The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-02
WHENCE THIS UNwIsDoM


WHENCE THIS UNWISDOM
Wise old Solomon adjured his people
to get wisdom because 1t is the prfn-
cipal thing, and especially that with
all thy getting get understanding"
and Kant defines understanding as the
FACULTY of judging. Wisdom is largely
acquired by knowing what men have
done and succeeded in, and what they
have tried and failed in, and under
standing judges whether in the light
OF this experience. any proposed like
measure of human action, whether in
| d1vldual or aggregated, can be sue
| cessful. Men have acquired a. store of
homely wisdom by their own personal
experiences. They do not thrust their
hands into the fire, or try to lift them
| selves over fences by their boot straps.
or try to grasp soap bubbles. They
nave learned by experience that there
are some things they cannot do, and
they do not try to do them. They have
also learned that there are certain
natural laws that they must respect
II they would avoid injury All this
Is wisdom, and they have the faculty
OF understanding that enables them to
judge Of the results of disobedience
Of these laws
JUST now there is recrudescence
In V1rulent form of the notion that
money is not synonymous with value.
that 1t is creation Of legislation. and
tnat, therefore, whatever is decreed nv
government to be money is. ipso facto
money. This runs counter to the expert
ence of mankind. Nation after nation
has attempted it, and not only failed
but the failure has brought disaster
upon the people thus experimental
with. Nowhere, in any time or place,
has man or men, empire or republic.
succeeded in doing what those whom
Mr. Bryan leads propose to have done
IN this country. Why is 1t. then. that
we see so many men, aside from those
whose self-interest sufficiently ac-
counts for their support, honestly as
sorting that the United States can do
what every other nation that ever
tried 1t disastrously failed in doing?
Whence this unwisdom?
The stream has many sources. Prob.
ably the chief Of these Is ignorance Of
what has been ATTEMPTED in this III.
rect1on by nations. Without mention
Ing the experiments Of foreign ma
tons, how many men are at all ia
miliar with the efforts made by the
colonies Of this country. and by the
young states after the formation of
the Union? How many know of the
Rhode Island effort, the Virginia to-
bacco experiment? How many grasp
the significance of the greenback and
the gold room and the legal tender
acts? Where in the curriculum Of our
schools, high and low, are these es-
sentials Of government by the peo-
pie taught? Then it must be remem-
, bered how large is the element in our
population that comes from countries
where people are born and nurtured
in an implicit belief in the omniscience
OF government. To 1t they have been
trained to look, on 1t to lean, to it
to go for everything Such minds are
peculiarly open to sophisms Of gov
eminent and finance.
Then who can measure the expansion
and effect OF self-confidence. the sense
of power, the capacity for doing, among
people thus uniformed, that comes
from witnessing the conquests of mind
over matter as displayed in the mar
Vicious discoveries and inventions of
the last half Of this century? What
unsound conclusions Of human capa-
city must come to the man who merely
sees the heavily laden street car driven
along, up a grade no locomotive could
mount by steam, by an invisible cur
rent running along a wire half an
inch in diameter? What cannot man
do when he can send his voice over a
thousand miles Of wire and hold con-
verse with one at the other end? With
arc light turning night into day, with
Cue WONDERFUL monograph catching
and reproducing at will the human
voice, what marvel is it that men who
look only on the surface come to be-
lieve that we can do what we will
with SO simple a thing as money?
Why In finance can there be nothing
new as well as In science?
Add to this the example of
our own government in making mon
ey," the greenbacks, the silver pur-
chases and notes issued on them, and
is 1t Surprising, Is it not Inevitable.
that we should find so many people
believing that money is merely a mat
ter of legislative will?