San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-06-18
CHEAP MONEY DEVIL.
Always on Hand to Encourage Fiat
Schemes with Glowing Promises.

Schemes with Glowing Promises.
In q recent interview Gov. Altgeld, of
Illinois, told how many hundred years
gold and silver were maintained in cir
culation at fixed ratio by the fiat Of
government. 1t is not disputed that
whenever the legal ratio has conceded
with the market value of the two metals
they have circulated together without
any need of legislative fiat, but when
ever the legal ratio did not coincide
with the commercial value of the two
metals, having equal privileges at the
mint, the coinage that was undervalued
dropped from circulation by law more
potent than the decree of government.
OF course, deprecated currency can
be kept in circulation so long as gov
eminent may be willing and able to
keep the promise to redeem it in stand
ard money, as in the case with the silver
dollar of the United States and the five
franc piece of France. The enormous
cost and embarrassment of a fat cur
rency to the government of the United
States are witnessed in the frequent
borrowings of gold to provide for its re-
demption.
To Gov. Altgeld it is matter of in
difference, as he says, whether the legal
ratio for the free coinage of silver be six
teen to one or eight to one with gold,
since the fat of the government would
be as omnipotent in the one case as in
the other. But giving the history of
fat currency for the instruction of Hi
nois editors and speakers he might have
mentioned in the course of his narrative
the royal coin clippers who knavishly
debased the money of their subjects,
just as the silverites propose to do with
the monetary standard of the United
States. The governor, however, does
not go back quite far enough in tracing
the origin of fiat money. We have the
high authority of Goethe, who deeply
penetrated the nature of things, that
the Observation-Disclosures the in
ventor of this kind of currency flor
which see the second part of "Faust").
Far back in the middle ages we read
that the affairs of the Germanic empire
were in the greatest disorder. The
treasury was empty and utterly unable
to redeem its obligations. The army
was ready to mutiny because of the long
arrearages of pay. The courtiers in the
imperial palace complained OF the
deprivation of the luxuries to which
they had been accustomed. Discomfort
and distress prevailed throughout the
empire.
At this juncture Mephistopheles APP
peared on the scene, as he always does
on such occasions. He proceeded at
once to issue fat currency under the au-
thority of his imperial majesty. At
first the emperor was shocked at the
monstrous fraud, and Indignantly asked
who had dared to forge the imperial
name, and threatening at the same time
that such a crime should not go UNI
punished. But the imperial scruples
were soon removed by the arguments OF
Mephistopheles and the brilliant success
of the scheme. The treasury was quick
ly replenished. The army, having re-
ceiyed its pay, was eager to reenlist. In
the imperial palace the courtiers, and
even the pages, had money to burn"
and prosperity again dawned upon the
empire. In his establishment the en-
peror asked: ''And does this pass for
good gold with my people? Is it ac-
copied for full pay by the army and the
court? Much as wonder, must let
it CO."
But the court fool could not quite un-
lerstand this magic paper, of which he
had received 5000 crowns, and asked
Mephistopheles if this was good mon
ey's worth.
Mephisto-You can have first what
ever your gullet and belly may desire.
Fool-And can / buy with it fields and
house and cattle?
Mephisto-Of course! Demand only
that, and it shall not be wanting to you.
Fool-And castle, with forest and
deer park and fish ponds?
Mephisto-Truly. would like to see
you a worshipful lord. q,
Fool-This very evening 1 will rock
myself in landed estate.
Mephisto (alone)-Who now doubts
the wisdom of our fool?
The other fools held on to their magic
money until it withered to nothingness
in their hands. When the inevitable
crash came Mephistopheles had bust
ness somewhere else in his vast domain.
The same parsonage again made its APP
pearance to lure the French people to
financial ruin when John Law acted as
his fat money agent in the Mississippi
scheme. He turned up again to per-
suade the French convention to print