NEBRASKA AND LINCOLN’S MONUMENT.
Fremont, Neb.
To settle a dispute, state whether Nebraska voted $500 toward the National Lincoln Monument at Springfield, Ill., and then took it back, or refused to pay it over to the Monument Association.
A. C. F.
Answer.—By an act approved Feb. 15, 1869, the Legislature of Nebraska appropriated $500 “to aid in the construction of the National Lincoln Monument at or near Springfield, Ill.” In September, 1882, when visiting the monument, the Hon. Isham Reavis, of Falls City, Neb., who voted for this appropriation, learned incidentally from Mr. J. C. Power, the custodian, that the Association had never received the money. On his return to Nebraska he went to Lincoln, and by examination of the Auditor’s books found that the $500 had never been remitted, and that in due time it had by operation of law been covered back into the treasury with other unexpended balances. With the hearty co-operation of the Hon. C. H. Gere, of the Nebraska State Journal, who as a member of the Senate had participated in the act of appropriation, Judge Reavis induced leading members of the last Legislature to revive the appropriation. The Legislature of New York had set an example some time before by the reappropriation of the $10,000 which it had voted to the monument, but which had been permitted to lapse before it had been called for. Having been informed that the monument was then about complete, that the association was not in debt, and that the receipts from visitors for admission to the monument pay all current expenses, but that if the Nebraska appropriation was paid over it would be used in embellishing the nine acres of ground surrounding the monument, the Legislature, on or about Feb. 23, 1883, reappropriated the original amount of $500. After all, therefore, Nebraska has a share in this splendid memorial to the immortal Lincoln.
LOW TARIFF AND FIAT MONEY.
Emporia, Kan.
Your reply to J. R. Thompson has awakened in my mind a desire to know more about the Japanese currency and financial conditions. What led to the issue of the Japanese “fiat money,” as you call it? Was this paper money “convertible?” What was it based on? When was it redeemable, and how? What was the financial standing of the government at the time, and what is it now?