The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1875-08-18
CONT r A c TON.
Our Currency has been Con-
tracted 1900, 5000,
Money has Become Dear-BOnds have
gone up-Bank Stocks have gone
up-Goid has gone up-Whiie Wool
has gone dOwn-IrOn has gone
down-Labor has gone down.

In speech delivered by Gen eral
George W. Morgan ut a democratic rally
at Canal Dover, Ohio, on the 7th inst.
he made the following romarks on the
financial question;
THE PRETESCE OF EEsUMING SPECIE
PAYMENTS.
lust now. nv friends, II vast deal i,
being said on the subject of resumIEg
specie payments. The bondholdeFS de.
mand specie payments. The bankers de
mand specie payments. What do these
men mean by a return TO specie payments.
DO they mean that ut the option OF the
holder of bank bill he shall obtain gold
when ho presents the bank note at the
bank counter? No, they mean nothing
Of the kind. With banker and bond
holder resumption of specie payments
means further contraction Of the cur
rencv; it means less money; II means
the still further shrinkage of all values
except gold and bank stock, and bonds;
it means to make one dollar buy two
dollars worth of property; it means to
double the fortunes OF the money owners
rv act of Congress.
No. fellow citizens, these men, rs will
prove to YOU, do not mean specie pay
ments, ana they know that such - thing
/, now impossible. In their avarice
they have gone money-mad. Their
bonds are worth twenty cents above
par, and their bank stock is worth from
Twenty-Five to thirty-thrce per cent.
above par and they are not yet satisfied.
On the l4th Of January last they pass
ed law through Congress entitled AN
act to provide tor the resumption OF
specie payments "a law which bears lie
on its face, for the law does not provide
that the banks shall redeem their paper
in specie; there is not the shadow OF
such a thing in its provisions. W Lat,
then, is this law! 1t provides that the
Secretary OF the Treasury shall ''as rap
idly as practicable have coined ten,
twenty-five and fifty cent pieces III silver
with which TO redeem the fractional cur
rencv now in circulation. The amount
: forty odd million dollars. How much
have they redeemed! Not dollaT-not
a dime. Who amoEg YOU have seen any
of this silver currency IN circulation!
Not one living man. And yet more
than six months have elapsed since that
law was passed. But suppose they did
issue this forty millions change in specie
how long would it be in circulation?
SIX weeks would dry up the last dime
Why? Because the men in power have
bv law deprecated the valne OF the paper
money; they have prohibited 1t from per-
forming all the functions OF money
they have provided That paper money
shall not be received rs money in the
payment OF $20O.0O0,OO0 paid at the Gus
;om House as tariff tax on imported
goods; they have required you to pay
the bondholder his interest in gold, and
also require You 10 receive paper interest
from the bundholdcr, should he owe you.
In short, by force of law paper money
/, made less valuable than specie, and
were iiOOO0,OOO of specie put in circu-
iatiun it would at once be gobblcd up by
the bankers and bondholders on specula-
ton. and the country would be lett with
mt small currency of any kind
What next does this law provide? In
n word, without going through the details
OF the bill, its provides for the issue Of
S3s2, 100000 of new five per cent bonds
to be sold at par Tor gold, in order I"
substitute that amount ot gold, r. they
pretend. for the =reenhaCks in Cjrcula-
ton. W here Is the gold 10 come trom'
Th.r" Is only $lO0OoOOOO in the United
State, and that is mostly owned by the
government, and Is used by the govern
mcnt to pay gold interest to the bond
holders, and this bondholdcr sells hi, gold
10 the merchant who imports goods at n
premium of from twelve 10 seventeen
per cent. Where, then, Is this S3s2 OOo,-
900 OF gold to come tromI From
Europe? No, for the European States
arr forced to buy god, and have but Ilttl"
u spare. How. then, can the green backs
be- withdrawn from circulation? II can
nil Ice done by the usc of 500 ,OOOGUoo OF
cold. and when $3S2O0O,OCO of green
backs are withdrawn from circulation
there will be left in their stead only
500 100000 of gold, and the volume Of
currency will he reduced 100000 600
We are now paving IL people IN Europe
$5O.OOOOOo or s60.O0O,OOO of gold inter
est in semi-annual payments. Before It
would leave the country II would be III
vested in the five per cent bonds ana
through the process of exchanges SloV,-
600 600 of gold would Withdraw the en-
tire $50 C0O000 Of grecubacks. And do
YOU doubt, nv follow citizens, what
would be- the effect Of this further re-
duct;on of the currency? Property
would be- odd Mt on"-tourth its value.
Rolling mills, furnaces and workshops
would be c.Csed. Our merchants would
h. mined and forced to make assign
ments. The owners of mines would be
forced to stop work, and hundreds OF
thousands of men, depending upon their
daily labor for their daily bread, would
be thrown out of employment;
And then in the midst..ot this accu-
INFLATED disaster the bondholder ana the
banker, having control OF all the
money in the country. would buy up
Your property at twenty-five cents on
the dollar, and. as in England, the bona
holders and the landowners would De
the selfsame men. And then in the midst
of this moral death, when the cry OF
hunger and lamentation will be heard
from every quarter, then the banker will
take further advantage of this bill OF lnl-
quity and claim to be Il special providence
by flooding the country with lrredeema-
bic millions of bank paper. For, fell