The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-05

on times as much IS existed Was solu in Wall street alone. The same 9lo' is substantially true of wheat c'i ' and all other staple products ~ to the pretended sales of railroaa' illd"s- trial. and mining shares, the nall'era- i5inn toble is staggered in any attempt to state it.
 Almost the whole of this trading IS not only useless but is pure gaihpiiiis' and largely witl loaded dice IL mas undermined the respect for business honesty among our people anu n'. work a very marked degradalioh oi the national moral sense m all uiree- tions.
 To finance this gambling the legiu- mate business of the country IS sdcll- feed, The reserves of country pdllhs are drawn into the whirlpool ana loah- ed. The money of life insurance colh- panies has been appropriated An un- necessary accumulation of two nun dred and fifty millions in the national treasury by taxation, has been loaned to pet blanks without interest to De re-loaned at emergency rates A com plaisant administration has issued bonds and sold them to these banks, depositing the purchase money paek where 1t came from. with q net result that the banks had more bonds on which to issue more banknotes, And now the further remedy these men propose is that they be authorized to put up such other miscellaneous bonds | 1Iot n7ll keeping the ownership and interest of course. and issue lot of new money whenever. because of a scarcity Of chips that cramps the game, they can eXtort a rate of interest greater than the tax.
 These men know something of the technicaltles of banking and are eN- pert at gambling into their own pock- cts value that others have earned. In the vocabulary of statesmanship and government administration they are no more entitled to be called financiers than the stone breakers of Sing Sing are to be called geologists. They ieer and scoff at the teachings of instruc- tors in economies and monetary sci- ence in the institutions of learning of the whole civilized world. They are mainly responsible for the newspaper made notions of finance so prevalent in the Eastern States
 There are approximately six thous- and millions of pennyweights of gold in use as money. 1t Is an amount of gold greater than would be required in the arts in a hundred years. This mass of gold rises and falls in value as the pressure of the need of money against the supply of money changes. Anyone can take from this mass of gold if he wishes to use any in the arts. II will cost him just what the gold is worth for use as money Any one can put gold into this mass if he has any to dispose of. and he will get fl just what it is worth for use as money Every goldsmith and jeweler for thousand years has known that the cost of using gold in the arts. that Is, the sacrifice of labor or property that he must make to obtain it, de- bends upon the value of money, and changes continually These so-called
 lnanciers have proclaimed with end ,ess vituperation that this ever-chang-
 ne value of gold does not fix the cost # using gold in the art. On the con
 rary, they have proclaimed that gold !as q definite value of it's own AS |
 etal, fixed for it by the insignificant
 emand for it for art uses ana tnal
 is definite Valno can he noin.
 and incorporated into contracts by
 ,ference
 Gold has had no value of that sort during historic time. These
 harlatans have believed. or pretended to believe that it has such value and that if it Is thus pointed at and called standard of value" futile promises to pay 1t can be made indefinitely credit be ex- banded without limit, and general :, financial riot he engaged in with i'm . punitN
 Our financial system is such as might be expected from men who can imagine such an unrcalitv as a stan , dard of value lt is eXcellcntlv nt- . ted to produce an endless succession of booms and pancs. IL Is such as . ignorance and greed combined with an overpowering instinct for gam E, bling and speculation. would he sure 10 dfeyise to lure the unwary into !, vain and costly efforts to get some thing for nothing At its best it is I only condition of unstable cuuili- . brium
 What can be done with it? Such as , it is, it is the mechanism by which af- tf~ foe !, .l.- F tribute our productions We cannot dispense with it and have nothing. We $ cannot puncture this balloon of credit f without unspeakable disaster We , cannot have q huge central bank and , have any political liberty left The !. money oligarchy as a mass of unor- , sani2ed units is dangerous enough to e self government by the people With , a central bank of issue and discount s governed br individuals. however de , signated, government of the country by it's money instead of by It's people would he fixed and final Financial 5 stability, if it could he gained. is not worth having al that price It would be plutocracy onthroned
 The privilege of issuing "emergen- ~ moneN' for a profit. asked for by r certain banks, is so wicked that it , ought to be condemned as soon as , stated. The issuance of treasury notes as an emergency measure is , not much better Both are measures , of imitation and would equally provoke 7 redemption and gold export. If the l imitation were not thus gcneralized over the rest of the world it would f still he infatism at home. Prices f would rise proportionately and the Q relative scarcity of money would re- main as before There is no road out that way
 Mucl ,f .bo preeor4 -o,,h1i,,- .,,d