People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1896 — Words of Greeley. [ARTICLE]

Words of Greeley.

In the American Year-Book and Register for 1869 was an article on “Currency and Finance,” by Horace Greeley. Two paragraphs sketched with a master hand the effect upon industry and commerce of a diminution of the supply of gold and silver money. They are as follows: Rome, having absorbed the then civilized world, and having, by the introduction or toleration of slavery, degraded labor and discouraged industrial progress, the discovery of mines and the production of the precious metals nearly ceased; while the luxurious tastes and habits of the wealthy impelled a continual importation of silks, spices, etc., from India and China, which took little but gold and silver in return. The circulating medium of exchanges and payments being thus insensibly drawn away and not replaced, the Roman empire languished under a growing dearth of money and a steady decline of prices. As fixed property constantly depreciated in value, those who bought on credit were tco often unable to pay at maturity, and so sank into hopeless insolvency. Hence, labor lacked employment, since few chose to plant, or build or improve when the resulting property would be worth less than its cost. Population, wealth, prosperity, all declined and dwindled under the combined influence of labor in shackles and enterprise and business devoid of money wherewith to employ and pay that which was still free. And, though the silent progress of Christianity, the fruits of successive

irruptions ana conquests by barbarians, and the pressure of general poverty and wretchedness, combined to wear out slavery, scarcity of money still weighed upon the energies of Europe, down to the close of the fifteenth century. The discovery of America by Columbus, and the consequent rapid and vast increase of money, wrought a great hnd sudden revolution. Prices appreciated: those who bought, or built, or in any manner improved, were almost always able to sell at an advance upon cost. Labor was no longer a drug upon the market, but in eager demand at prices beyond precedent, yet steadily augmented. The energies of the civilized world received an unwonted stimulus, and wealth was increased and comfort diffused as they never before had been.