Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1875-08-26
The State That Has the Solid
Dollar.
From the Cincinnati Commercial.

An ancient proverb declares that
an ounce of practice is worth a
pound of precept. Amid the chaos
of conflicting precepts and theories
on the financial question, let us APP
peal moment to a practical example.
4 demonstration of the superior mer-
its and blessings of sound currency
in the material welfare of commu-
nity is worth more than many acres
of theory.
In this country of irredeemable
currency, of prolonged suspension of
specie payments, of unsubstantial
paper dollars, and of dishonored
promises to pay on demand, there is
one State which has no irredeemable
currency, no paper dollar, and no
dishonest promises to pay. In all the
evil days of currency imitation, of
speculative bubbles, and of suspen-
sion of specie payments, California
has stuck to the solid dollar, and the
beniiiccnt result is now soen in her
superior prosperity, In the low prices
of the means of living to her people,
and in her rapid growth in agricul-
turo, shipping, and commercial
wealth of every kind. There are in
California thirteen National and
State banks, possessing an aggregate
capital of $l0,900,000. These banks
all do business strictly on the specie
basis. Whenever check is paid,
the amount is honestly counted out
to the dealer in coin, They will not
credit customer unless his deposit
is made strictly equal to gold. In
stead of putting themselves into a po-
sition where two checks can be
drawn at sight upon the same dollar,
their discounts are confined to their
solid means of action, and they ere
ate no distress among the people by
that initiating the prices of property
on false bases, which comos always
of doing business ON rredeemable pa
per.
Besides the National and State
banks, California has twenty-fOur
Savings banks, the deposits in which,
belonging to several thousand depOsi-
tors, amount in the aggregate to S4S,-
100000. This Is a much larger
amount of invested savings than any
other State in the Union can show in
proportion to wealth and population.
The State debt of California, which
was, in 1871, only $4, ,62l, ,2l2, has fall
len, in 1875, to less than S3,000,OOO.
The city debt in San Francisco, in
stead of being a heavy permanent
mortgage upon the property OF It's
citizens, is mere bagatelle, amount
ing to ~, 100000, or only one and a
half per cent. upon its valuation OF
$3.50, O,0OO, less percentage upon
its property than the debt OF any
other city in the whole Union. As a
paper money currency tends always
and everywhere to stimulate the abuse
of credit, and to swell all manner oil
debt, public and private, so a hard
money currency, on the other hand'
tends to keen down Indebtedness,
whether State, county or municipal
While almost every State and city in
the East has heavily increased its
debt during the last few years, many
of them having doubled since the
war, California, on the other hand
shows both locally and generally q
a steady decrease of the amount o
debt, and consequently of the public
burdens. The absolute total of thu
public debts owed in California, in
GLIDING State, county, city and towI
Indebtedness, is only $1S,00O,OOO,
: sum little larger than that owed by
, the city of Cincinnati alone; while
the value of property in the STATE
amounts to $774,631, ,524. The in
debtedness, therefore, represents nu
: little over two per cent. on 'n'
value of property. or
!. 1t has been supposed that Caii
fornia as a productive State Is iimi
ted chiefly to it's mineral wealth
! But this is a great mistake. The
value of its farm products alone il
1870 amounted to more than double
the value of the gold product. The
vast increase in the agricultural de
!: veIopment of California, where agri
culture is carried on upon the basis
. of the solid dollar, may be seen il
the fact that the State produced II
: 1870 no less than 1856 702 bushels
: of wheat, against 5,92S,470 bushels
4; in 1860. In fact, this new State nov
: ranks as the seventh among tn
t, grain producing States of the Union
Her hay crop. which is the first il
money value of all the products 0
the soil in the United States, has al
: vanced in the same time from 305, ,OO
f tons to SOL, ,703 tons, greater ad
h vance than can be shown by an