Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-01-14
This AIdr1ch Currency is Not
Money.
fBy +. II. M,


Beware of the Greeks when bringing
gifts. is an ancient, if not absolutely
infallible, precaution and it may well
be applied to this emergency currency
proposition as now championed by the
legislative agent of Standard Oil-NeI-
son W. AIdrich.
1t might be well for the practical citi-
zen to just stop and consider-assum-
ing he calls himself Republican and
hence may feel under obligation to sup
port the measure of the chairman of the
Senate's finance committee and pre-
sumed, or rather assumed, leader of the
party in that body-before swallowing,
feathers and all, this bird OF relief was
Matched by the same interests that
brought on the distress.
Admitting that an emergency cur
rency is needed, is it exclusively for
those who create the emergency to pre-
scribe and manage the cure ?
c Except on the theory that it takes
thief to catch the thief, such surrender
of the control of the nations money is
clearly out of joint with every concep-
ton OF popular government in the in
terest of the people themselves
But why cannot our ideas upon cur-
rency get back to that original nation
alism of the party, the ground upon
which stood a Chase, Stevens and others
in conceiving the greenback and meet
ing with it the financial emergency of
saving this Union?
And right here let it not be forgotten
that the very leader then in congress,
Thad Stevens, denounced the Joker"
then foisted upon the greenback as
concession to those same financial
interests-depriving 1t of its legal ten
dor in hn nov ~ 6x.hf dr. ho
government.
What standing would any business
man give to the bank, or banker, who
would refuse its own cashiers checks"
say, in payment of loan due the same
bank
1t is this illegal tender feature of
money that financiers of the Aldrich
school absolutely ignore and very APP
propriately so, for them money is and
should be only their creature and SUBJ
ject to their every within or prejudice
no matter how arbitrary.
Suppose a working man or farmer
has mortgage coming due on his home
or farm and he has saved together the
money as he supposes, to pay it and
| has the same on hand or on deposit
| at the local or some outside bank. He
| tenders the amount in Aldrich currency
or certified check to the attorney. or
! money lender himself, on day of matur-
ity but is blandly told must have the
Gold And no gold to be had
Under this Aldrich idea of currency,
| you see, money" as he calls it, is for
the financiers only the common people
must hunt for the Shylocks that manip-
ulate the gold as a speculative COM
1 modify.
The intelligent reader readily sees
| that with this first step taken, pc pro-
/ posed in this Aldrich bill, to allow
banks to issue currency on their securi-
| ties-and the fact that certain kinds of
| securities only are specified in the bill
is mere humbug to deceive, for the
power that can push a bill such as this
| through congress can also pull Off
cials to construe the law as wanted
this will in times OF stringency be the
| only kind of currency current among
| the masses and the greenhack, legal
tender for all practical purposes, will
| pass out of circulation as well as gold
Both will become commodity rather
| than money.
| Besides, it should never be forgotten,
| that the Aldrich style of tinancier is the
| foe of the greenback and all these cur
rency schemes have the ultimate purpose
in view-its elimination and final repeal
as part of the currency of the nation.
And now, before going further, will
some friend of this Aldrichs "emerg-
ency' bill please tell why this 'emerg-
ency," where such exists, cannot as
safely rest with the government i. e.
the people, itselfs In other words,
why should not the government issue
its legal tender notes, lend these to the
banks-not TO Wall street ones exelu-
sively-that have the good collaterals
to put up, charging the same interest
| on the loan as is now proposed in tax
upon these Aldrich emergency bills
and which would send them back to
the treasury, for cancellation as the
emergency is over.
If we, as republicans, believe in the
sovereignty of this nation as definite
and practical central authority to meet
and adjust the wants of progressive
people as whole, and which cannot in
| their very nature be reached by the
| local states, should we not stand up to
man for national currency, issued
aud guaranteed by the nation itself and
not subject to dictatien: manipulation
or deception by juggling interests"
impractical cranks or statesmen that
bow to the CLINT of gold-as Gen Bragg
| put 1T.