The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-02-07
NUMBER 10.

the premium ON com and thereby subject
the government to loss. This objection i,
not however well founded, for, as the Law
stands, the custom duties are all payable
In coin, and have greatly exceeded the
wants OF the government, turning IL into A
sort Of brokers office for the purchase and
sale OF com, whereas, the government
| would in no event require over about one
hundred millions Of dollars annually tu
meet the interest on the debt, and if the
system Of currency interconvertible with
government bonds be adopted, the govern
ment would be enabled to hquidate its
debt-bearing coin interest ver1 rapidly,
which would diminish the demand for coin
and tend to lower the premium. Again.
the reduction in the rate Of interest chat
would necessarily follow the adoption of
the system would revive all our Industries
and greatly diminish our imports, and the
currency being qualified for effecting our
domestic exchanges, we should have NJ
use for gold except for expectation IN the
form Of bullion in exchange for the nation
al and other securities held abroad, or for
articles or commodities Of utility. II is,
therefores entirely safe to say, that the
premium on coin would entirely disappear
within from one to two years at the far
thest
There is one circumstance bearing on
this point which the bankers and other op-
ponents Of a government currency issued
directly to the people, without the inter
mediate agency Of any system Of banks,
are careful to keep out Of view, which is
the issue Of the first series Of demand
treasury notes, fifty millions Of dollars If
which were issued in August, 1861, and af-
terward increased to sixty millions. These
notes passed at par (or nearly sol with coin
to the following December, at which time
the government anC banks suspended
specie payments, when they Immediately
began To depreciate IN value as compared
with coin (the only lawful money then ia
circulation) and continued to decline until
Congress in February, 1862. made them
receivable for duties on imports, when they
Immediately rose To par with com and re-
manned so ever afterward.
1t must be remembered that these notes
were printed, stamped, OF coined On ~
better paper than the legal tenders now IN
circulation, nor had they any better secur-
lty (bOth resting On the public faith yet
at one time the current value II the for
mer was nearly three times that ~ the lat
ter. Now, II Is claimed that this differ
ence in value was owing entirely to the
greater legal powers as money II the for
mer, aud that the same result would follow
with regard to all our circulating medium
under the operation If the proposed none
tary system. Ii this IL denied by the
bankers and bullionIsts, the opportunity i
offered them to rise ard explain the cause
tIy. lrs 1. /.
es Of government currency above referred
TO- ! include the bulilonIsts with the
bankers, because while opposing the
government currency, they a. not advU-
cate purely metallic or ''ModOc, medium
OF exchange, consequently, whether Wit
ungly or unwlttIngy, their influence Is IN
favor Of the specie-basis fraud.
There is another class of objections fire.
quently raised to this system which are
apparent rather than real, prominent
among which is the dread Of
GOVERNMENT BANKING AND ISFLATION OF
THE cUkRENcY
The parties by whom these objections
are advanced seem to labor under the mis-
taken idea that the object is for the govern
ment to engage in the business Of general
banking, to loan money to the Smiths, dis
count the notes Of Jones, and to issue legal
tender al in.fnitlBi, until the price of the
products of the farm would 80 advance
that artIzans, merchants, and others of
our urban population could not afford to
purchase them, and III turn, the prices of
the goods and wares manufactured by the
the former become too costly to be used by
the farmers. Thus, while one part Of our
population would suffer for lack Of food,
the other would perish for want Of cloth
ing, and ali debtors be compelled to repu-
date their obligations because Of the super
abundance u money. This would indeed
be depiorabie condition Of things
(TO BE- CoNTINUED.l