The Saint Paul globe., 1897-04-19
tial struggle are subsiding and reason

tial struggle are subsiding and reason
is resuming her sway.
AS the admitted and inevitable re-
suit of the success of the policy pro-
posed at Chicago and st. Louis would
be the substitution Of silver for gold
as the standard, with the consequent
use Of the latter as the measure of
values and the exclusive use Of the
former as the medium Of exchange,
we would have a repetition of condi-
tons with which every man whose
experience goes back to the period
from 1862 to 1878 is familiar. Then
we abandoned the use Of gold as cur
rency and replaced it with greenbacks,
which, under the influence Of distrust
of their redemption, fell in value,
caused the disappearance of metallic
money and became the sole currency
Of the country. Such always has been
the result of the Introduction Of
cheap" money, and such it will al
ways be as long as human nature re-
mains subject to it's present universal
motives Of self-preservation The men
who went through that trying period,
and especially the painful, destructive
process of lifting the deprecated mon
ey up to the level Of the money Of re-
demption need not be reminded of
its miseries. But there has come
generation since, increased by immi-
grafton, which knows nothing of it
and its lessons, and nothing of the
tremendous cost Of a deprecated cur
rency. For these it is well to tell
what that cost was
Mr.. Wesley c. Mitchell, in the Jour
nal Of Political Economy, has given
us calculations of the cost resulting
from the decrease in value, or rather
! in purchasing power, of the green
backs, shown in the rise of price Of
articles whose exchange was effected
by the money their value measured by
gold and their price stated in terms
Of paper. Taking the average Of prices
of commodities in 1860 as 100 he finds
that the price level, in paper, by 1862
1908 in 1864 and to 216.S in 1865, more
than doubling in four years. The in
! creased cost in expenditures Of the
government resulting from this he
estimates at over $50O,OOO But, while
| the effects were universal, they bore
hardest on the soldiers who were Of
fer1ng their lives to save the Union,
while receiving scanty wages in a cur
rency that purchased, either for them
| selves or families, ever less and less.
The $13 month they received in 1862
would buy but $40 worth of commodi-
| ties in 1862, but $3.50 worth in Decem-
Der, 1863, and by April, 1864, but $3.50
| worth. Then congress rejected a prop
| osition to pay them $13 a month in
| gold or its equivalent in paper and
raised the wage to SIG a month, whose
| specie value in May was SO. The fall
continued until in July, 1864, the pur-
| chasing power of the S16 was only
equal to $6.19 in gold. With the victo-
ries of that month the paper value
| Increased until at the end of the year
| SIG in greenbacks would buy ST of
commodities at their gold value, and
| by May of the following year 81 80
! worth. During the summer, when the
army was disbanded, the purchasing
! power had fallen to about $11. Every
/ old soldier recalls those days when
lis wages remained stationary while
prices stated in greenbacks went
climbing up, and when he would be
told that the price would be half or
less if he could pay in coin. The
descent to a deprecated currency
/ then had the excuse of a civil war;
how can any one urge another de-
scent now in time of peace?