Imperialism in America; Its Rise and Progress (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. MONEY VOLUME. AS before stated, by controlling money, land and transportation it is an easy matter to control the labor of a people. The first step is to gain control of the money; with power to inflate or contract it at pleasure. With this power all other sources of wealth are at the command of the money monger, who by producing a scarcity of his commodity is enabled to seize upon them at such prices as he may dictate. In order to show the effects which a scarcity of money has on the condition of a people permit me to call your attention to the diminution in our volume of money, commencing with the contraction act of 1866 and continuing to the present time. To illustrate we will compare the condition of the people in the year 1866--when we had the largest per capita circulation--with their present condition, the per capita circulation being reduced according to Senator Plumb to less than one-fifth that of 1866; we will also note a few of the laws that have been enacted during these years and the relation which they bear to the increasing poverty and crime of the country. Before entering upon this comparison we wish to state a premise which can be substantiated, and which we ask you to keep steadily in view. It is this--scarcity of money causes prices to fall, low prices produce poverty and poverty means misery, ignorance, degradation and crime. Now we do not ask you to accept these premises upon our authority, but we call as a witness John A. Logan, who in a speech made in 1874 in speaking of the depressed condition of the country and the increase of poverty and crime said "This trouble is a money famine and nothing more." Again W. H. Crawford, secretary United States treasury in 1820, said "All intelligent writers on...