Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1875-10-13
TEIE4E1sa EsAEDEHEC.
TfsE FINANCIAL QUESTION.


ST. LoJIs. Oct. S.--Carl SEIZURE has
written letter to the editor OF the
Cincinnati Commercial in answer to n
letter OF Wendell Phillips. recently
published in the New York Herald.
lie takes up the four points OF his
Cincinnati speech which Mr.. Phillips
dWclt upon and attempted to dis
prove. First. the statement of GOV.
Allen in his speech that money in
bank was practically no money. which
Schur2 rciteratcs is absurd. because
the business transactions Of the coun-
try are. for the most part, carried on
without the actual exchange of.
money.
lie proceeds 10 argue that Phillips,
in supporting his views of finance,
commits innWmcrablc hlnndcrs and
absurdiies. lie says Mr. Phillips in
urging the abolition of the bonds.
notes. &c. through which The gigant-
ic business Of the clearing houses is
transacted. and 10 put in the place of
that Medium OF exchange. his system
OF ercenbacks and ineonvertiblc
bonds. and compel the actual hand
ling over OF grecnbacks, and advises
merely return TO the clumsy meth
ODDS OF barbarism. As he (Schurz) un-
derstood il. the inconvertible bonds
given by the Government, are to be
exchanged at the option of the hold
or, and hcGoyernment must discount
notes and sell bills of exchange. ac-
commoda,c private business, etc.
This gentleman did he take an active
4 a
idea OF abolishing the present system
of checks. etc, which would cfi'ectu-
ally stop business. Second. Phillips
impugns the doctrine that the expan-
sion of an iIredecmable paper cur
rency will result in its depreciation.
| and asks, didn't the currency fluctu-
ate during the rebellion. irrespective
of the amount in circulation? Ger
tainly: but currency is affected by
two things :by the credit of the gov
eminent issuing it, and relation OF
volume to business requirements. The
yicissitudes of war changed the prob
abilities of redemption. Every battle
won, raised the value of greenbacks
and gold came down with tremen.
dous bounds when Lee surrendered
Mr.. Schurz alluded to the Continent
al money which increased in quaint.
ity until it decreased in value to moth.
ing to France which had its assignats
of which it finally needed a bushel to
buy a palate 40 Russia and Austria
which had similar experience. Phil
lips is either ignorant of the differ
cnce between an irredeemable cur
. rency, and paper money convertible
into coin. or he has wilfully misquot.
ed Bonamy Price. Prof. Price. Schurs
. is sure. would inquire after Mr.. Phil.
: lips health should the latter venture
} to say in his hearing that iiredeema
bic paper, beyond the amount whiel
would circulate i'll gold. would no
initiate prices. Third Schurz says h,
said in his speech that irredeemabl'
currency promotes extravaganza ant
: corruption. This, Phillips attempts
! 10 combat by saying thai Great Brit
ain fought the battle Of Waterloo by
7 means of notes. and so did we the lat,
+ war He forgets tha! the question i
not about time OF emergency whel
I all other resources are exhausted, bu
. whether an emission of such pape
! will promote extravaganza. and Ia,
. must not cvade this question. UpoI
! this point Schnr2 instanced numerou
!. clses, where an abundance of eurreE
I | cy has worked evils to the countr,
which issued il. He instanced again
the prosperity Of France under III,
Q specie payment system. Fourth. Tina
Phillips attacked his position tina
0 only the specie payment system vii
! remove current values from the arbi