The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1909-05-21
THE DEBT WE OWE TO PAPER
MONEY

When the tocsin of war is sounded
and the earth feels the tread of arm
ed battalions, gold Immediately seeks
a hiding place, and never shows its
face again until the atmosphere is
cleared away, and the waters, so to
speak, are no longer disturbed.
1t is only when peace is declared
that gold dares to emerge from its
hiding place and enter into the chan
nels of trade, and even then paper
money performs ninety per cent. of
the worlds financial transactions.
Paper is essentially the money of
civilization
AS the yeomanry of the land takes
its place in the ranks when real fight
ing is to be done, so paper money
faces the conflict and rides the storm
of war
During our revolutionary struggle
millions and millions of paper money
was issued by those who directed that
momentous affair, and had this mon
ey not been issued we would still be
dependencies of the British crown.
Paper money kept Washington and
his soldiers in the field for seven ,ong
years and largely through its instru-
mentality our liberties were achieved.
During these seven eventful years
not a gold sovereign was in circula-
ton.
And what part did paper money
perform in the crisis of the sixties?
We quote an extract from the
speech of the editor of this paper
made before the Bankers Association
at Live Oak:
Il shall cite the government of the
Confederacy. Even before its organi-
cation it was showered with shot and
shell. 1t was called, and properly
called, the storm Graded nation
What did it do? There was but one
thing for it to do, and it did that. 1t
Immediately put its printing presses
to printing money and kept them
steadily at it from its beginning to its
close. There was nothing back of
this money but the love and loyalty
of the people, but it enabled the gov
eminent TO put vast armies into the
field and it enabled it to supply those
armies with all the munitions of war.
This money, cheap and worthless as
| ii was, enabled the government to
keep those armies in the field for
more than four years. Without it, it
could not have moved hand nor foot.
Not only was the government able to
/ buy ali it wanted with this money,
but the individuals were alike fOrtu-
nate. There was nothing that it could
not buy. 1t took a great deal of it, it
is true, but everybody had a great
deal of it. So what was the odds?"
Besides doing what is here narrat-
ed, what else followed the issue of
these tremendous sums of paper mon
ey? Why, every species of property
increased in value. especially at the
north, and although the war was in
progress poverty was almost abolish
ed.
City property in some places, thrib-
bled and Quadrup!ed in value, and it
was nothing unusual for farms to in
crease from ten to fifty dollars per
acre, and when peace was declared
these prices held intact, and good
times flourished until the cry went
forth for the return to specie pay
ments," and the politicians of the
country took it upon themselves to
appease this little aristocratic yellow
god.
What application did we make of
thus referring to paper money at Live
Oak? That the state ought to issue
its bonds or promises to pay" and
build good roads
Along this line we made the fol-
lowing remarks:
Living under the freest and most
benign government in the world. and
in the most favored state of the coun-
try, we ought to do something for the
good of our own people and for pos
terity, to let the world know thai we
had an existence.
/ Let me cite you an extract that
will tell you of what the aborigines
of this country did long before Co
lumbus discovered it. The extract is
from Chambers Encyclopedia:
The greatest highway of the
! country was that which led from
Quito through Cuzco into the
Gillian dominions. In it's con-
structiOn galleries were cut for
leagues through the living rock:
rivers were crossed by bridges of
plated osiers that swung i'm the
air; precipices were assembled bv
Staircases artificially cut, and val
leys were filled with solid mason
~. 1t was from 1900 to 1000
miles long. was about 90 feet
broad, and was built of heavy
flags of freestOne. *Fresh
fish caught one day at Lurin. on
the Pacific. is said to have been
/ eaten the next day at Cuzco. The
distance between these places is
I 300 miles
Taking inspiration from these ear
ly inhabitants. let us emulate their