New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-01-22

changeability with legal-tender notes, and
10 lessen the interest on the public debt"
That is, it authorizes the issue of Govern
ment bonds bearing interest at the rate of
sS,GS on every 600 per annum, which is one
cent day, and provides for these bonds
being exchanged for greenbacks, and green
backs for these bonds, at the pleasure of the
holders.
The effect of this measure will be, as Mr..
Field claims, to furnish a safe investment, at
moderate interest, for the money that now
accumuates in the hands of private individ-
uals at all commercial centers, and by them
lent to spectators and stock gamblers for
the want of some better way of investing it,.
Under this act they can convert it into these
Government bonds at a reasonable interest,
with the privilege of reconvcrting it into
greenbacks whenever the exigencies of their
business may require it.
The policy the Treasury Department has
pursued in issuing bonds bearing much
larger rate of interest, and making them Il
more desirable investment for foreigners than
our own people, Mr.. Field insists has cost
the Government many millions of dollars
moro than it need to have paid. He says
that in issuing currency, too, the Government
'has, upon the largest portion, insisted on
paying Understanding in the aggregate
nearly to $500, 000, O0O-and the issues have
been so cunningly arranged that the accruinS
interest, in nearly every case, instead OF
going into the hands of the people, was gath
cred into the swollen Golfers of bankers and
money-changers. The interest paid Oh COM
pound-interest legal-tender notes, one and
two year five per cent. legaltender notes,
and certificates of indebtedness was a gratui-
tous and shameful waste of public money,
and nineteen-twentieths of this interest
money fell into the hands of syndicates and
bankers. If plain greenbacks had been
issued instead fthese intarest-bea'ring notes,
the burdens of the people in taxation might
have been less oppressive, and no man can
assert that greenbacks would not have &C
complshed this purpose just as well, if not
better. The issue of compound-interest notes
was stupid compound folly of the Treasury
Department for which our taxpayers have
paid over $50, 100000 interest"
Here are his figures:
Statement Of interest paid since 1862 national
currency IN circulation.
Compound interest notes, legal
| tender) OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. s5O, 1928, 993
United States notes, one year,
Qegal-tender,) per cent. .. 1925 GOO
United States notes, two-year,
Qegal-tender,) per cent?. lG,Gis, 900
Certificates of indebtedness, lis
sued for commissary stores,0
one-year, per cent . s3,7o5, lo4
Temporary-loan certificates, 4
per cent. Observation-Disclosures. 5000, 900
Temporary-loan certificates, 5 per
cent 5000, 900
Three per cent. certificates, (con-
vertiblc into grccnbacks on
demand, 3 per cent. .... 800, 900
Three-year Treasury notes, 7.3
| cent NORTHUMBERLAND. Isl, at, OUO
| S-JC,D lCI
He claims that this bill provides against
an excess or infatbe Of tbe currency, assures
its elasticity and stability. and. if adopted
by Congress, will be hailed with JOY by the
people, for they will know that on this fiscal
arrangement no fnancialor commercial crisis
can disturb the commerce and industries of
the country, and for all time to come we may
enjoy exemption from the destructive, dis
tressing, and baneful effects of revulsions
and financial pancs. 1t will forever rid US,
he. further asserts, from the untlinching grasp
Of unprinciplcd and unpatriotic men, who, by
cornering and locking up our lawful money
in times OF stringency and peril, exercise
their power to bring upon the country disas-
ter and ruin and while merchants are in
distress, and industries embarrassed Or par
alyzed, they step in to buy up the hard earn
ings of helpless and bankrupt people at
their own will and at their own prices. Thus
1.-THE rich become richer and the poor poorer.
To Mr.. Fields proposition that our cur
rency must be increased sufficiently to pay
all classes for their daily labor, Or we must
reduce the work and discharge the workers
now employed on our farms, in our mines
and workshops, we imagine few will dissent.
AS he says, the question is, shall the cur
rency be increased with our increase of labor
and business, or shall we reduce the labor
and business of the country so as to handle
the traffic conveniently with the volume now
in circulation? The factory employing one
hundred mechanics to-day certainly requires
more currency than last year when only tea
were employed. The production of wealth
by labor has been more than doubled in eight
years in the mean time our national cur
rency has been reduced over 81 300, 200, 900.
While the demand, therefore, has been in
creasing, the supply has been rapidly dimin-
ishing, and the tightening process finally
eliminated last September in throwing one
half of our laboring population out of work
1t is apparent, he says, that in this ques-
ton of currency lies the conflict between
capital and labor 1t is a well-known fact
that when money is abundant the laborer
receives his full reward, and prospers, but
when money is scarce the laborer finds but
| little employment even at starvation
prices" Thus, then, if we unduly restrict
the volume of currency we Cypress and pau
perize labor, while we give capital more
power to deny to the laborer and producer a
| fair reward for their toll. An abundant sup
ply of currency facilitates and aids produc-
| ton like tools in hands of the mechanic and