The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-01-23
THE FINANCIAL QUESTION.

1
! Carl Schurz' View of the Finanees-HOIv
to Resume.
i In the senate, last week, a resolution
from the finance cOmmi tee being before
that body, Mr.. Schurz spoke as follows
He said the issue now seemed to be
between resumption aud imitation. He
thought the doctrine of procrastination
| in redeeming the legal tenders an alarm
! ing and dangerous one. He was sur
| prised to hear the statement of the sec
ator from Massachusetts (BoutwelI)
| about France, since the credit of that
country has not been impaired. He
| (Schurz) thought the pubic credit would
be seriously impaired wheE the govern
ment adopted the doctrine of the gen.
| tleman that the government redeem its
| promises to pay only when 1t pieases to
! do so. Mr.. Schurz expressed his dis
/ approval of re-lssulng any portion Of
| the forty-tOur million reserve, and went
on to give his views as to the cause of
| the recent panic. and continued
We have neither a foreign war nor
domestic rebellion at our gates to-day,
nor any other disaster upon US, to cause
an increase of our currency. This
proposition to invest the government
with such power meant it should exer-
L.
any amount of irredeemable legal ten
| der paper as money, or, in other words,
| it placed all the private fortunes in the
country at the mercy of the federal
| government. Did senators think the
| American people would ever invest any
| branch of the government with this
| great power ? None but despotic gov
ernments ever claimed such power. It
was virtually debasing the coin of the
realm, and he hoped congress would
consider well before it adopted any such
measure. IF the currency should be ex-
panded to ten thousand millions, the
! people would complain of insuficiency.
| Why? Because an excessive issue gen
orally effected a rise in the prices in the
| commodities of living, while a return
| to specie payments decreased the prices
of those articles. An irredeemable cur
rency always diverted capital from le
| gitimate business enterprises. Hence
| the continued and Unsuitable demand
| for more. The more the currency is
expanded, the greater will this evil be-
come.
| He did not agree with his colleague,
MIR. Bogy, that new national banks
| should he started in the west, or that
| the issue of these should be increased,
as he did not believe that the money
issued by them would stay there and
benefit that region. He argued that
the relief sought by an initiation of
| the currency would be mere illusion.
Let it be supposed that every individ-
ual in the country could wake up in the
morning and find ten dollars IN bis
pocket in place of one the day before.
What a jubilee there would be among
the fools Did any sane man suppose
the wealth of the country would be in
| creased? f? Not in the least Or wealth
of any citizen be the greater? Not
! particle. For, on going to market next
morning he would have to pay ten dol
lars for what one dollar would have
! purchased the day before. Every con-
| sideration of good faith and sound pol
icy seems to urge us to put an end to
| this iniquitous system in regard to a
return to specie payment. He said he
| desired to enter his protest against two
| plans That presented by the senator
from Michigan (Ferry), to first expand
the currency and revive the posterity of
the country, and, second, that proposed
! by the senator from Massachusetts
| (BoutwelD, to donothing, but let things
remain as now. Return to sDecie pay
ment must be preceded by severe re-
! trenchment in public and private ex-
| penditures, by prudence In our business
enterprises, by a recognition of the
truth that honesty and productive labor
is the true source of wealth. He thought
| that If the plan of the senator from
| Michigan should prevail, it would be
| goodbye retrenchment Good-by
economy Let imitation prevail As to
! that of the gentleman from Massachu-
sett (BoutwelD, he said it was do
nothing policy, and the country had
| already seen the evils of it. The gen
tleman had adhered to that policy faith
! fully while he was secretary of the
| treasury, and his successor had followed
the same course. He (Schurz) thought
! the country should understand these
teachings and profit by the lesson. The
| plan of the senator from Massachusetts
| was the most dangerous, because it
bore some aspect of plausibility, ami
| would present itself as feasible to a
large class of people who did not study
deeply the question of finance. 1t was
not proper for congress to stand still
and let disease wo~k its own cure.
We would present a sorry spectacle
/ to the world by hiding our heads In the
| sand and saying we are afraid to move
/ lest We break something, when the
| break down has already occurred. He
! declared 1t to be his candid opinion that
! Ile present Tune IS the most OppOrtune
/ since the close of the war to resume
] specie payment. If this time be lost
! be would have to await another fnan-
cial crisis and overcome greater OBJ
! stacles. Many of the difficulties in the
way of specie resumption has been sur
mounted by the crisis. Let it be under
I stood that we are to return to specie
payments, and every sensible man will
take care to run in debt no more than
| IS absolutely necessary, when he knows
that with which he is to pay such debt