The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-29

oNLY poWER no HIlRr.

In any consideration of the money
question: in whatever form it is pre-
scented, it can be laid down as an in
variable rule that the unwarranted as
sumption by government Of power to
make money, or whatever is used for
money, a legal tender, or to establish
arbitrary ratios and back them with
legal tender acts, is always uniformly
injurious whenever conditions give eff
feet to the act. When those conditions
do not exist, the law is of neither coed
nor harm; it is simply inert It's pres
ence in the laws of a republic is one
of those not infrequent but surprising
survivals, amid free institutions, of the
most oppressive and despotic acts Of
unlimited power ruthIessly exercised.
And yet, so firmly is it fixed in the ira
dictionary habits Of men, that to ques-
ton its right or beneficence is regard
ed as rank heresy or the crazy notion
Of an unbalanced mind.
One need not go back to the historical
experiences of nations which have
suffered from the acts of legal
tender to find ample demonstra-
ton Of the accuracy of the
proposition that such acts are never
forceful except when their operation
will work injury to the people, on whom
they lay their heavy hands No one
who passed through that dismal period
from the close of our War of the Re
bellion to the resumption of specie pay
ments, with it's inanciering such as
any malevolent spirit would devise that
was intent on mischief, need be told
how fortunes were wrecked, and pro-
ducers and consumers alike plundered.
while the 38-cent dollar in paper was
being forced back to par. And surely
no one who recalls those gloomy days
will ever grant his consent to any
proposition that will be followed by a
repetition of them.
He who would learn how these acts
operate when conditions are such as TO
allow them to be active at all can find
his lesson writ plain and large for him
today in Cuba He can find the legal
tender act there clothed with a power
with which our congress never dared
endow it, even when gamblers were
playing shuttlecock with gold and
greenbacks in the gold room in Wall
street in the SOS. It has back of if
the terrors of the dungeon and the
point of the bayonet. 1t is worth our
While, when so many persons in our
own country are yet deluded with the
IDEA that there are no limits to the
power of government, to study the ex-
ercise Of the most potent powers of
government used to prevent the de-
probation Of its paper money, right at
our doors, and the results of that use,
Some months ago, pressed for
money, the captain general authorized
the Spanish Bank Of Havana to issue
$4O,OOOOOO Of its notes, called "billetes.'
redeemable zen metalico," or coin.
which he used in payment Of supplies
and to pay his troops. BY the time
$2O,0OO,OO0 Of these had been thus forced
into circulation doubts. based on former
experience, arose as to the redemption
of the notes, and under the suspicion
they gradually fell in value until the
discount was 25 to 80 per cent. Those
receiving them naturally wished to ex-
change them for more stable money
and there came into being the money
changers who bought billetes and sold
gold and silver. Foreign exchange.
bought to pay for imported goods. rose
as the paper Fell, and carried prices I'M
with it. The Spanish bank, to protect
Its metallic money, began to limit its
redemptions and sales Of exchange for
paper until recently no more than 500
IN silver could be obtained by one per-
son IN any one day.
Then tho captain general brought the
dungeon TO reinforce his former eiict
that everybody should accept the bill
Iefes IT par with silver. Whoever de-
preciated the notes should be tried for
treason; whoever refused to accept