The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1922-01-07


The craze for paper money ia like
any other craze. Once we'll under way
1t spreads like a prairie fire. Reason
can't stop II. II thrives on the mis-
fortune that It causes, grows strong
on the distress that 1t brings In its
train.
Gladstone once said paper money
had made more people insane than love.
Daniel Webster said paper money.
cheap paper money, was the cruelest
device known for coming the poor
mans sweat into rich mans dollars.
This. too, Is history.
It is too bad at time like this when
80 many hard-pressed men and women
are ready to seek relief in any pleas
ant deiusion that Mr.. Ford and MIR.
Edison will not read a few books ON
modern money before they lend their
names to a new greenback movement.
They would not have to go outside Of
Of facts.
Paper Money Disasters.
The old paper money Of the con-
federation that succeeds this republic
has filled volumes with the story of
It's disaster. So has the paper money
Of 1925. SO has the paper money Of
passed muster for a little time: then
brought ruin, wreck, poverty, collapse
and prostration TO business, enterprise
and vested fortunes.
There are many theories that such
things should not have been, need
not have happened: but they were.
and they did happen, not only In the
United States but in every other
country where the paper money de-
bauch was INDUCED. France has the
same experience as the United States.
only she suffered from 1t more keen
lily. One hundred and twenty-five
years ago Frenchmen were paying a
thousand paper dollars for a dinner
and q hundred paper dollars for a
candle. They had the same paper
money debauch that Russia has to.
day. Then came the collapse; nine
billions of so-called money blew out
OF sight almost over night, leaving
behind the financial confusion and
prostration which lasted until Ma
poleon ended 1t.
It Is like going to the tomb to go
back thus In financial history, but
there seems to be no help for II:
Nothing but the most seasoned and
enough TO knock the paper money
delusion in the head. Off and on
everybody gets II or some phase OF II.
Case OF Germany.
Think Of the number Of financiers
who, q year ago came back from
Germany with wonder stories OF how
Germany was prospecting with her
81, 0O0, 600, 900 or 10000, 00o, 200 paper
marks: how she was going to con-
auer the trade Of the world with her
paper money cost Of production and
her paper money wages: how her in
dustries were going to outstrip Eng
lands and Americas and enable her
to pay the reparations to France.
The high financiers who brought
back such reports. and 90 untnten-
tionally promoted the sale Of some
| q, zoo, 600 paper marks in the United
States, certainly were not Tar behind
Ford and Edison In their fantastic
ideas Of what paper money would do.
But what Of all their predictions
now7
Paper money IL running the same
disastrous course in Germany that It
has run three times in the United
States, that It has run in France,
that It 10 running In Austria and
Russia and many sualler countries
Of Europe today.
In Russia, for instance there IL
no doubt, II the full truth could be
known, that the paper money has
caused as much desolation and dis
truction as the blockade, the COL
, lapse of the railroads, or half the
industrial measures Of Lenin and
Trotzky.
There are q thousand reasons for
all this. Tho writer once devoted
three years to studying the history
Of money. and he did not read half
the books. The literature II vast.
and much Of It II a. technical as
anything ever written. But two or
three Of the reasons suggested by
Mr.. Mitchell are worth mentioning.
Money Must Have Value.
In the first place. money has got
to have some real value II II In used
to measure the value Of other things.
| One might al well try TO measure
calico by the peck and wheat by the
yard, az to measure the value and
price of calico or wheat with q strip
Of paper that has no value Of it,
own.
But q silver or gold dollar viii do
the work. A gold or silver dollar
has value, q paper dollar Of itself
hasn't, unless 1t II redeemable at q
bank or mint for gold or silver. A
paper dollar hasn't that value and
the mere say-so of q government In
Washington can't give that value.
|