Year: 1878

said ITO me there appears to be none
IN it. Tis but stripping it of the cant
which all men that talk Of it involve it
In, and there is nothing easier. Lay BY
the arbitrary names of pence and shiIl-
ings and consider and speak of grains
and ounce of silver, and tbs as easy as
telling twenty Value, he said, depend
ed upon the consent of commercial na-
tons Pure silver or gold was of equal
value for equal weights in London or
Peru No government could increase'or
diminish the commercial price of a
pound Of silver. But there was one thing
they could do; they could debase their
currency by that means they might in
Jure their own subjects and DESTROY the
prosperity of their country. He paints
the evils of debased currency in Ian
guage that describes with singular ex
actness the effect of the long rule of de-
preciated paper money upon the agrieul-
ture and trade of the Southern and
Western States. Mature" he says, "has
bestowed mines on several parts of the
world, but their riches are only for the
industrious and the frugal" A clipped
currency makes a nation poor England
loses one-third the value of every COM
modify it sells to foreigners so long as it
uses bad money. "And this robbing of
England Of near one-third of the value
of the commodities we send out will
continue while the people had rather
receive guineas as thirty shillings than
silver coin mo other being to be had)
that is not worth half what they take it
for" Silver was the common currency
In Lockes time-gold had not yet be-
come the standard of value-and depre-
ciated or clipped silver had nearly prov
ed the ruin of the country. Il do not
SEE" he says "how in little while we
shall have any money or goods at all left
in England" if the deprecated coin is
suffered to circulate.


1t is in this way that the Southern and
Western States have been drained of
their money and their goods by the long
prevalence of a depreciated paper cur
rency, and foreign nations have grown
rich by our folly and misfortunes. They
have left the farmer no money, no goods,
a great many debts, doubtful future.
The industrial class suffers because it
has consented to take bad money; the


ichest regions of Kansas and Minnesota,
Georgia or Texas, have been impoyer-
ished by trade that was never in their
favor. Agriculture has long been an
unsatisfactory business, because its mar
row range Of profits has been swept away
by the various evils of an inflated cur
rency. Our silver and gold have gone
to other countries, our commerce is
nearly lost. Foreign merchants hold
most of our trade. With a good cur
rency the West and the South might
have engrossed the wealth Of Liverpool
and London with bad, they must lose
steadily their money and their goods
until not all the bounty of nature, nor
the richest harvests, nor the most pro-
life mines will save them from the re-
suits Of a false financial policy. Hap
PLY it seems their people are beginning
to feel their danger. 1t is not unlikely
that the West and South will yet be the
strongest advocates for an honest cur
rency. and demand payment from En-
gland and the world in good money for
all their varied products, and this will
in future be the only American, the re-
publican system of finance"


| EUGENE LAWRENCE.