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Show I pn !! leu In ily good. The 1D13 mort-K'Ko mort-K'Ko Is now ilue, "I), 0110 inail(,s mo to lu i;ild. Marks urn iiuoled 120,000 to t li o dollar. Twcnty-tluHiKand imirUs, one-slxlh of that, therefore) ciiiuil one silli of ti (lolliir, 1G 2 3 cents. On (ho theory that "u mark Is n mark," the debtor could wtpn olT his fa, 000 nioi-tKago for 1(5 2 3 cents, less than llui valno of a dozen eKK. That Is, he can unless tho pipe dream conies to n muhlen ond. Kor one thlnu llin (leniian courts aro nil-Iiir nil-Iiir that, tin) theoiy "a murk Is a mark" doesn't t;o, that a debtor has to K'va back a fair equivalent for what ho received re-ceived anil that pr-sent paper inarkB worth 120,000 to tho dollar nro not the fair eipilvalent. of former gold marks nt four to tho dollar. Furthermore nil plpo dreams (ire too pood to bo true. They nro not what they seem. Tho smoke Is wearing wear-ing off In Germany and thoy ore com-Ins com-Ins down to earth with a dull thud. It is besinnliiK to be realized that the net result of a paper money nightmare night-mare Is that producers are robbed and speculators enriched. Fnrmers are unable to raise prices for their products fast enough to keep up with the falling purchasing power of unsound un-sound money. The value of such money slips away f(om them like a handful of dry sand.. It brings back to them less In purchases than they gave of their products to get It. The farmer as a result can't make ends meet and when ho gets Into difficulties dif-ficulties the unsound money speculator specu-lator steps In and buys up mortgaged farm lands cheap and thus It Is mostly the speculator who profits by paying off the mortgages with currency cur-rency worth less than a dozen eggs, unless the courts stop him. More than that, If farm mortgage debt can be paid oft with almost worthless currency, so can corporations corpora-tions pay off their bonded debt, the bonds In which many a farmer's savings, sav-ings, and many a widow's and orphan's or-phan's inheritance, are Invested. Before the war. with marks worth 24 cents gold, the deposits of the thrifty In German savings banks were worth over five billion dollars. Today, although these deposits have multl-I multl-I plied many fold In terms of marks, their real value Is only about half a million dollars gold. That Is what a "loose money" plan does for common folks. ... Pipe dreams are wonderful while they last but shattered health, misery mis-ery and despair are the final penalty The ones who profit are the dope sellers. Unsound money Is a pipe dream and the penalty Is economic ruin, misery and despair for the majority. ma-jority. The ones who profit are the speculators. PAPER MONEY ; PIPE DREAMS By JOHN OAKWOOD Hitting the pipe seems like the i greatest way in the world to get something for nothing, a whole paradise para-dise fuil of joy for a few whin's of opium smoke. But ... By the way, the big lure about flat money is that it seems to promise about as much for nothing as a whiff on the pipe. They are just coming out of such a dream now in Germany. ... Here Is the way that German soft money dream goes. Say in 1913 a man put a ten year mortgage for 20,-000 20,-000 marks on his farm. Marks wtre then worth, In gold, about four to the dollar. The debt, therefore, was equivalent to about ?5,000. ... In the ten years since that debt was contracted, the Gorman Government has published, so to speak, trillions of paper marks. What happened? What would happen to the price of eggs if they had a hen at Washington laying a billion eggs a day, even if they put a government stamp on them saying eggs were worth a quarter a piece? German marks have gone down from four to the dollar to 120,000 te the dollar. ... Here Is where the pipe dream get |