Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-25
HOW A SPECIE STANDARD WOULD
AFFECT RERF0ua

Its readers that ''the writer is one of
the Oldest citizens of the State. enjoy
ing the reputation Of financier of en-
larged experience and sound CONNER
cial Judgment A head lineldescribes
him as "a Tennessee economist of sage
experience" With this double en-
Gorsenent, courtesy calls for some an
swer on our part.
The frat half column of the commu-
nication enforces the views we have of
ten expressed about the impolicy of a
stay-law or any quasi-avasion of our
State or individual obligations. APP
preaching the question between us, he
seems to argue with the Boutwell,
school hat specie resumption is i'm
possible without further contraction.
Without entering now on prolonged ar
gument, We viii simply express our
conviction, appealing to bis memory
and experience, that there never was,
befc-e Of since the war. enough cur
reno, specie and bank bills-to eject
all the exchanges Of daily commerce.
The deficiency is made up by resort to
commercial scrip of various device, and
this is used more or less, according to
the scarcity of currency on the one
hand, and the demands of business on
the other. In this way mercantile COM
munities have means for self-relief
which isolated farmers do not enjoy to
anything like the same extent. The
ordinary reader vii understand how
this works when be recalls the ''certi.
fed checks" that came into use during
the panic of last year.
We pass over many things in Green
backs communication which might be
criticised, as, for instance, his "scien-
tifc' dictum that. strictly speaking,
there is no such thing as intrinsic
value This is deep metaphysics,
rather than science. OF course, value
comes from the relation ssof need and
supply. If we were discussing meta
physics, we might show how Green
back" here proves that he is himself of
no intrinsic value. But, as=we are
dealing with practical matters, we viii
upset his theorem by merely affirming
that loaf of bread or its equivalent
does possess an intrinsic value to the
laborer. Without food, there is 10
labor, without labor no production.
We attach no intrinsic value to gold
except such as the whole commercial
world gives it. E
To come at once to the pith of the
matter however. We give in Green
back's' own words the pivotal obiec-
ton OF himself and numerous others to
specie resumption.
Just as the value of our legal tender
money Is enhanced, We must give more
labor, more of the products of labor for
the dollar that pays our debt.
What we want, then, Is not that the
dollar that pays our debts shall be en-
HANGED IN purchasing power, but that
the value of labor and the product of
labor shall be increased In value in its
purchasing power Of greenbaeks that
pay our taxes and our Individual debts.
We might Justly demand that the
government go back on the creditors,
for whose benefit the currency has been
contracted, and demand that It shall
be inflated until it has been made as
cheap as when our debts ere contract
ed. But to make an end OF the fight,
let US be content, by way of compro-
mise, that Congress shall only add so
much to the currency a. viii fairly sup
ply the increased demand for our in
creasing and ever augmenting volume
of exchanges, as the labor of the coun-
try increases. Any increase greatly
beyond this viii only tend to unsettle
values and derange commerce
From the last sentence it viii be seen
that "Greenback" does not favor any
extensive imitation. He wants only
enough currency to meet our increasing
trade. But has trade increased during
the past twoyears for instaneeP If, in
1872, we had enough currency to keep
all the industries of the country In full
operation, with millions upon millions
besides to squander inwild speculations,
shall we say that the same currency in
creased by some thirty millions is to-
day inadequate to the demands upon it,
when New England and Pennsylvania
industries are running on half time
and business is at a standstill every
where? The trouble is not n the vol
ume of currency so much as In the I'M
possibility of its proper distribution
under any such centralized system as
now prevails. The money thai we need
is rotting In banks elsewhere. And we
would suggest for the consideration of
"Greenback'' who seems rather to ia
vor an sll-greenback currency, that the
greenback itself gravitates even more
swiftly than the national bank note to
the centre of the present financial sys-
TEN, leaving the country districts bare,
because the banks have use for the
greenback as reserve.
But, to reach the crucial point The
one great objection TO specie resump-
ton Is the injustice to those now in
debt Of requiring them to return dol
lars worth 100 cents gold for dollars
that were worth only 20, so, or 80 cents
when they borrowed them. We hold
there is no need, and would be no ex-
cuse, for working this injustice. It
can be obviated in very simple and
equitable manner. 1t is certainly a
curious incident in the chapter Of fnan-
cial discussion since the panic that no
one has suggested what would be plain
equity to the debtor class. When the
legal tender act was passed, and men
were forced to accept paper worth 40