Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1898-04-22
The Currency Question.
TWO GREAT HISTORIANS.
pies of Money-Saw That Quant1-
ty Controls Prices. r..

pies of Money-Saw That Quanti-
ty Controls Prices.
The fame of these great historians
is worldwide and will be familiar to the
people as long as any record of modern
civilization remains. They were both
distinguished writer's on political econ
omy as we'll as great, truthful and philo-
sophie historians. Hume said more
than a century ago:
eve find that in every kingdom into
which money begins to flow in greater
abundance than formerly, everything
takes new face; labor and industry
gain life; the merchant becomes more
enterprising; the manufacturer be-
comes more diligent and skillful; even
the farmer follows his pillow with great
er alacrity and attention.
"a nation whose money decreases is,
at times, weaker and more miserable
than another nation which possesses
no more money, but is on the increasing
hand. Falling prices and misery and
destruction are inseparable compan-
ions. The disasters of the dark ages
were caused by decreasing money and
falling prices. With the increase OF
money, labor and industry gather new
life"
Sir Archibald Alison had been en-
gagged for many years On a history of
Europe, when in 1915 falling prices &C.
casioned by the Spanish-American wars,
which cut off the supply of gold and sill
yer from Mexico and South America,
caused him to suspend his historical Ia
bors. He then devoted himself for IS
years to the discussion of the tariff,
banking and every other economic de-
vice to which the genius of man resorts
to avert the inevitable calamities which
always follow a shrinkage volume of
the legal tender money. In 1853, after
the gold from California and Australia
had relieved the universal distress
which a shrinkage volume of money
had produced and substituted hope,
prosperity and progress for despair,
want and misery, he renewed his his
torical labors TO record the phenomena
which the gold from California and
Australia produced In the full glare
of the wonderful light which was shed
upon economic questions by such a
change of monetary conditions as was
produced by the new discoveries, Sir
Archibald Alison, as a philosopher and
historian, said:
The two greatest events that have
occurred in the history of mankind have
been directly brought about by con
traction and, on the other hand, an ex-
pansion Of the circulating medium OF
society. -.
''The fall of the Roman empire, so
long ascribed, in ignorance, to slavery
egotism and moral corruption, was, in
reality, brought about by decline III
the silver and gold mines of Spain and
Greece. And, as if Providence had in
tended to reveal, in the clearest man.
ner, the influence of this mighty agent
on human affairs, the resurrection OF
mankind from the ruin which those
causes had produced was owing to di.
rectly opposite set Of agencies being
put in operation.
columbus led the way in the career
of renovation. When he spread his
sails across the Atlantic he bore man.
kind and it's fortunes in his bark. The
annual supply of the precious metals
for the use of the globe was tripled
Before a century had expired the price
of every species Of produce was quad.
rupled. The weight of debt and taxes
insensibly wore off under the influence
of that prodigious increase.
"In the renovation of industry the re.
lations of society were changed, the
weight of feudalism cast off, the rights
of man established. Among the many
concurrent causes which conspired tt
bring about this mighty consummatiop
the most important, though hitherto
the least observed, was the discovery OF
Mexico and Peru.
IF the circulating medium of the
globe had remained stationary, or de-
clining, as it was from 1915 to 1849, from
the effects of the South American revo'
luton and English legislation, thu
- fate which crushed Rome il
ancient, and has all but crushed Great
Britain in modern times, would have
been that of the whole family of man
kind. :;
"All these evils have been entirely OBJ
Waited, and an opposite set of blessings
introduced, by the opening Of the great
t Australia. & &lifGs2|e E,
|, -. $500 100 :. l.. - s-. J. =
Sixteen to One or Bust.
Sixteen to Ono or Bust means that
t49ee fQe4 2f humanity shall not prevail