The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-09-28
GOLD VS.. GREENBACKS.
Speech of Hon. Carl Schurz at Cincin-
natl.


business men Of Cincinnati have greatly hon
ored me by inviting me to address the people
OF Ohio as an advocate of honest money. For
that honor L offer them my sincere thanks. L
have accepted that invitation, deeply sensible
of the magnitude of the question and the far
reaching importance of the declaration of
sentiment which the people of Ohio will soon
be called upon to make at the ballot box. l
am told that my appearance IN this campaign
has been represented as part OF concerted
plan to lead independent voters of the country
into the ranks of the Republican party to sup
port its candidates in the Presidential election
of 1876. That story is an idle invention. 1t is,
therefore, no sentimental Partially for the
Republican party that brings me here.
Proclamation has been made by the Democratic
leaders of Ohio that this state campaign is to
be of decisive effect as to the issues of the
Presidential election of 1876, and in the very
front of these issues they have placed one
which involves not only the national interests,
but the character good aud the whole moral
being of the American people. An attempt is
being made to secure the endorsement by the
people OF the state of a financial policy which,
if followed by the national government, would
dscredit Republican institutions the world
over, expose the American people to the ridi-
Guile and contempt of civilized mankind, make
our political as we'll as business life more than
ever the hot bed OF gambling and corruption,
and plunge the country into all those depths OF
moral and national bankruptcy and ruin. The
success of the initiation party in Ohio will be
the signal for the general charge along the
whole line to submerge the best principles and
leave helpless III the the best leaders of the
Democratic party, and spurred on by reckless
demagogism to capture the national power
| by a tumultuous rush. This is no matter of
mere local concern, as some weakly pretend to
believe. 1t is national danger which all
| good citizens should unite to avoid, aud which
| surely can be avoided only by defeat of inaa-
| ton here. l have not come here to white
| wash faults of the Republican party. I beg
Loo lIroc rav be 10 II
Democrats of Ohio. l am honestly and earn
estly opposed to the success of the initiation
| Democracy in Ohio.
Among all the glorious absurdties with
| which the initiation hool of fnanciers have
been flooding the land find none equal to this
| theory of Gov. Allen in brlliancy of nonsense
money in bank is no money at all for bust
ness because it is in bank. Only about per
cent. of the business transactions are accom-
plished by an actual transfer and delivery of
currency from hand to hand, and that fully SO
per cent. of those transactions are effected by
the transfer of bank accounts through checks,
notes and bills of exchange. He does not
know that SO per cent. of the circulation of the
money in this country is effected through lhese
very banks. which he likens to the bottom of
the Pacific Ocean,
One thing is universally admitted: if the
value of our irredeemable paper money is
| increased, it will further depreciate. The
paper dollar which is worth So cents in gold
| now will be worth 80 or 20 or 60 or 80 cents
then, and what you can buy for one dollar in
paper now will cost $1.25~o $1.4 or $1.50
| then. As the paper money depreciates and
loses its purchasing power, its power of effect
| ing exchanges will decrease in a corresponding
| measure. A transaction requiring the use of
300 now will require 1925 or $3.50 or $3.50 then.
What follows? The increased quantity of the
currency bringing with it No increased power
of effecting exchanges, in consequence of cor
responding depreciation. You try further ex-
| pansion, and the result will be exactly the
same.
You go on trying that way to make the vol
ume OF currency equal to the wants of trade
| and the initiation will be indefinite until finally
| currency becomes so worthless as to effect no
| changes at all, the edifce tumbes down in I'M
| iyersal reputation, bankruptcy and ruin.
afoat, one by buying up o. S. gold bearing
| bonds or gold TO pay off the bonds But it is
certain that this method will answer only in
very limited measure for this single reason; as
you put out new greenbackS with the prospect
of a large emission the greenbacks will rapidly
depreciate as to gold, and as the bonds are
payable, princir al and interest in gold they
will maintain their gold value and thus the
price in paper money will thereby become so
high that the method of putting out green
backs by purchasing bonds will soon become
very unpopular and be dropped. Or ii you
mean to repudiate the bonds Of which, as l
understand there is at present no declared pur
pose, then of course you will simply repudiate
them and not buy them up at all. But there
| is another way of accomplishing new issues of
greenbacks. 1t is by carrying the expenses of
| the government beyond the revenue and this I
have no doubt will be resorted to as the favor
| tie method Do you know what that means s?
