The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-05-15
PRESS IMITATION
The Deadly Parallel
Excerpt, from Fiat Money Imitation in France" =
BIZ ANDhEW DIIhoO4N W1I11E
published By ID. Appleton Century Company


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DR1cEs of everything we're again enhanced
L save one thing and that one thing was
labor.
Strange as it may at first appear, while the
depreciation of the currency had raised AT
products enormously in price. the stoppage OF so
many manufactures and the withdrawal OF capl-
tai caused wages in the summer Of 1872 after all
the imitation to be as small as they had been
four years before.
No more striking example can be seen OF the
truth uttered by Daniel Webster. that of all the
contrivances for cheating the laboring classes OF
mankind none has been more effective than that
which deludes them with paper money
The consequences of these overiSsues now
began to be more painfully evident TO the people
at large Articles of common consumption be-
came enormously dear and prices were con-
stantly rising. orators now endeavored to en-
tighten people by assigning every reason for this
depreciation save the true one.
They acclaimed against the corruption of the
ministry the want of patriotism among the
moderates. the intrigueS of the emigrant mobiles,
the hard heartedness of the rich, the monopo-
zing spirit of the merchants, the perversity of
the shopkeepers-each and all Of these as causes
of the difficulty.
The washerwomen Of Paris, finding soap so
dear that they could hardly purchase it, insisted
that all the merchants who were endeayoring to
save something of their little property by refusing
to sell their goods for the wretched currency
with which France was flooded, should be pun
shed with death Marat declared loudly that
The people, by hanging shopkeepers and plumber
ing stores, could easily remove the trouble.
THE result was that on Feb. %, 1893, in the
Il evening mob of men and women in dis
guise began plundering the stores and shops Of
Paris. At first they demanded only bread; soon
they insisted coffee and rice and sugar; at
last they seized everything on which they could
lay their hands-coth, clothing groceries and
luxuries of every kind.
This was endured for six hours and finally
order was restored only by grant of seven mil
lion francs to buy off the mob The new political
economy was beginning to bear it's fruits luxur-
iantly
And now was seen, taking possession of the
nation, that idea which developed so easily out
of the f1at-money systematic idea that the
ordinary needs of government may be legiti-
mately met wholly by the means of paper cur
rency-that taxes may be dispensed with. AS
a result, it was found that the assignat printing
press was the one resource left to the govern
ment, and the increase in the volume of paper
money became every day more appalling.
All this vast chapter in financial folly is
sometimes referred to as if it resulted from the
direct action of men utterly unskilled in finance.
This is a grave error That wild schemers and
dreamers took leading part in setting the fat
money system going is true; that speculation and
interested f1nanciers made it worse is also true.
But the men who had charge of French
finance during the Reign Of Terror and who
made these experiments were universally recog
nized as among the most skillful in Europe. The
disastrous results show how powerless are the
most sklful masters of finance to stem the tide
of fiat money calamity when once it is fairly
under Roadway.