The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-07-22
1ya,l-Street Wisdom.


.hs numerous default;ng railroad corpora
tons was tina. they bad wasted and destroy
ed The capital which had been r'aced I'D their
hands. These hare times are the penalty lo'
waste Of capital. for the misconduct OF spccu-
Iaiors, for displaced confidence, and tor imam
ciai acknowledgement of various kinds"
This language means that the honest III
,Iu>,rous people of Richmond who have 'os'
so much business and so much money is '"o
consequence OF the panic OF 49," iH''o SUI
tered these losses because other men ID other
ci les have "wastcd capitai' IL leaches
co nmunism in that it tells Us that however
thrifty JONES may be, nc is Liable 10 De rulneo
r,ecuaiariy by the waste OF capital on tue
part OF SMITH. Al! such talk IS nonsense, or
at any rate i. ought to be nonsense. As
ruc. the. reverse ought to be the fact. Il
SMITH wastes bis capital JONES gets 1t. SMITH
does nos eat, nor burn, nor bury his dollars.
lie merely puts them into circulation; and
in SO doing he benefits the communIty.
: c how all London complains II the
Queen fails 10 spend her money
literally in that city. See ho" Paris VIII
almost get up a revolution if the rulers OF
France arc not free in the expenditure OF
cash in that city. And if in ctacr case the
money were even given TO the shopkfepefS
who get il, and not paid 10 them for goods
delivered or services rendered, IL i not ut ali
likely that panic would come upon Lon
don or Paris. Are the STEWARDS and OLAF
II.s at the mercy OF the spectators and
stock inbbrrs of Wall street! SO teaches
the Tribune. If it be true that JAY COOKIES
" waste Of capital" Of tic ""a,te OF c'"-
tai" oy any number Of s2c2ui!t"rS' Das i"
:iprvitablc tendency to tue prcunafy run .!
the honest business men Of The country, thch
TN. sooner We hun: out some uc" iinahciai
sv.,.n L. G sooner Wc snail bc in a condition
worthy OF n ci, iiz@d people and OF the nine
tc,uto century But docs the Tribune really
l..ifyc in its own theory, or was IL Trying
IN vain to shpy thai Their: WAS not curFen-
cy famine in 1878: 'HDr latter Is the fact, we
suspect. Al any rate, 1t copies, win ap'
pfc.ni. me tol'owmy-froul tbs Louisville
Iomrcr:
..Iu order ;hlt We may get more green
b,.k,' .r nnl:t have something's lag OF
wheat nr a k q of whiShCy, i bale OF cotton
or a rlur, OF Dlranas-t0 get thcm WIN,
and wen sc .et them we want tucm 10 be
GOOD tor ,nr.r face and au their face, not like
our Confederate currency, which came 10 DE
s. va,I,lr S> thai the farmer preferred TO Keep
his trlnk 70 selling IT,
Now. this last is sound doctrine. 1t tells
US what We all know, though the Tribune,
aud The Courier and all the rest Of Tue bul.
li"nlsIs' organs. pretend 10 think that we
who advocate the interconycrtiblhty scheme
ale uuacquaintcd with the truth, 1t teaches
III, we say, that the mere issue Ut more green
tilck. by the Government could not possibly
I~ucl!, Us, and it also teaches Us that what
the Tribune says about a'' waste OF capital "
is artaut nonsense. We III Virginia may
prosper though JAY COOKE or any DINER man
may waste money by The million OF dollars.
Ii we have "a bag Of wheat: or key OF
Whiskey, or bale Of cotton," ne can have
money and have it ali the more easily II
other men are foolish enough to spend their
ctpI,ul TOO freely II Jay COOKE waste
mIliun we may pocket a hundred thousand
of it. Aud if he or any other speculation
fail That is no good reason why any mHn en-
gagged in safe aud legitimate business should
also fail.
But thousands Of innocent men engaged
in honest .llings did fail in 1873. lc>; Dut
they ought not to have failed; aud The
financial y stem which made THEN a urc not
LA, I,Itt * "A ii
To the enlightenment Of the a2e. Their
fn,u!e HaS not Il natural result OF JAY
COOKIES failure. II were a libel upon the
IaAS OF trade, which are natural laws, To
assert that tie spectators OF any given coun-
lry--the gold-gamblers and stock. jonbcrs-
have il in ihelr power under the proper ope-
ruipn of those laws 10 bankrupt and begSar
sol only their ne!gnbors, but any man in any
par OF the country, however prudent ana
however careful he may be, and however
piosperous his business. But these Laws
were in 1878, rs now, supplemented by
slliutes which made il possible for those
illogical results TO follow. The ignorant aud
ullutorineu MASSES, amongst whom may Dc
clI,>ed the most of the Wa-sreet specu-
luiur>, were scZ'd with Il panic-that Is, II
foolish fear Tia had no foufdaton in fact
:,Io under the influence and operation OF this
panic, they all suddenly took up tue idea
that the banks were in danger of falling );
and knowing that the Government would
Redeem the bank-noles 1T par, they all with
drew their deposits, or undertook 20 with
draw them. from the backs. Bat they uI-
certook an imposSiblits. The deposits OF
the whole county amounted To some seven
teen hundred millions Of dollars, whilst the
whole volume Of the currency i'll The Union
what Wall street calls the "ipil.ted" cur
lencv-amounlcd to about halt that Sum.
And there was no way OF increasing tue
volume of the currency which the Govern
ment would redeem. The banks invented Il
substitute. They gave out certified check;
which, being good currency i'll the business
circles, and yet not redeemable by The Gov
ernment, were not boarded, but passed from
hand to band. In some cases, no douD;, a
single certified check for Il thousand dollars
paid off debts and balances amounting TO a
hundred thousand dollars II there had
been no panic the failure Of JAY COOKE
would have dansged nobody but those
rectly concerned with him. But
there ,cas pan!c, which, we repeat, is not
panca all if it is anything but u sen>eess
fear. and, the currency being all boarded,