Imagine Congress making appropriations of
money for the avowed purpose of getting out,
putting afoat, spending as much money as
possible and adopting systematic extravaganza
nancial policy to the end of making and keep
ing the volume of currency eqnal to the wants
of trade. What day of jubilee there will be
among the thieves and rascals who think they
setaffns asfhaelF az faJJtbb. .respectabty by
ey. bitches must be dug, embankments
thrown up, railroad and steamboat lines SUBJ
sidized for the very purpose OF spending mon
ey that the volume of the currency may be
made and kept equal to the want of trade.
What carnival of fraud! What flying
about of stray millions! Money will be no OBJ.
ject to the country. The more spent the bet
ter, for greenbacks must be got ont in Obedl
ence to the mandate to make and keep the
volume OF the currency equal to the wants OF
trade. This is no exaggeration. You adopt a
financial policy making it the duty of the ma
tional government to put out new issues of
currency in any way that will serve the object
quickest, and unlimited extravaganza then
will be the necessary and inevitable conse-
quence.
There never was government ever so care
| full which did not by the emission of large
gu antilles of irredeemable paper money run
In 1873, when the business crash occurred,
| there were in the aggregate more legal tenders
| and bank notes out than ever before. Includ
| ing fractional currency there were $9,000,00O
more than in 1872; over $29, 600 600 more than
| in 1871; over $50, 900 900 more than in 1870;
| sos, 100000 than in 1869: $56,000,000 than in
1868; SAG, 000, 900 than in 1867, and even if we
count the compound interest notes into the
volume of circulating currency, we find that
we had in 1873, the year of the crash, a general
aggregate Of 100000 more than in 1872 over
| S29 1000 ,0e0 more than in 1871, over $5I 100000
more than in 1870, over $56, 100000 more than
| in 1865 and yet just the last year mentioned
has generally been called the yeaEot unexam-
the currency had reached its geatess volume
that collapse came which the infiationists
would have us believe was aused by contrac
ton of currency would ldtnish the relief we
are full of money Iyng idle for want of EN-.
ployment, we war! more currency. tell you
| business can ha,6 as much as it likes without
any further aeS of the government. You can
issue apy apount OF currency, but the currency |
| will not irfate one CENTS worth and you who |
camor er more currency do net lift finger to |
createdlore. On the first of July of thus wear |
neWturrency had been issued to old and new |
| bzDks amounting to 81, $50, 900, but according |
10 a letter addressed to me by the Comptroller
Dof the Currency, $23579,134 of legal tender |
notes have been deposited with the treasurer |
for the purpose of retiring national baL k notes |
under the act of June 20, 1874, while under the
redemption system by the same act over $40 |
000.0 600 of national bank notes have been re |
tired, by far the greater part of this redemption
taking place In the West and South, which we |
are told were starving for more circulation By |
the 10Th of Septp mber that figure had risen to |
nearly $29,000,000. The business of the coun- |
try is, they tell US, suffering most terribly for
want of currency. Laboring men are to a very |
large amount ere 1itors Of the country Iven- |
ture to say that there is neither a manufacture |
er, nor merchant, nor professional man of |
means in the assembly who is not debtor, and |
among his creditors in SO cases out of huud- |
red are his fellow Workmen or his servants to |
whom he owes wages for part of week or a
month.
1t has been calculated by good authority that
the wages thus constantly owing for an average |
of half months service or work, amount In |
the whole country to $780, 900. And who is |
it that owns the deposits in savings banks
amounting to $76O,OO0 600? Not the rich but
the laboring people and persons of small
MEANS who put their surplus earnings there
for safe keeping. 1t is estimated that the same |
class in national and private banks and in trust |
companies have another 5000 OOO, 900, and near.
ly $130,000,000 is owing them in other kinds of |
debts. There il, then, the sum of about ST.
200, 600, 900 owing to the laboring peOnIe and