Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-10-08
The Money PrnhIenl.1

In commenting upon the Legaltender meeb'
ing held At Cooper Institute, on the evening of
Septemher %, the New York Herdd presents
the financial question in its true aspect. 1t
was a meeting of Democratic infationists,
called BY the New York Legal-Tender Club,
and one of the aTo8ed objects Of the meeting
was to urge the organization of Legal-Tender
clubs throughout the State of New York, "to
give strength to the great Democratic party in
Ohio and Pennsylvania in the approaching can
vass."
The New York Herald remarks as follows ::
1.-THE PENNSYLVANIA Democratic platform,
following that of the Ohio Democrats, asserts
that the contraction of the money currency
and circulating medium heretofore made by the
Republican party, and the further contraction
proposed by It, with a view to forced resump-
tion of specie payments, has already brought
disaster to the country and threatens general
bankruptcy. We demand that this policy be
abandoned and so on.
at Is true that the country is not in pros
porous condition. The reasons for this 1t is
Important 10 ascertain; and if 1t is fact that
the currency has been seriously contracted,
and that it is this contraction which brought
upon US the general prostration of industry
and business, the New York Legal Tender
Club and the Ohio and Pennsylvania Demo
Gratis perform an important public service in
calling the attention of the people to the mat
ter. For it is of the greatest importance that
the country shall be prosperous; 1t is of the
utmost moment to remove every cause which
hinders e revival of industry and renewal of
prosperity. Unfortunately for them the ma
jor premise of their political syllogism is false,
and the minor one is too, for that matter; but
with the first their whole statement falls to
the ground. They speak of the contraction
of the money currency and circulating me-
dunn heretofore made by the Republican
party and in this assertion they show either
the most astonishing ignorance or an equally
surprising dependence on the ignorance of the
people. For the plain truth is that the Re-
publican party, so far from contracting the
currency, has, siace the accession of General
Grant, almost continually expanded it,.
"Oficial tables show that:We have to-day
in circulation, in round numbers, s769, ,000, 900
of paper money, while We had in 1873 but
$40 0O0, ,OO0 IN 1872 only S7S1 900 goo, in ISL
but S711 ,000, 600, in 1870 only S6SS ,000, 900,
and so on. In 1888, the year before Gen.
Grants accession, the currency amounted to
S67s, ,0OO, 900. Since that time, instead of
being contracted, as these Democrats pre-
tend, It has besn steadily expanded to its
present volume of S769, ,000, 900, with but two
years In which there has been a trivial Con-
traction-in 1869 of $4,000 900, and in 1874 OF
IS, ,0O0,000 =
|Unluckily for the tnfationists, but fortu-
nately for the country, their rhisstatemeht may
be used to fix the attention of the people upon
the fact that the general depression of indus
try and business cannot be owing to q con-
traction of the currency, and thus they may
prove to have rendered a real service to the
country. There is no doubt thEt Industry has
been and still is depressed, though there are
signs Of a revival of business. But nothing
can be more certain than that the pisfortunes
of the country did not come from contraction;
because there has been no Contraction In
1869 the country was PROSPEROUS; now 1t fis
unprosperous. But in 1869 we had ls676, ,000,.
600 of currency afoat, and to-day We have
$769, ,0OO, 900. In 1854 the, country vas pros
| porous, with a circulation, specie and paper
of $445 000, 900, OF $3.50 per head of our theI
population; in 1859 the country was prosper
Gus, with circulation of $46S, ,000, 900, specie
and paper, or $3.50 per head of our then
population; in 1874 it was depressed and suf
| fering, with SIT, ,000, 600, or SIS per head OF
the population. Surely It is absurd to assert
that lack Of currency has anything to dc
with the general depression. Not only has
the currency been steadily expanded, but we
have more to-day per head of the population
without reckoning the gold which circulate:
in California and Texas, than we had before
| the war.
