The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-09-03
Rinued from the First PAGE I

Fl the st ~de occurred, all the banks
nStanty ed TO lend money and sent
Pme Tor ttmption the notes Of other
nks; anus alarming all note holders,
NJ o kr win there was but one dollar
ft Hlr IN on the banks Just as the
Is w running on each other.
-,rs eng the crash coming,
N Il Ta,m ent Of their deposits IN
i. las the specie liability OF
l~.-- tfcame ten, twenty aud
rty times greater than
-eServe. OF course sus-
H-o 'ed, and 'epreciation Of
issues en- TO ninety per cent, de-
I'nc Wall Streets notions of
ue t.- each banks insolvency
the I.e- part of the loss on this ac-
cue. .a OF course on the West and
H'I,3. .nce creditors were COMPEL
ei tU paw wo, three or four dollars of
81, same rrencv for each one dollar
borrowed In other words, The only
currency M use had shrunK in a few
a. to i or greater its former effec-
I'VE olum and with it almost all prop
e-s tI~aequently the debtor class,
when p. rises nearly all the business
men immunity, were sacrificed
o. pay incurred in the ordinary
c9n-s solvent trade; and their
h4r' ..- property was taken by the
credit at quarter to half its uSu-
l Ne lille this went on all indus
tr,. she'd for want Of capital,
aH. ,nce, and because the eIu-
tar en- of enterprise had ceased
hga "-~ 4 were struggling for n
DISH i-' their Shipwrecked fortunes.
La e- I employment and means
0f t- nee and all society was
Rup. distressed except those who
Cuu.ll money and available credits.
hAf At ,ate of unnecessary and I'M
ql>trT. Sses from these causes com
biue' doubtless foot up IN two
yea.. wing such panic from FIVE
hun a thousand millions Of dol
lar three to FIVE times the whole
VAN. e currency, the alarm over
'sh.C cted the mischief
A TwO three years of prostration,
with cely any currency-two or
three rG Of gradual revival of indus
e. au, de, with a scanty but toler-
ably ed paper currency-two or
y 'hree Of prosperity,with the bank
y. ing NJ old basis of one to four
The. er tremendous crash. at is
amya US periodical fatality" says
ole "a providential affection
cor MS" says another. "Over
xadi iays a third. "Over produc-
- "a fourth. you're all wrong
IerJ YOU don't understand f.
ma .ys Wall Street; "the cause is
ma, f the currency the results are
over uction and Overtrading; and
the the crash, and the necessity
Of p ing and trading less until we
get 10 specie currency" That
a lttainable volume Of specie is
;Gx-oo for the business of the people
~ not change the currency but re-
q business. By the same rule,
the State Of Franklin, now
Tn e, the volume of "CoonSkIH"
cp became inadequate TO the
AZ Z business Of the people immi-
z n, production and trade should
been checked, and made to keep
with the natural increase of the
lonskin" currency.
ln speech made in Congress and
sported III the New York Tribune Of
= May 25, 1868, General Garfield, Chair
man Of the Currency Committee of the
House attributes all the pauics to reck-
less expansion Of the currency, follow
"a by ''over trading" and says at the
beginning Of 1857 the paper currency
IF the country reached its highest point
Of initiation Up to that time there tCds
nearly two hundred and fifteen mil
4 lions n Estimating the increase OF
population and business since 1857 at
J forty per cent, an equal relative lntia-
( ton now would be 1901 ,0oO,O 900. But
our present paper currency is SG9l, OOo,-
, OOO. ..early two and athird times great
A er, relatively, than the currency, TO the
undue quantity of which the conductors
II of our finances attribute the tornado OF
II 1857, aud the terrible disasters which
r followed in its wake. In the state
ment leave out specie which was not
current then TO any large amount, and
L is not current now at all Yet not one
4 business man in ten in this country
thinks we have dollar too much cur
Z renew new; and the House Of Repre-
sentatives last session insisted Obsti-
nately on General Gar6eld's bill TO in
crease the currency fifty millions, while
Athe Senate only asked to let It stay
8where it is. As our currency, by gen
kra consent, is not too large now; its
Volume was entirely too small in 1857 ;
x land therefore "tn fa.ion and consequent
4 orer trading" did not exist IN 1857 or
, cause the panic.
g. 1t seems to me obvious that these
II repeated attempts and disastrous fail
nres 10 make one dollar redeem four
here forced on us by our imperative
BED on the one hand of a larger and
bore convenient currency than the coin,
Apd our stubborn superstition on the
bther, that coin only could be real mo-
pey.
The war relieved us of this monstrous
eonglomerate system of State Banks.
Il After the legal tender issue had been
.ermined on in 1867, the Government
.vp.-ently to conciliate the State Banks,
Ar .ged the National Bank system
ia sll :henceforth itself made or author
~~f1ed al the money of the people. 1t
Expanded the paper circulation from
les than two hundred and two mil
lies in 1862 TO nine hundred and
&c oty-nine millions in 1s64-5, and in
Is 81, when the business of the coun.
try vas highly prosperous and fully
adj ted to this unusually large volume
of currency, and the suppression Of the
rel lion had incr ,ased the demand for
It Nv quarter or third, it reduced
volsine near three hundred millions