Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-10-09
LABOR AND CURRENCY.

Wa notice some administration journals
say that the banks and government cannot
resume specie payment without inflcting
great injury on labor as well IS ihe debtor
class. This is a mistake, if not deliberate
untruth. An exclusive paper cureBsy Is ct
best scheme to make mere promise TO
| pay labor for its substantial products, equal
to the ful6lment Of said promise. When 8
farmer exchanges bushelof whest for 8
gold dollar or two silver half dollars, the
uncertain promise to pay for breadcoln is
dispensed with. Promises being easier and
cheaper than payment, they assume the
form of bank notes, and paper pictures pass
as property Of intrinsic value. When re-
garded by the mass Of mankind as value
received for productive labor, bank notes
are very similar to base coin, or counterfeit
wealth. Great losses, and general demora-
lization grow out of this popular mistakes
and there is but one way to prevent the evil.
All currency paper should be redeemable in
specie on demand ct the will of the holder.
This system has been tested by long ezps-
rience, and proves satisfactory. A govern
ment promise without spscie is no better
than any corporation promise IS currency.
Labor does not want any promise to pay
whatever, but positive payment when the
work is done. A little bit Of paper is no
payment for grain, meat, hats, cloth and
shoes, as al men of sense must see, no mat
ter what is printed or written on it. Such
currency is financial sham. 1t takes
labor 10 dig the precious metals from the
earth, purify and coin them. Hence their
cost and value as medium of exchange,
being also durable and useful for other pur-
poses. There may be an over-production
of gold and silver, but tie danger is far less
than an abuse Of paper promises and cred
its. Our credit system is filled with
light gas, and very liable to burst.
Honest industry should every where de-
maid q rsturn to gold and silver pay
ments, system under which orr country |
greatly prospsred for more than a century. |
Under this system on federal government,
including pensions paid to revolutionary |
soldiers and others, did not cost the nation
but fraction over one dollar head a |
year for over forty years. Now, under our |
federal paper currency, the expense is three |
hundred and .thirty-three million dollars a
year, or eight dollars and seventy-fve cents |
a head for every man, woman and child in |
the United States. Mr.. Willard, an Adj |
member tof Congress, from
Vermont shows from the official record |
that the appropriations for the incidental |
expenses of the Executing. Mansion for
the present present fiscal year are $1,000. |
This, added to, The Presidents salary of |
$4,000, makes our plain republican Chief
cost plain working people one
hundred and twenty-seven Thousand dollars
a year. 1t is easy to understand where a
government is likely to end its profigate
career with such captain in command Of
the ship of State. 1t must return TO the old
hsrbor of honesty, economy and currency
equal in all respects to specie. A paper
bubble has floated CREST deal of false
patriotism and genuine rascality twelve
years. Can it do this forever? n "A
.