The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-08-26

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our bonded debt would now be $3.50, ,O0O,'
900 less than it is. Or if the the $500,
600, 900 Of bonds 50 bought in 1865 hac
been set apart as sinking fund, and in,
terest paid on them and compounded at c
per cent. semi-annuslly, that fund would ot
itself by the year 1896 have paid in gold
the principal of all our bonded debt out
standing in 1865, or since issued-and have
saved the people $239, 900, 900 expended
in buying bonds in the last two years. II
We would now substitute greenbacks for
national bank notes, we would save $l7,.
25U, 900 in greenbscks annually. That il
exactly the sum this circulation privilege
given the banks now costs the people year
y, after crediting the one per cent tax
paid on circulation Mr.. Sherman implied.
ly denies this fact, asserting that the banks
pay Other large taxes, state and national.
But the fact is that, with the sole exception
OF the tax on circulation, there is not one
tax levied by the general or local govern
ment, on banks or their stockholders which
does not fall on national and private banks
alike, or which would not be paid if the ma
tiOnal bank circulation were substituted by
greenbacks. | challenge Mr.. Sherman, !,
when be shall address the people at Toledo,
on the 24th to show what these other taxes
have to do with discussion of the question
OF substituting greenbacks for greybacks,
except to darken counselor to show that
such substitution would necessarily cause
any jar to the business Of the country, in
convenience to the government, or injustice
to the banks; or, in short, to render any
good reason why bis party, instead of lifting
this enormous burden from the shoulders of
the people in 1865, have held it on, voted
down every resolution in Congress offered
by the Democracy to remove it, and are now
adding to it BY increare Of the bank circula-
ton.
20 BONDS.
I'd. The law requiring the 5-2O's to be
paid 10 gold.
The expressed opinion of nearly all Re-
publican statesmen was that the people had
the light to pay them in greenbacks. The
Republicans so declared in their platform in
1868 in Ohio and throughout the west.
Senator Sherman, whose information and
abilities have given him control Of the e.
nance measures Of his party, said, in his
letter of March 25th, 1868, to Hon. A.
Mann, Jr., that the holders Of the 5 20's
who demand gold for their bonds ''Gre re
pudtatOrS and ertortionerS Yet no
eooner was the new administration inauger>
ated than Mr.. Sherman, and all the Repub.
licans in Congress with the sole exception
of Mr. Beatty of Ohio) by the act of
March Is, 1869, prohibited redemption in
grernbacks. On the sixteen hundred mil
lions Of these bonds we are paying, in effect,
9 per cent. interest-tbat is 6 per cent. gold.
equal to 81 greenbacks, and about 2t ex-
emPtlon from state, county and city taxes.
The interest and exemption burden Of these
bonds alone is one hundred and forty y~6ve
millions anuually-is greater than the whole
annual debt burden Of Great Britain The
first measure of relief for the people is to
fund them in a new bond at lower interest,
which could be easily done it the holders
were offered the alternative Of payment in
greenbacks or a lower interest bond. To
cut The people off from that relief this infa
nous act ITO strengthen the public credit
was passed. Mr.. Sherman ought TO have
amended the title to read can act to in'
crease the public burdens, and legalize ex
tortlon." Under countenance Of that act,
Grants administration has bought POS al
premiums aggregating over twenty-six mil
lloDs If the whole issue be bought in
this way, even at present low premiums,
The administration will pay the bOndboldeI
two hundred and nine millions of extortiou
money.
CURRENCY CONTRACTION.
Sd. The other, and the controlling
measure Of finance sdoptt d and still main.
tanned BY the Republican party, runious
to the masses but most profitable to the
rich, is the contraction of the currency
Just before the rebellion ended we had q
little over one thousand millions Of curren.
cy, which was $40 per capita for tho twenty.
five millions Of people then in the Union
lines. Peace at once spread Il all over the
South, so that 1t had to supply about thirty
millions Of people, which was equal to
twenfy-eight dollars per capita. This was
reduction Of the currency Of the whole
country, thirty per cent, and of itself would
have caused serious check to business,
then most f1ourishing. But the cry was
raised Hy capitalists that business was sun
healthy" and that the credit of the gov.
ernment and the real interest OF the people
required prompt return by contraction to
specie payment. Nobody of standing in the
Republican party interested with, or for, the
masses seemed TO know or care much about
the hject-nobody else was listened to-
the immense contraction which had Just oc-
CURED as an effect of peace was wholly
ignOred-and our currency was therefore
reduced, i'll obedience to the demand of cap
italists, from one thousand millions to seven
hundred millions, where it now stands
Thus we have nov SIT 80 per capita Of
circulation against $40 per capita q years
agO-a reduction Of more than Sc dollars
on every hundred. And the contrsc ction j:
still going on. The Republican party re-
fuses to permit an increase of the currency
which, therefore, is now being in effect re
duced 2 per cent, or seventeen and bali
millions Of dollars, annually, by the growth
of population.
GENERAL EFFECT OF CONTRACTION ON
VALUES.
1t is demonstrable that, other cOndi
tiOns being equal, reduction Of the volume
Of currency Of country reduces the value
oc labor and all it's products, as compared
with money and all securities, or property
producing a fixed interest or rent in money
4 be experience and observation Of every
one for six years past, bave shown this
The creditor class, who are generally non
producers, and own bonds, notes and othei
fixed money incomes, therefore, have prot
tied enormously by The contraction of tb,
currency, because Of the increased value o