The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-07-14
INITIATION AND WHAT rs THOUGHT
ABOUT 1T,

i AOVO4 4As
Imitation, strictly speaking, is blowing q
or enlarging the space occupied without IL
crease of weight. An imitation of the cu1
rency signifies an enlargement Of the quan
tity without any increase Of the aggregat
value. When currency is worth par OF gol
it is not inflated. Increase the quantity unit
it takes two paper dollars to equal one gol'
dollar in purchasing capacity, and We So
that the currency is inflated. Increase pape
money so that it becomes cheap in compari
son with gold or with merchandise and yo1
initiate it, or add to its bulk without increasing
its market value or purchasing power. Yo'
have rent, flour, meat, sugar, medicines, pre-
cisely as they were in reality, but you increas
them nominally.
Having fully and freely expressed our view
upon these matters. we propose to show tina
others look upon imitation in much the sam'
| light as we have done.
Beginning at home, the New Orleans Times
of June g. says that the South is sin favor O
q return to specie payments at the earlies
possible moment" for very excellent reasons
being mainly an agricultural region, and
therefore inclined to conservatism, the e1
pansion fallaoy being without reasonable
existence here in the South. 1t notes that
there is more currency on hand than
there is employment for, and there.
fore no stringency. "We know that
what we need is, no. more rag-money
circulation, but more production ito dis.
tribute the money now on hand among those
most in need Of it." Our exports being
large in proportion to our total productions.
we cannot afford to be paid on specie basis
by foreign buyers Of our crops and yet buy
our supplies on greenback basis, "the
prices being controlled by the North and
West and inflated by an irredeemable and de.
preciated currency" losing both ways.
We may add here that there is not a journal
of any party in Louisiana which advocates
imitation, or which does not favor return to
gold basis as soon as practicable and safe.
The utterances of Changers being often re-
ferred to, we will quote what the champion
bullionist OF Jackson's era said:
eff were going" said he. in 1881, "to
establish workipgmans party, it should be
on the basis of hard money! hard money
party against paper party. Paper money
banks tend to aggravate the inequality of for
tunes to make the rich richer, and the poor
poorer, to multiply nabobs and paupers. Pa
per money is ipj furious to the laboring classes,
because they receive no favors, and the price
Of the property they wish to acquire is raised
to the paper maximum, while wages remain
at the specie minimum. Thomas H. Benton.
All this is just as true as it was forty
years ago. Whatever significance the policy
of the Changers may have in other respects.
it certainly means to favor sound, stable
and uniform currency, such alone as is re-
deemable in gold.
In 1872, first the Liberals at Cincinnati,
and then the Democrats at Baltimore, declared
that
The public credit must be sacredly main
tanned, and We denounce reputation in every
form and guise.
A speedy return to specie pawn ant is de-
manded alike by the highest considerations
of commercial morality and honest govern
ment
At this time Seymour, Tilden, Ingersoll,
and all the leading Democrats Of the East are
hard money men. 1t is q rare thing to find
in any Democratic journal plea for an in
crease of paper currency.
The New York Tribune, of July 9th, notes
certain facts as follows
l. The average quantity Of legal tender
notes held in reserve by the associated banks
If this city last week reached the total of
BIB, 1872 900, an amount which we think has
never been reached before, except for two
weeks in 1871, when the averages were still
below S74,000.0O0. Before the end of the
current month there is little doubt that an
.verage of nearly $50, 900, 600 will be reached.
q The present specie reserve Of the Bank
,een surpassed but once before, and, curious
y enough, that also was in the summer of |
81.
3. The specie reserve for some months held |
" the Bank of France-about $3l5, 900, 600
las no parallel for its magnitude in the history
f the world.
Finally, we invite attention to the circum-
lance that all this money in England, France |
nd America is offered to the public on the |
sual conditions which govern bank loans and |
discounts at very moderate rates of interest. |
n France the rate for over year has been |
our per cent, and in London for more than
our months the discount rate has remained
xed at three and half. Does this show that |
he business world is suffering for want of
irculating medium, either gold or paper7
The Democrats of California, in their Con-
ention of June 80, declare that they favor
"a currency convertible into gold and silver,
I the will Of the holder" in the same resolu-
ion and sentence in which they demand
evenue tariff, strict construction of the
avoidance Of the exercise of
oubtfu. powers, and an abandonment of pro-
gate systems of local Improvements by the
'ederal Government.
These are but samples Of the expression Of
democratic public opinion against imitation
+ the currency, selected at random as they
ppear in the public journals which reach
ur hands. We may say that we have thus
.r seen no sound or even plausible argu-
lent in favor of imitation of the currency of |