"One of the causes of the depression lies
undoubtedly, in the character of our currency
| 1t is a fraud-a broken promise to pay money
So long as it retains that character, SO long a.
it remains irredeemable, it will continue to dis
| turb confidence and disable enterprise anC
| industry in spite of continuous imitation. An(
this less on account of its volume than becaust
it will constantly be the sport of demagoguel
| and tinkerers in conventions and in Congress
| because its value is a matter depending upol
the humor of the people at the elections, or tht
manipulation of Congress by legislation. Be
fore enterprise can revive, before confidence cal
be restored, before capital can be induced Il
invest in manufactures, before business cal
| become lively, we need to have the currency 81
established that its value shall not be affected
| by resolutions of political conventions or b,
| debates in Congress, and that can be done onll
| by making it redeemable in coin. There is M
other way to give paper dollar a constan
value than to make it interchangeable at tn
will of the holder for gold or silver dollar
And there is no other way to re-establish tn
country in prosperity, to set our mills and fac
tories and thousand industries going again
than to give to the dollar q constant value no
| liableto be affected by any circumstances what
ever.
"There are members of the New York Lega
Tender Club probably who will not see thi
plain truth; but even these must admit tha
contraction has nothing to do with the presen
| prostration, because there has been no con
| traction, and because to-day the currency is 81
redundant that millions of dollars of it lie idl
in banks.
"But the condition of the currency-not its
| contraction, but its undue and unfortunate
| expansion-is only one cause of the prostra
tioR of industry. Another and potent cause Il
to be found in the bursting of the great rail
road bubble in 1873. We had been buildin!
railroads in the wilderness for g number O
years, largely on land grants, subsidies, anC
bonds issued or guaranteed by States, coun
| ties, cities, and even townships. Enormou
| sums we're thus spent, or rather wasted; anC
/ this was not all. Thousands of families wert
moved upon new lines of railroad, and spen
their savings for worthless land bought a
| high prices, only to find that when the roai
was completed they were left beyond th'
reach of a market for their products. In ever,
way money was wasted in the work of build
ing railroads. But in the meantime the man
| ufacture of iron in all those branches used By
railroads received remarkable stimulus; tht
iron mills, foundries, and forges were al
busy; the thousands of people who were EN-
ployed in them, and the other thousands who
depended upon them, and the still other thou
sands who sold them their supplies, all wer
| enriched. The business became SO great, ant
the industries depending on or prohting by /
| were so numerous that the whole country fel
the stimulus of an artificial and false pros
peIity.
"The railroad projectors were using not capi
tai earned, but borrowed money. When a
last they could borrow no more they suddenly
stopped. What was the result? First, tn
thousands of men who had been used in build
ing the railroads were discharged, and tn
other thousands of farmers, manufacturers an,
shopkeepers who had supplied these with tn
necesssries and luxuries of life in turn lost tn
market for their products. Then, secondly
the demand for railroad iron-not track bar
alone, but the whole mass of ironmonger
needed by railroads-was seriously checked
and, again, other thousands of families Wer
thrown out of employment by the stoppage @
mills, foundries and machine shops and
again, still other rthousands-farmers,m ,manufaC
turers, merchants and shopkeepers-found
heavily diminished market for their products
But with the stoppsge of iron mills came tn
stoppage of coal mining; with the stoppage c
railroad building came check to the lumbe
business, and in every case loss and diminlshe
trade fell upon the numerous population VIII
live by supplying coal miners, lumbermen, cal
penters, car makers, &c.
"Between September, 1878, and September
1875, in less than two years, over one thousan
millions of railroad bonds in the United State
have been declared "failed, }" which means ths
the interest due to their owners has not bee
paid. How much of this great sum is hel
here is not known-probably not less than hal
This, again, represents a great loss of incoml
much of which would have been expended; an
here again is loss of market to producers
all kinds.
Consumption being thus checked by generi
loss, poverty and prostration, consequent upo
! wastefnl railroad construction IL ia nat1r,