The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-08-27
FROM GEN. EWING, or ONO.

FROM GEN. EWING, or ONO.
LANCASTER, OHIo. Aug. is. 1870.
mssshs. TREvELLIcK and CAMPBELL, Cincinnati,
Ohio
GENTLEMEN: Your letter of 2stb nj.
timo, forwarded to me from Washing.
ton, has been duly received, in which
you recite the measures Of public pol
icy proposed by the National Labor
Union, and ask my opinion on them. |
have given them attention and refiec.
ton for year past and in my iudg.
ment they are just and necessary meas
ures of public policy. / shall confine
myself in this letter to presentation
of my views on the financial plank as
being at once the most urgent, benefi-
cial, md violently opposed, Of the
measures of your organization.
The most delicate and important
junction OF Governments the money of
the people, the measurer and distribu-
tor Of all their values. IF toe little be
In actual circulation it commands in
terest and tends to establish rents Ca
compared with the current value Of the
property rented) so high as to absorb
for the few who own it and other pro-
ductlve property all, the increase and
eventually all the substance of the land:
leaving to the masses a meagre subsis
ence out Of the wealth they create.
Low M we consider the average inter
est in Great Britain it has been much
larger than the average increase of
wealth, and hes with taxes steadily
stripped the laborers of all the fruits
of their toll, save bare subsistence !:
20 that, though they and their fathers
have added to the fixed wealth Of the
Island twenty thousand millions Of dol
lars in the last hundred years, they live
more wretchedly now than ever here.
lofore So ahject and hopeless is their
degradation that an English writer,
Hayes, in his "Soci0l Condition Of Emo
land says, "Once peasant in England
and ma" Garnet hope qt h 4s o 9T Ss t fh
a mere laborer for weekly hire" II
on the other hand, more money be
issued and kept afoat, interest falls, and
with It the actual rents Of all property;
and this may be carried to such an ex-
irene Of initiation as to make accumu-
lated wealth nearly valueless az a source
of income, by reducing too low its in
terest, which is its share of the increase
which it and labor combined produce.
This were oppressive to the owners of
accumulated wealth and injurious 70
the masses, because destructive Of the
chief incentive to industry and thrift.
1t is for the interest of capitalists, in
Guiding all who live by the rent OF
money, lands or other accumulated
property, rather than by labor, to have
the volume of the money small, for in.
terest is then high, and incomes from
all productive property IN effect great
er, than when money is plenty while
the masses who live by labor, are in
terested in having the volume larger so
that interest may be low, because labor
gets all the increase. except that which
goes for interest or rent to accumulated
capital.
The Government, as the agent Of
both classes whose interests thus con-
fiict is bound to furnish the standard
measure and exchanger of values, and
so establish its volume and circulation
as to bring about just, and as far as
possible, stable rate Of interest, and
consequent division Of net profits be-
tween capital and labor. A more SOW
ereign function, a more imperative and
important duty does not belong to Gov
eminent. 1t affects all the springs Of
industry, progress and happiness of
the people. To fail to perform that
duty is to fail to be a peopla,s govern.
ment. To hand over that power to the
few who compose one party to the di-
vision, is TO license them to rob the
many who form the other party. Ii
the capitalist class control the money
functions Of the Government, and die
tate the rate of interest and consequent
rule of division Of the joint property,
it will always take the Turkey and leave
to labor the Grow.
Between the death of the Bank of
the United States in 1887 and the Be
GINNING of the rebellion our Govern
ment never attempted to control the
money Of the people. 1t coined gold
and silver. which was always INSULT
cient and inconvenient for currency,
constantly contracting by expectation
to settle unfavorable balances without
any reference to the demands of our
immensely greater domestic commerce,
which coin, formerly paper currency,
Of larger volume issued by hundreds OF
State Banks incorporated with the
greatest conceivable diversity of legis-
lative safe guards and loophoIes-the
charters being dictated, and the circu-
lation controlled by and for the interest
Of money dealers, not the people.
Their notes, however, we're al redeem
able, directly or indirectly in coin; the
average ratio Of coin to paper held for
purposes of redemption being about
one TO four. This was called "a specie
basis" So it was, but the foundation
had only one-fourth the superficial area
Of the top; 90 every now and then ne
structure tumbIed over. The plan work
ed well as long a. the public generally
trusted 1.-THE country prospered-and
the system was popular because the
currency, bad and i'll regulated as it
was, was better in respect of convent
ence a. well as stability and suf6ciency
Of volume than the specie currency
BIT when, by design or accident, con
hdence was shaken, a. by the failure
of the Life and Trust Company in
ls57-the whole system fell and buried
| in It's ruins all the industries ard ener.