The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1856-07-17
WHOLE NUMBER SIS
others are able TO weather the storm, he can
scarcely procure the means of bare subsis-

scarcely procure tho means of bare subsis-
! tence.
/ Again, sir: who, do you suppose, held ths
greater part of the worthless paper Of the
one hundred and sixty.fve broken banks To-
which have referredl Certainly Il was
not the keen and wary Spectator, who snuifS
danger from afar. If you were to make the
search, you would find more broken bank
notes in the cottages of the laboring poor
than any where else. And these miserable
shinPlasters, where are they After the
revulsion Of 1897, luborers were glad to oh.
tain employment on any terms; and they
often received it upon the express condition
that they should accept this worthless trash
in payment Sir, an entire suppression of
all bank notes OF lower denomination than
the value OF one weeks wages, of the la.
boring man is absolutely necessary for HE
protection. He ought always to receive his
wrges in gold and silver. or all men on
the earth, the laborer is most interested In
having sound and stable currency.
All other circumstances being equal, I
agree with the Senator from Kentucky that
that country is most prosperous where labor
demands the highest wages. do not, how.
ever, mean by the terms "highest wages"
the greatest nominal amount. During the
Revolutionary war, one days work com.
manded hundred dollars of continental
paper; but this would scarcely have purchas.
ed II breakfast. The more proper expires.
sion would be. to say that the county 10
most prosperous where labor demands the
greatest reward; where one days labor will
procure not the greatest nominal amount of
deprecated currency, but most of the neces.
saries and comforts of life. II, therefore,
you should, In some degree. reduce the nom.
inal price paid for labor, by reducing the
amount OF your bank issues within reasona.
BILE and safe limits, and establishing metal.
tic basis for your paper circulation would this
injure the luborer Certainly not; because
the price of the necessaries and comforts of
life are reduced in the same proportion, and
he will b. able to purchase more of them
for dollar in a sound state of the currency,
than he could have done, in the days of ex.
travagant expansion, for dollar and quar-.
ter. 80 far from injuring, it will greatly
benefit the laboring man. 1t will enure TO
him constant employment and regular pri.
ces, paid in sound currency, which. of all
things, he ought most to desire; and It will
save him from being involved in ruin by a
recurrence of those periodical expansions
and contrac,ions Of the currency, which have
hitherto convulsed the country. sal e.
The sound state ofthe currency will have
another most happy effect upon the laborina
man. lie will receive his wages in gold
and silver: and this will induce him to Law
up for future use, such portion of them as
he can spare, after satisfying his Immediate
wants. This he will not do at present, be.
cause he knows not whether the trash which
he is now compelled to receive as money.
will continue to be of any value week or
Il month hereafter. A knowledge of this
fact tends TO abolish economy from his dwell.
ling, and induces him to expend oil his wa.
ges as rapidly as possible, lest they may be.
come worthless on his hand. IL
Sir, the iaboriDg classes understand this
subject perfectly. 1t is the hard handed
and firm fs'ed men Of the country on whom
we must rely in the day Of danger, who arc
the most friendly to the passage ofthis bill.
1t is they who are the most ardently in "a.
vor of infusiog into the currency of the
country very large amount of the precious
metals.