloch, though
quickly repealed. and the repeal OF
the purchasing clause of the Sherman
silver enactment, our statute books
are barren of any Law the design of
which has been other than to increase
the volume of our circulating medium.
The bulk of the legislation proposed
has had this end in view, while the
legislation enacted; has accomplished it.
The inhationist reigned supreme dur
ing the era OF American Colonial his
tory and the period of the Continental
Congress. The havoc which he wrought
during these years happily led to his
reputation by the fathers OF the Con-
stitution, and from their day until
that of the civil war Treasury paper
issues by the government were held
to be thing to be abhorred. 1t IS
the inaationist who, as the advocate
of an irredeemsble greenback, looks
upon the fiat Of the government and
the operations of the printing press as
the greatest wealth producing agencies
in the land, and, as the advocate OF
the free coinage of silver, has ne less
faith in the results attained when that
fat is applied to the product of the
silver mine at a fictitious ratio. He
stands to-day the strenuous opponent
of the single gold standard of value,
and he ill ccnceals his attitude by
taking refuge in his announced belief
in the historically demonstrated i'm
possibility and absurdity of bimetal-
lism, whether it be national or inter-
retirement ofthe government treasury
paper because of the fear he processes
to feel of a contraction of the cur
rency, unmindful that these very
issues are the controlling factors in
calling forth bonds, diminishing in
comes, and restricting on other lines
what Mr.. Tilden aptly tel med "ths
WuOle SbSteI fOiuue u u Cui1 AosaShAG-
cry"
Until the inhationist is dislodged,
there can be no permanent cure for
our financial ills. When his career is
ended the treasury of the. United
States will cease carrying on the oper-
atoms of bank, its notes of issue will
be paid and cancelled, and their bane-
full influence lifted from all the indus
tries in the land. There will then be
none who, for this people, would have
other than single gold standard, and
none who would suggest dollar
whether of silver or paper, which 10
not everywhere, under any and all
circumstances and in whatever quanti-
ties, fairly interchangeable with every
other dollar which circulates without
entailing loss to anyone. In that day
the private citizen and the lawmaker
will have learned the truth, announced
half century ago by one OF 1taly's
most distinguished students OF finance,
"Money is essentially rebellious to the
orders of law; it comes without being
called, it goes without being arrested,
deaf to advances, insensible to threats.
attracted solely by the allurement OF
profits"