The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1875-11-04
INITIATION ANALYZED.
IMPORTANT LETTER FROM R. w. HUGHES

IMPORTANT r. HUGHES.
NORFOLK, Oct IS, 1875
My Dear Sirs:-I lately received your letter
asking of me an expression of opinion on the
subject of currency and imitation. The late at
tempt to connect this subject with party poll
tics has failed, and any citizen is now free to
diecuss it at will, without fear of being drawn
into the muddy stream OF party polemics. 1t
may be well for some stern utterances on this
subject to proceed from the South, for the idea
has got abroad that we are all clamerous for in
flation. I do not hope to say anything orgi-
nal OH a topic which is SO earnestly discussed.
but will at least say something positive. OF
course, make no claim to the authority OF an
expert in finance, but speak only from such
advantages of observation and reflection as are
common to every citizen of the land.
Until lately had supposed that both the
South and North had
HAD ENOUGH OF INITIATION
to make them avoid it for many generations
At the South it overthrow all our banks. insu-
rance companies and moneyed corporations,
and destroyed all our stocks of every kind. In
this and other ways it cost us the loss of more
capital than the abolition OF slavery itself. All
our securities, representing the surplus wealth
of the richest people per capita in the world,
which were the accumulation of long years OF
prosperity, passed into the form Of Confeder-
ate money and became worthless. 1t brought
US, before the end, to a state OF barter, which.
in respect to finance, is a state Of barbarism,
and Jllls it became almost literally true that a
Richmond housekeeper, going to market in the
morning, could take his money in his basket
and bring home what is purchased in his pock
ct.
At the North, but for che events of Gettys-
burg and Vicksburg in 1868, and the sudden
close CT the war i'll 1865, the money OF the
Government would have been equally worth
less, and like universal collapse in the value
and total loss of all securities would have en-
sued.
And this happened in both sections, although
the imitation was the necessity of war, and it
was the duty OF patriotism-a duty to which
the people responded with alacrity-to support
the money of the Government.
WE HAVE NOT YET ESCAPED
the consequences of imitation. The present
long continued depression OF business is the re-
suit Of the reaction which has followed of ne
cessity the high prices, great extravaganza, fac
titous wealth, insidiously grown insolvency
and widespread indebtedness which initiation
produced. The remedy for the evil of the
times does not lie in renewed and indefinite in
flation, but in time and patience, in public and
private retrenchment and economy,in pluck on
the part of each individual to look his affairs
squarely i'll the face, to accept poverty if it be
his real condition, to acknowledge it with hon
est frankness, and to make it honorable and
creditable by manly personal industry and eff
fort. The larger and better class Of people ev-
erywhere are pursuing these golden methods
of extrication from their difficulties, and the
policy will soon tell most etfectually on the
condition of the country, which is already just
beginning to emerge from the depression of
the last few years into an era of recnperaton,
which will gradually grow, am confident, into
one OF unexampled prosperity and unpreceden-
ted enterprise. Now that We are
JUST ON THE EVE OF BETTER TIMES,
it seems to me to be a strange faulty that leads
anybody to propose q return to imitation, in q
period of profound peace, after the melancholy
experience we have had of its runous and abb
ding consequences. The object is, by making
money cheap and abundant, to enable the in
solvent classes to bridge over their present diff
fculties, and put off for an underlined period
the ultimate and inevitable pay day. Individ-
uals might succeed. by this help, in eluding
the necessity of liquidating their affairs. but
not so the insolyent classes generally. These
might be enabled by imitation to continue in
the practice OF borrowing, but they would
thereby only be making debts in paper money
which some day would have to be paid for
dearly. For initiation in the nature of things,
cannot last long. return to the policy, IN
time Of peace, would soon destroy all conf
dence in paper money, and contracts would
have to be made on the basis of specie. Then
the debtor would be worse off than now, for
he would have an increased debt, contracted in
cheap money, to pay off in dear money and
''the last state Of the debt would be worse than
the first"
Indeed, if return to specie payments were
an end to be accomplished regardless of conse-
quenees, know Of no surer way OF forcing the
country into it than by imitation for by that
means confidence in paper money would be
destroyed, and a return to the use of coin
would be Il necessity.
YET IT is NOT ACTUALLY SPECIE PAYMENTS
that is desired or necessary. What is wanted
is, that the measure OF value shall be honest,
fixed and true. AS we want our yard-stick to
measure yard, and our pound-weights to
weigh pound, so we want our dollars OF cur
rency to be worth dollar in value. The cur
ranrv dollar is now only worth about tip{,fy.