A If
10 Conservative *
MONEY THAT STAYS AT HOME.
Men of far more than the average of
intelligence and education and experi
ence arc curiously susceptible to the
sophistry which argues that a currency
that stays at homo possesses great ad
vantages over other money , especially to
poor localities. That money in the "West
and South runs away to Now York or to
Europe is a complaint made by persons
of whom a better knowledge of the na
ture and functions of money might have
been expected.
If a man of great wealth and widely
known should write checks against his
bank account to an aggregate of § 1,000-
000 ho could easily spend this amount of
his wealth , because his checks would be
readily accepted. But if ho were of
"sound and disposing mind" ho would
get in return for those checks property
of equal or greater value , and if he had
§ 1,000,000 less of money he would have
at least § 1,000,000 more of property. It
would bo his own fault if his money
went away from home without bringing
its owner full value. But if a man of
no means or unknown wrote his checks
for § 1,000,000 ho would have no diffi
culty in keeping the entire issue , and if
it were any satisfaction to him he could
enjoy the reflection that he always had
§ 1,000,000 with him ; he would always
have it because ho could not part
with it.
This is no travesty ; it is a perfectly
fair and pertinent illustration of the
money that will not go away from
homo. If Minnesota or Mississippi has
a currency that stays at homo why
should not each county have a currency
that would not go beyond its boundaries ,
and each town would bo entitled to the
same blessing , if blessing it were , and
obviously each individual has the same
interest that each group of individuals
has in a currency that ho can not part
with.
Everyone can see that a currency that
the individual cannot part with is of no
use to him , but proportionately the same
is true of the currency that will not go
from a town , a county or a state. Of
course the idea lying back of this praise
of a currency that stays at homo is that
trade at home is more profitable than
trade at a distance. This may bo , but if
a currency will not go away from home
it is because people away will not accept
it ; in other words , it is of less efficiency
in making purchases than money that
anyone will take because it is good
everywhere. Under the famous "Suf
folk bank" regime there were Now Eng
land banks that refused to keep their
notes redeemable in Boston. The first
effect of this was that the notes stayed
at homo ; the second was that they could
not bo kept in circulation at homo be
cause every man who received money
insisted on money that was good in
Boston.
Money is that part of a person's or a
community's wealth which is used in ef
fecting exchanges. If there arc few ex
changes to effect there is little need of
money. In no case is it to the advan
tage of the person or the comnmnity to
have any more of his or its wealth in the
shape of money than is necessary to
effect the exchanges ; enough for that
there will always be and more than that
it is wasteful to maintain , because the
surplus can bo better employed in some
other form. Money that will not go
away from homo is money that is im
perfectly qualified for performing the
only function that money has to per
form. To admire money that will not
circulate is like admiring a gun that will
not shoot ; it may bo perfectly safe , but
it is also perfectly useless.
In regard to the national bank cur
rency , the complaints of the West and
South have some foundation in the ex
isting law. The permission to banks to
keep portions of their reserve in the
banks of the reserve cities does lead to
accumulations of currency in the great
money markets. If this ought to bo
remedied a very little legislation would
do it , but the thing complained of is that
a bank which has a large quantity of
money on hand sends a part of it to a
place where it can , perhaps , get it em
ployed and receive 1 or 2 per cent for it ,
and sometimes a little more. The rem
edy for this is to compel the bank to
keep idle funds in its vaults unless it
can find people at homo to borrow them.
Iron Age , November 10 , 1898.
Reconstruction
"fterthocivilwar
by the republican
party led it to commit an atrocious
wrong when it amended the constitution
and enacted laws which clothed the ex-
slave with equal power with the white
man at the ballot box. The despicable
motive to this imposition of negro rule
over conquered states and people was to
perpetuate its own power in control of
the nation , and the terrible consequences
are in the ready memory of tens of thous
ands of living men. Universal riot and
ruin , and the destruction of everything
which governments are created to preserve -
serve , protect and promote resulted in
the worst forms of anarchy and misrule
in all the Southern states and communi
ties. Peace and order did not como
until the white people of those states
made it known and understood that they
would have a government of white men
or military rule. The conscience of the
North began to see the infamous outrage
which had been caused by the negro
equality policy and speedily abandoned
its military support by the federal
power. But AVO are still gathering its
fruit blood , as is shown in the late out
breaks in the Carolinas , where the negro
in the hands of bad men have driven
men of property and character in sheer
desperation for the protection of their
homes and welfare , to resort to violence
to put down the uogro , and the presi
dent is , as in duty bound , trying to as
certain what he is going to do about it.
THE CONSERVATIVE takes occasion to
say that laws for giving ignorant negroes
equal power with white men in the
states in which negroes gain control of
local or state governments can never bo
enforced. There is a higher law of race
which makes this much an eternal cer
tainty , no matter what the constitution
and the laws may say about U. There
is not an Anglo-Saxon community or
state in all Christendom that would sub
mit to such an intolerable condition of
things for a day under any possible cir
cumstances.
The present sys-
ELECTION TICKETS.
tern by which
elections nro made expousivo and farcical
ought to be abolished by the coming
legislature of Nebraska.
The ballots are now the size of table
spreads. The law is so constructed and
construed that a man running as a sil
ver republican , a silver democrat and a
silver populist shall have his name three
times printed on the same bed blanket ,
table spread , or floor rug.
The present election law should bo
amended or repealed and one enacted
which will cost less and be less cumber
some.
Registration in all cities of Nebraska
except Omaha and Lincoln ought to bo
abolished. Registration in smaller
towns is an expensive method of feeding
a few additional tax eaters.
Nebraska needs a very plain and eas
ily understood statute governing elec
tions. Nebraska needs not the Austral
ian ballot. Nebraska could vote , old
style ( uiva voce ) , by voice and each citi
zen call out aloud in the presence of iiis
fellows the names of the candidates
whom ho supports and have a purer
election than under any ballot system.
But while not advocating the viva vocc
method , TIIE CONSERVATIVE merely de
mands a less expensive , fairer , less cum
bersome and more convenient provision
for gathering up the ballots of the citi
zens of Nebraska when elections are
held.
An election under the present law and
with the enigmatical and 8 x 10 ticket is
expensive and unsatisfactory.
The untimely ,
AN OBITUARY.
and , as some people
ple probably think , wholly improper po
litical death of Senator Allen , came as a
severe and unexpected blow to his many
admirers in our state. The distressing
part of it is that this very able and mod
est statesman has no reasonable hope of
resurrection. The chief mourner at the
grave of Mr. Allen is an eminent citi
zen of Lincoln and Cuba , whoso grief
amounts to a "rooted sorrow , " which ,
it is believed , began to root long before
the sad event which it is the benevolent
purpose of this paragraph to commem
orate.