The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1897-03-12
FTRsT ESSENTIAL OF PROSPERITY.

In the March number Of the Cosmo
politsn is au article entitled "The First
Essential for Prosperity" by John
Brisben Walker The article is on the
currency question and the author
claims for his scheme the merit of be.
ing "a scientifically based and sutomat-
ically regulated system of money
The article is directed ito the bankers
and business men of the United
States" 4 few of the pertinent pass
ages are quoted, that, coming from
such a source and being an admission
of disputed political declarations
comes with peculiar emphasis at this
time:
at became necessary in 1861 to have
money for the conduct of the war
The spirit of patriotism was too strong
to permit the guidance Of selfish
personal interest If it had not been
for the exegencies of the nation in its
hour Of danger, we might still be Ia
boring with some offshoot of the wild,
cst-banking idea But money was
needed in quantity and Immediately
and the result was the issue of a gov
erDmeUf DOte with the full wealth of
the country behind it.
aThere is little doubt that had this
issue been stamped as full legal ten
der its value would have spproximated
gold at the most serious crises of the
war. But the mistake was made of q
government discrediting its own notes
by refusing to receive them as legal
payment for its own custom dues, and
the doubt thus cast upon them was
taken full advantage of by those whose
fortunes we're being made by fuctu-
ating values"
On the subject of per capita there is
this foot note.
"In future legislation, an important
advantage would be gained if the
amount per capita of legal tender
could be fixed for a period of, say ten
OF twenty years; the treasury depart
ment altering the volume, under the
law, in obedience to the change in pop
ulation. An element of stability would
be thus impaired, Of the utmost con-
sequence in preserving values.
Congress has been accustomed to
guess blindly at the volume of cur
rency required. Let stability and ad-
equacy be given to our financial sys-
TEN, and it is within the power of all
classes of the American people to
make a comfortable living and aspire
to fortune.
"The teaching of the eleven panics,
this country has passed through,
should be sufficient to arouse the pub
lie mind to the supreme part which
the money question plays in the hap
piness Of a country. believe that
more lives have been sacrificed by
our eleven panics-thrOugh suicide and
physical breaking dOwn-than we're
lost in the War of the Rebellion, ten
times over.
"NO man is safe under existing con-
ditiOns. The most industrious and the
most conservative fall side by side
with the speculative and the reckless.
A currency that can be contracted at
the will of speculative clique, makes
disaster as certain as night following
day. There can be no safety to bust
ness, no values to property, no certain
ty Of employment, no permaent pros
perity of any kind without a scientif-
cslly designed currency system"
Another foot note has the following
on the contraction of the currency:
"The volume OF the currency was re-
duced by legislation from about sixteen
hundred millions, in 1856, to seven
hundred and twenty millions, in 1873
a ruthless proceeding which even the
most unframed mind should have rec
Ognized as certain to bring a panic.
That which followed came in 1873, as a
matter of course, and sufficiently ruin.
GUS to inculcate a lasting lesson; but
it did not"