Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1874-02-17

waiting the expiration of four
years, for the reason that, as there
was no export demand, the holder
of gold would hasten to realize the
premium and would at once depress
the price by throwing gold upon
the market. Gold is now above ten
per cent. premium in New York.
If Congress should enact that green
backs should be redeemed in coin
one year from date at five per cent.
discount and two years from date
at par, and capitalists should have
full faith in the ability of the gov
erument to do what il should prom
Use, the promise would be discount
ed at once, and if not required
largely for export, gold would go
to par long before the act of Con-
gress requiring the redemption
would go into effect. But to re-
turn to the act of 1919, and the re-
peal of that part of it requiring the
withdraw of the issues of small
notes in 1922. We have seen that
too sudden withdrawal of small
notes worked incalculable injury to
trade, but the repeal of the act re-
stricting the issue of small notes
destroyed all that had been gained
since 1914, and precipitated Eng
land once more upon the sea of un-
restricted paper currency. The
year 1924 and the first half of 1926
was the millennium of paper curren-
cy. Prices doubled, and in some
cases quadrupled. Spectators
daily looked over the market quo
tations and singled out of the
cheapest on the list, certain that it
would double in value in sixty
days. Stock companies multiplied
on every hand. Over five hundred
mining, insurance, railway, canal
and building companies with cap
ital of $500, 100000, were organiz-
! ed within ten years; jockeys, coach
men and day laborers jostled each
other on the street, eager to invest
their small wages where it would
soon grow to a fortune. Paper be-
, ing the cheaper currency, no coin
/ in circulation except what was
= needed for making change. Gold,
worth twenty per cent. more as
! bullion than as currency, was eX-
, ported, till the coin in the Bank of
/ England was reduced to CT 100000.
, From November Doth to December
| 10Th, 1925, the panic ragged unabat-
ed. Half the country banks failed,
5 and the Bank of England was only
;. saved by loan from France.
: 1t is not expected that the in
, crease of our currency $4,000, 900
: will work for us as great disaster.
: We, however, recall the panic of
, 1873, and make the difference that
} if an irredeemable paper currency
and its attendant expanding credit
, has worked the disaster from which
t the country is now suffering, what
: may we expect when more curren-
cy is added and Congress gives the
infationist the implied pledge that
: the ruinous policy shall have from
that source no check whatever?
1t is time we had a financial pol
icy. 1t is nearly nine years since
: the close of the war, and the prom
Use of the government to pay the
face of the greenbacks in money is
still broken. If the greenbacks
, are the better money our currency
, should be exclusively greenbacks.
: If the national currency is the bet
ter one, national it should be ex-
, elusive greenbacks. There are
given objections to a purely gov
ernment currency, even if redeem
able in coin, for in case of a pleth-
oric treasury, either on account of
accumulating revenue or great
economy in expenditure, there is
no valve through which the funds
can reach the channels of trade,
except by modifying tariffs by
eXtravagant appropriations or by
: distribution among the States
which last would benefit only a few
} who might manipulate the funds.
: Eighty millions in the treasury did
not relieve us from the panic in
September. With an exclusive
Federal currency it might be a
matter of grave concern whether
the treasury balance was ten mil
lions or one hundred millions. The
accumulation of vast sums in the
Federal treasury, which may have
been part of the circulation of the
country, cannot fail to work great
injury. To an exclusive national
currency it is objected that it is
expensive, costing the country
twenty millions year in interest
on the bonds hypothecated to Sc
cure circulation, all of which
might he saved by a greenback
currency. Still greater, of course,
would be the expense If the green
backs should be retired and more
, national currency be issued to FIJI
the place. These objections, in
deed, have great weight, but it be-
J comes all prudent men to consider
, whether it is possible TO have an
exclusive government currency
with fewer objections. In the lat
ter case Congress would be yearlv
importuned to add to the yolumn
OF the currency, and in the CASE of
national currency, the law of sup
ply and demand, all modified by
;Irompt redemptiop. would control