The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-03-18


this want is to adopt the policy which would
be ga detriment and shame" We admit
that it would be unbrotherly and selfish to
forget the West in her time of distress. But
is the West in want; and if SO is the true
remedy an issue OF currency2 For if the
West has no money now how are the people
to obtain this new issue of currency? Money
would be in Wall street within twenty
four hours, and there they would remain for
Wall street could buy this currency, which
the West could not 1t must be purchased
when issued. Senator Logan certainly does
not mean to issue so many greenbacks head to
his suffering constituents to enable them ''to
enter upon new career of prosperity And
in the fulness of his knowledge he must be
aware that an addition to our volume of
currency would be to increase the cost of
every article of commerce, of the comforts
and necessities of life, of our -four our
potatoes and our salt 1t would increase
these values and decrease the wages of labor.
Every man with fixed income would feel the
change Immediately. The poor man would
find that his wages would not purchase
what they did before. The former would
have every article necessary to his
industry increased in value, his crops
and stocks and other possessions de-
creased; for the moment we begin to call
printed paper currency it has an artificial
value, and we do not know where we rest.
We go the way of the French assignats, the
Continental currency, the Confederate notes,
the old-time ''shinplasters. Of what value
is hundred dollars to the poor man if din
ner will cost him two hundred? And, once
enter upon that policy, where will it end 1t
can only result, as the venerated Sumner so
gravely and truly says, in ga detriment and a
shame
MIR. Logan draws a picture of what would
result from the increase of currency. Into the
realms Of his imagination We have not the
courage to penetrate. 1t is in rhetoric of this
soaring quality that the amateur statesman
always holds us at an advantage. We
are certain also that the Senator will
stand to his position, no matter how the
moneyed monopolies may attack him or the
metropolitan newspapers dOuSc duu CIltClSe
him. We have no desire to either abuse or
criticise the Senator; for we hold him in
especial kindness, so much so that we repeat
nothing would please US more than to see
him advance in his circling career, and
become an amateur bishop or an admiral
in the navy What the Senator fails to see now
he would have to learn before entering holy
orders, that we cannot call the falsehood
truth without breaking the commandments
Before he went far into navigation he would
learn that two and two make four and not
eleven, and that no act of the Senate can make
the sum eleven These propositions are the very
alphabet of reason, and it seems waste of time
to dwell upon them. But statesmen like John
A. Logan generally skip the alphabet in en-
tering upon new calling, and this is why we
find it necessary to impress upon him, as an
amateur financier, that we cannot print paper
and call it money; that We cannot add to the
burden of our debt and expect to become a
solvent, specie-paying people; that, in the
words of the venerated Sumner, we can
not issue a new volume of incontrovertible
currency without undergoing "a detriment
and a shame"