St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-04

endless chain by which the process is
carried on.
Having exposed the fallacy and false
ness of Mr.. Sherman's position thus far
on its negative side, we come now to
his positive commitment of himself to
financial doctrines with which we had
supposed that he would be ashamed to
have his name linked in history. He
says that the greenbacks are "the best
paper currency the people of the United
States have ever enjoyed" He dons
the robe OF the greenbacker, and takes
his stand with the devotees of the fiat
money theory. He says that the entire
bulk Of the legal tenders and treasury
notes can be easily maintained at par
with coin. He says that this system
which he recommends, of a currency
based upon wind and subject to col
lapses at every return of that financial
distrust which periodically shakes the
business world to its center, is the
ideal policy for this government. He
6OCo q StSP tIiSI anu COIleSSGS "
a weakness for the per capita delusion.
This is the last blow to those who have
held by Senator Sherman's financial
sanity, his last step toward the abyss
that his idea Of model currency is
"bimetallic coinage Of gold and silver"
an expression that nobody on earth
can define or understand; with a ma
tional bank currency based on United
States bonds, and ''the issue of an
amount of United States notes and
treasury notes equal to the amount
now outstanding, with provision for a
population"
This is a platform which we would
not ask our readers to credit to Sen
ator Sherman did we not quote
is confession Of faith in the most
blatant financial heresies of the day.
By his own language Mr.. Sherman
holds to the old mercantile theory, that
omy cut adrift a generation ago. He
holds that the balance Of trade determ-
ines the soundness or unsoundness Of
nations money. He says that an ir-
redeemabIe paper currency. a mere
empty promise to pay, is better than
system like that of the nations which
nave currency based dollar for dollar
on coin or its equivalent. He says that
prices and prosperity depend upon the
volume of money in a country, by hold
ing up as a bugaboo the alleged con-
traction which the retirement Of legal
tenders would cause. In this he again
sound thinker Of his time. Finally.
by the expression which we have lust
quoted, he asserts that there should
be correspondence between the vol
ume of currency and the number of a
nations inhabitants. This is the per
capita theory, which is the last cell
in the incurable ward of the insane
hospital for financial detectives. Not
otCWdll, IlOC vest, not even PeTer,
could have crowded into one speech
more false reasoning, more bad advice
more vicious principles, than are to be
found in the deliverance of the man
whom the Republicans have looked to
for so many years as their financial
prophet. The party decadence which
has been SO marked within the past
two years seems to be nearing it's limit,
with the complete detection of Senator
Sherman from the ranks Of the honest
money men. Be it political expedien-
cy, or the weakness of age, or mere
imagined party obligation, Mr.. Sher-
man must be ranked hereafter with the
enemies not only of sound financial
system for the United States, but of all
the truth that the world has learned
by long and costly experience about
currency and correct monetary sys-
TENS.