The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-10-08
GOV. DIX ON ISFLATION.

one, and we should not underestimate
the hostile force we shall have to encoun-
ter. 1t will embrace:
1. Professional politicians, who think
sthe cry of ''more money" apopular one.
and whose advocacy of public measures
is usually shaped by this narrow and sell
fish consideration.
%. Manufacturers, for the purpose
of keeping up the price of gold, or rath-
er depressing the value of paper money,
by adding to its volume, and thereby Sc
curing a virtual increase of the impost
on foreign products which come in COM
petition With thesr on n. thus accomplish
ing all the ends of higher tariff of du-
ties on imports.
| 3. A class of theorists, who do not
seruple to set up their crude opinions
against those of the most intelligent
statesmen, and the most able and pro-
found political economist of the age, and
who, regardless of all the experience of
mankind, hold an imitation and irredeem-
able paper currency to be an element of
prosperity, when every community which
has tested it has found it source of in
dividual ruin and national disgrace.
4. A well-meaning but hopeless class
of persons, who honestly think that more
money of any kind must be beneficial to
them, and who cannot be made to un-
derstand that two paper dollars, worth
fifty cents each, in gold, are of no great
er value than one paper dollar worth its
face in gold
5. The most formidable corps of the
army of infationists-the dishonest por-
ton of the debtor interest of the coun-
try, who are aiming to pay their debts in
dopr1Ulatvd paper, aIAd 10 derrauo their
creditors of their just dues; for If the
paper currency can be so augmented as
to reduce it fifty per cent. below the par
of specie, a man who owes $40, 900 can
pay his debts with s.. 900. But it is ia
tality with nearly every species of injus-
tice and fraud that the means by which
it seeks to effect its object almost always
defeats It. The debtors who desire to
defraud their creditors by making paper
money more abundant and less valuable
would be the very first to suffer from the
measures they propose. The indication
of purpose on the part of the Govern
ment to increase the volume of paper
would be a signal for creditors to.enforce
the payment ofItheir dues. Every man
who had mortgaged his real estate or hy-
pothecated his personal property would
be called on to pay before paper, which
the Legal Tender Act eompels the cred
itor to take, had become so deprecated
as to render his security less valuable, or,
possibly, worthless. Thus the most nu-
merous and clamorous class of inhation-
lists would be the first victims OF the
fraudulent purpose they are seeking to
accomplish.
Finally, there is a class who really
think our paper circulation, though va
rying from thirteen to seventeen per
cent. below par, to be the best currency
in the world, and who honestly believe
that the country would be benefited by
having more of it. But my respect for
the intelligence of my countrymen COM
pels me to think that they are compare
lively few in number.
little La6Oring classes and all other
sChtch are paid specific toGges ooottld
consider that for eUery S. theg get in de-
preciated paper, mitch the Legal tender
Act eOmpels them to take from their en-
ployers, theg only Teeetce 81 25, they
aoould comprehend the erte1lt to 1oiatch
that act defrauds them. If they would
consider further that, in case the circu-
Iation were increased so as to make 1t
worth only fifty per cent in specie, and
that would get no more than two dollars
and half for every five dollars paid
them, they would understand how deep
an interest they have in the resumption
of specie payments.
Our prosperity and our good faith are
not alone concerned in the settlement of
this question. 1t involves our reputation
before the civilized world; and the judg-
ment of all countries in regard to it are
so well established that the false step
which the infatioHists are urging us to
take would be far more likely to be as
cribed to want of integrity than to a
want of knowledge. am, dear sir, very
truly yours, JOHN A DIX
Hon. REVERDY JOHNSON.