The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-07-07
THE INDIANA STATE SENTINEL. TUESDAY JULY 1874

so well protected, as under a currency equal
! to and convertible into gold and silver, which
is the only currency that robs nobody.
CURRENCY AND POPULATION AND WEALTH.
1t is delusion that currency should in
crease in the same ratio as population or
wealth. The note circulation of all Great
Britain for over fifty years has only varied
in amount between $50, 1000, 900 and S2lO,-
/ 100000. Yet her population, and especially
her wealth. have been vastly augmented.
I Our own increase in population from 1850 TO
| 1859 was 80 per cent, and In wealth lbs per
cent, but in total paper and coin currency
only 36 per cent. And yet the decade was
one of the most prosperous in our history.
Our increase of population from 1869 ~ 1870
was 22A per cent, and ia wealth only S71S
per cent, but in total paper and coin cur
rency estimating both to have amounted in
| 1870 to 5000, 000, 000) the increase was over
| eighty per cent. and paper currency
alone it was 81 per cent. This is an increase
/ without precedent in amount, and it is in
| advance of all decent proportion to the in
crease in wealth and population, and is only
justified by the extraordinary national con-
ditions in the midst of which it was made.
1t has borne-as such reckless and utterly
unstatesmanship tampering with the
finances always villa bitter harvest of in
fiation, industrial expansion, hazardous en-
terprise and speculation, unbounded credit,
I stock jobbing schemes, vast aggregation Of
wealth in speculative corporations, all sorts
| OF wicked efforts to make fortunes in day
or by the turn of a hand, the formation of
selfish. and infamous combinations to cor
rupt legislatures, congresses, courts and in
dividuals, and purchase oppressive and hate
: fui laws giving legal sanction to monopolies.
bounties and robberies of the people, and
filling the country with immortality, dishon-
esty, official unfaithfulneSs and corruption,
and general Generalization beyond all com
parison with any previous condition in our
country.
WHAT is NEEDED.
What our people need is not more money,
but most emphaticslly better money; not
T mere promises, but more capital more things
of intrinsic value, more of the products OF
labor, more of savings of economy; less
taxations less extravaganza in expenditures,
and less excessive exactions of all Kinds,
less haste to grow rich, and more personal
frugality; more business conducted on the
basis of capital, and less on credit. 1t is
J capital that creates the most legitimate de-
mand for currency, because currency is only
useful as medium of exchange, and to
facilitate the rapid exchange of the COM
m0dities produced by active capital. There
is to-day unquestionably very unusual
want of capital in our country-not of mere
paper money--and therefore production is
strained and reduced, and it logically results
from these conditions that there is now a
vast amount of idle lO2nable currency in the
country awaiting satisfactory borrowers and
, Investments, more than there has been in
five years past. And the needed and rational
= remedy is, therefore, not more paper money,
but more actual capital and better money.
In my Judgment, the country needs no
moIe credit currency than it has. 1t is al
ways to be borne in mind that another law
-
of currency is that the more advanced and
perfect the leading commercial nations be-
} come in the appliances and machinery for
conducting the vast operations of commerce,
the less currency is needed relatively to
the amount of business and population.
Bills of exchange, notes, checks, certified
drafts and clearinghouse vouchers discharge
many of the functions of money, and vastly
reduce the quantity otherwise Indispensable.
FINANCIAL CRISIS.
Our recent crisis came not as the result of
an insufficient amount of irredeemable pa
per currency. It is one of the evil missions
of such money to encourage undue eXpan-
sion in trade, prodigal expenditures in So
cietv, and to repel the precious and profit
able virtue of economy from the daily habits
of men and women and corporations. 1t
bsgets fatal extravaganza, and often brings
disaster in the very midst of abundance
ll6S6 SbOTilS cOUl0 WllQ I1lInIul
regularity, after moderate intervals, to all
commercial nations. They come with con.
temptu0us indifference TO the amount of the
currency. The currency, in coins and bank
notes, msy be as abundant as the light of the
sun, and still they come. If there were no
currency but bank notes, or none but
green backs, or none but gold and silver, or
none but copper or brass or tin, they would
still come. 1t is infinitely wise and proper
then to inquire Why they come. And this
inquiry stands at the threshold of intelli-
gent action. The history OF commerce for
a century past is full of light on this Subject.
1t trlumphantly sustains the conclusions
and the testimony of the ablest fiscal writers
of this or the past age. that these crisis are
scarcely ever caused by the insufficiency of
f the currency, whether of coin or paper.
They have their root and origin in the indi-
vidqal conduct of men, greatly influenced
at times, and often most injuriously, 10y the
commercial policy of government 1t is less
the lack of money in the country than it is
the gross disproportion between debts and
actual values that brings personal embar-
rassment. Men owe more than they have
values of any kind with which to buy
money. They owe 700 much and own too
, little. Every crisis in our country in this
|, century came in the midst of the largest
abundance of paper money.
In 1877 our currency and all the values of
the country were confessedly inflated and
excessive. Our coin bore too low proper
ton to our papermoney. Besides our com
mercial and industrial relations were greatly
affected and disturbed by preceding years
, of war and commercial restrictions. In 1887
the entire amount of our currency, paper
gold and silver was greater than ever before,
! being SOD, 600, 900, and averaged Sl4 per
capita. The spirit of headlong enterprise in
f individuals, corporations and states was
without a paarllel in our previous expert
f ence. The exaltation in hopes as well as
in prices was simply wild and frightfnl
Hence came disaster. In 1857 the aggregate
f OF our paper, gold and silver currencies
averaged SIC rs per capita, the total volume
being S474,30O,0O0. The disasters of that year
were chiefly the results of grossly excessive
. credits, az are those of the present time