The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1873-11-11
OUR FINANCES.
JUDGE KELLEY'S VIEWS.
An Elastic Currency Required.

ifOm ulloueip puisi uao "ilhbeu . 'OAS'
Bile letter on the financial situation,
from which we make the following
extracts:
Judge KELLEY stated that six years
ago he expressed his apprehepsions aud
brought to the attention of Congress
the following quotation from Allison's
History OF Europe:
"The evil complained OF arose from
the unavoidable result Of stationary
currency, co-existiDg with a rapid in
crease in the numbers and transactions
OF mankind, and these were only aggra-
vated by every addition made to the
energies and productive powers OF
society" But if an increase
in the numbers and industry Of men CO.
exist with a diminution in the circula-
ting medium by which their transact
tions are carried on, the most serious
evils await society, and the whole rela-
tions of its different glasses to each
other will be speedily changed, and it is
in that state OF things that the saying
proves true, that the rich are every
day growing richer and the poor
poorer.
Within the elk years that have elapsed
since Judge KELLEY made THE quotas
ton, he says:
"Since January, 1868, we have added
two million to our population by emf
grafton alone; have constructed and
equipped more than $1,000 miles Of
railroad; have suhdued the Great
american Desert, and are working its
..lmost fabulons deposits OF the precious
.e;als; have established railroad aud
-'Hgraphic communication between the
kttantic and Pacific States, and have
rsIly if not absolutely doubled the
productive power OF the country. Our
annual production Of grain, cotton,
tobacco and wool, OF gold, silver, copper,
lead, iron, and petroleum. has never
equalled that Of this year. But what
is the condition Of our people now,
when November gales herald the sP-
proacn OF winter
81 do not exsggerate by saying that
hundreds Of thousands OF industrious
and frugal people are unemployed, and
10 moody despair are eIbaustiug the
wages they have saved in past years ;
and that there are tens OF thousands o
skilled workmen daily begging the poor
privilege Of toiling that they and theirs
may be enabled to eat the bread OF
honest independence. Want and super
abundance dwell side by side in every
part of our country. Our productive
power aud ability TO consume are so
greatly restricted that the public reve-
nues are diminished, the national debt
increases, and foreigners, TO whom we
are heavily Indebted, send us com with
which to move our crops and animate
our Industries. And why has this sea-
son, in which nature has lavished upon
us with unsparing hand her choicest
gifts, been clouded By want and despair ?
Is it not because our circulating NELL
um has been contracted, while our
numbers and productive power have
been increasing with marvellous rapid
ity."
In proceeding to comment upon the
consequences that have flowed from re-
iusing to allow the people currency |
enough 10 make the daily exchanges
OF society-among them the enhancing
OF the rate OF interest and reducing the
demand for labor, and increasing the
value and purchasing power OF every |
dollar hosrded by capitalists-he adds
that for the want OF the issue o. nation
81 bonds payable, principal and inter
est, in lawful money, bearing a low |
rate OF interest (convertibility boDds,) |
but rate equal TO that paid by hanks
on current deposits, we have "ENsLAv-
ED ENTERPRISE TO USURT and intensified |
speculation by compelling merchants,
and mechanics to sub
NIT to sacrifices OF their most reliable
securities 10 escape the rates OF inter-
est "de mGnded by bankers ,cho5s capitGt
is borrowed at LotO rates and consists
chiefly OF corporate and indiridpa! BAL
ancss deposited on eaA.' This is un-
questionsbly true.
To this indictment against the
source OF loans under the non-elastc |
system OF currency Judge KELLY adds: (:
"And while we were denying indust-
~ and productive enterprise sufficient
lawful money with which to make cur
rent payments, the average daily clear.
ing OF checks in the New York Gear
ing house for the year ending October
|, 1872, the latest report to which |
hsve access, amounted to no less than
sle5 .964,277. This is the process by |
which the currency Is Inflated, Here
is where expansion and contraction are
effected when either will best suit the
purposes oi men like Fisk, Drew Goud,
Vanderbilt, and their kind whose NOR
al code would starile most donates OF
peniteutaries."
Judge KELLEY thus describes the de-
fec, OF our systen OF curreCcy:
Our nationsl notss-greenbacks, as
they are called-are the best currency
we have ever had, and, as l believe,
are as good a System as the wit OF man
will ever devise But, like evrythiDg
human, the system is not psriect, 1t
wants elasticity. The law BY which it
-ss established embraces one almost
fatal provision: that which limits the
amount that may, under any circum-
stapces, be iesued. The same vice /
taints the national bank law Il was
borrowed from Sir Robert Peels Law o. I
lS44 for the regulation OF the Bank c.
England. But the cases are not para
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