| Show K 0 A by SAMUEL H BEACH president savings bank division american bankers association although the united states is today upon a solid gold basis we nevertheless ess know of our own knowledge what inflation means it would take long to recall in detail the bitter experiences which this nation suffered buffered during the J civil war and the years which followed e d it and in our present easy condition we might think S M H beach such buch conditions could never again arise but with such men as henry ford and thomas A edison talking about commodity money there Is no foretelling what may happen one of the plainest lessons taught by financial history Is that whenever a nation issues paper money with nothing back of it that nation Is on ohp th road to disaster look at russia with its worthless rubles and germany with its worthless marks think ot of what happened in france during the years immediately following our revolutionary lutio nary war the common people of france rose in their might tore down the bastile and made reprisal tor for centuries of kingly crime and oppression the profligate court had piled up taxes until they were unbearable the enraged populace killed king lous Louis XVI and also his queen marle antoinette but they only threw themselves out of the frying pan into the fire so far as finances were concerned unsound money tyranny at the very worst point of their cur rency inflation they found themselves under the absolute domination of rob in order to meet the grong scarcity of coin paper money c called ass ignats were issued first francs worth then were added with the distinct understanding der standing that the aou would id be the full extent of the issue this pledge was soon broken and further issues brought the total up to francs 41 frightful depredation depreciation was the ln in evitable result and legislation was passed making it a crime with six years imprisonment as the penalty it any one should refuse to take the paper ass ignats at their face value just juat think of it A french peasant after working the entire year to produce a crop crap was compelled by law to accept payment tor for that crop in paper money which he knew to be worthless or go to prison it was wag simply legalized robbery when the penalty was ln increased creased to twenty y years ears imprisonment the inevitable climax came the reign of terror was at its height was in supreme power he suggested that more ass ignats be issued and it if the people did not take them the guillotine should be the penalty Robes pierres end this unheard of outrage was more than the people could stand an unknown man arose on the floor of the convention and denounced robes pierre reciting the heinous crimes he had committed and so worked upon the feelings of the audience that t the h e tyrants tyrant became the convicted criminal two days later he was led to the guillotine france had learned her financial lesson well that money must have value back of it the fallacy of unsound money is sure to confront us again never is there enough of everything for all tho the people the struggle for existence is a real struggle and those who find themselves in the lower strata of human society are ready at any time to grasp at fiat money or any of the other things which misguided politicians hold out to them my aly whole purpose Is to drive home the tact fact that danger lies ahead and to urge every one to let no opportunity 9 go 0 by to use usa voice and influence toward keeping the wampum of these united states as it Is today ako tko th soundest currency in the world |
