Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-07-17
WENDELL PHILLIPS.
A Republican InnatiOnIst Who Cans
be sIienced-His Reply 40 Amasa
walkers Letter ON the Currency.
En.tnr .lnrIrral of Commerce

be sIIenced-His Reply 90 Amas;
Walkers Letter ON the Currency.
Boston journal OF Commerce.
You invite me to read Mr.. Amasa Walk
eT's article on the currency. Ii was IN
necessary. l always read every line / Sc
written by an opponent, and especially b.
nv friend Walker. You ofeTstO print an;
reply or criticism wish TO make. I sun
pose NIr. Walker viii say it is not vet tim,
to criticize him. What he prints in vou
issue of july is only an intro
duction. or preface to something h,
has to say. To consider # a compIet,
plan, or substantial statement would b,
unjust TO him-since, so considered, It 4:
simply absurd. Mr.. Walkers plan. so fal
as he has yet opened it, is for the world tc
give I'D all credit and return TO q svsten
Of naked barter. According to him, nc
man may buy wool, coal, iron, or wheat
unless he stands ready to exchange gold
for it. This is worse than the times OF
Solomon or the Trojan war. Then you
could buy wool with leather or wheat
with iron. But Walker allows no one "a
buy anything except with gold. Before
you enter any market YOU must have gold
in your hand, or a certificate that YOU
have just left your gold in the
keeping Of the United States.
OF course this is absurd in our century.
One might as well ask travellers to give up
railways and 90 back to OX-carts as to ask
trade to give up credit ami 90 back TO bar
ter. Yet this is exactly Mr. Walkers
proposition as at present stated.
Patterson tells us Science Of Finance,
PIP. 5, o. that in Great Britain gold sup
plies little more than one-half per cent of
the currency, and bank notes and coin to-
gether make only three per cent. A New
Haven journal told US, Two weeks ago, that
a check Of $500 passed through seven
hands, and paid seven debts Ct that amount
before it was presented al the bank counter.
Five thousand six hundred dollars worth
of Business done by . slip Of paper which
had no relation 10, nor connection with
gold. It rested simply and entirely Oh
credit.
The exchanges effected at the New York
Clearinghouse were thirty-eiCht thousand
millions Of dollars in the year 1869. What
a useless burden to insist that all this
amount Of business shall be done with &C
tuai gold coin.
We must therefore use credit, which is
but another name for paper mOuey in its
different forms-bills, checks. notes, etc.
We propose to use the credit Of the ma
ton as the basis for this gTeeuback curren-
cy-exactly as the sO-called specie system
of Great Britain does. What forms the
basis Of the currency Of Great Britain?
Gold? No. The first thirty millions of
bauk notes. issued by the Bank Of England
do not undertake to represent specie.
They represent so much money owed by
lie Government 70 the Bank; in other
words, they represent Government
bonds, never paid and never expected to
be pad. Precisely that is the basis We pro
pose to have for our greenbacEs-the na-
ton. When the Bank Of England nearly
touched bankruptcy in 1875, 1855, 1897,
1917, 1857 and 1S66-That did she ask Of
the Government, the loan OF gold2 No.
She asked for tie issue Of EXchequer Bills
that is substantially, Government bonds.
We mean to have gTeenbacEs, at all time
convertible into Government bonds, at
low fixed rate Of interest, sGch gTeenbacks
10 constitute the whole currency Of the
country; all banks forbidden TO issue bills
and confined to the function Of receiving
deposits and making loans.
No bulliOnist will maintain today that
his theory means OuI return % actual, SIM
pie barter. the exchange Of one species Of
e-coId-for every other species
whenever a sale is made. Every one Of
YOUR readers will allow that We must use
credit. Credit means greenba"ks, bank
bills. checks, deposits, gold certificates, etc.
The only questions are: !. How many Of
these shall be allowed; that is, what
amount of currency shall be allowed? =.
Upon what shall they be based-UpOn gold
or some other security?
To the first question we answer: The
business of a country always settles tie
amount of its currency. No matter what
be the formal Or supposed system, specie
basis or paper, the above statement remains
ALWAYS inevitably true. Great Britain pre-
tends to settle that after thirty millions Of
bank bills, based Oh government bonds,
no more paper currency shall exist which
does not TepreS ent actual sOyerelgns depOs-
tied i'm the Bank of England. But the
merchants created OF themselves currency
enough in 1869 TO effect changes in the
London Clearinghouse amounting to
sereuteen thousand millions Of dollars
Our pauer-monev banks and Government
supposed that they had limited the cur
rency 20 somewhere about eight hundred
millions. But the merchants, IN loJ9,
created enough currency in the shape OF
notes checks and certificates Of deposit 10
effect exchanges in New York amount
ing TO thirty-eight thousand millions.
The fact is, the Democratic principle
governs trade. The day when governments,
or the upper classes, settled how much
bread should be made and what should be
It's price-how much gold lace should he
made and who should make iJ-has passed
away. Who would dream to-day Of ChcOs-
ing five hundred bank directors 10 settle
how much coal should be mined, how
much wheat planted, and how much cotton
cloth made? Supply and demand settle
such questions, and the world recognizes
that so such things are best settled.
Banks and Secretaries Of Treasures I'M
agine they CeteTmiue the amount Of the
currency, As well might Old Probability
claim that he determined the weather.
He and they only record what mIghtier
forces DO.
Business creates Just such, and just 50
much currency as d. needs, everywhere and
at all times.
You viii ask, if this be So why are not
Won preenback men content / VIII tell
YOU. At present only large capitalists,
hanks and The favOrites Of banks can thus
create currency. 1t is a monoPoly-a very
close corporation OF ring. When half a
dozen Rhode Island banks failed, and
their books were exposed to the public
gaze. we saw that one great
iirm-the Spragues-h,d borrowed
all their funds. At present this
power Of making currency is conanel to
banks and their pets. We mean the whole
people shall enjoy it. Whoever can pledge
property shall be entitled 10 certain pro
portion Of its value in greeEbacks. The
system viii not increase the currency 10y
sne dollar. It will only give us more
greeubacls and fewer checks. Checks are
arisJocratic, greenbacks are democratic. IL
will put the man who has one thousand
dollars on par with the man who has a
million. SO far as the power Of using his
means is concerned. Il will regulate in
terest better than gold and the Bank Of
England can do. No holder of a greenback
viii lose a dollar while the Union lasts, and
that is all the English claim, viz: that no
holder Of a Bank of England note will lose
a shilling while the Empire stands.
Yours, wendell. PHILLIPS.
THE Brooklyn 1TqJrs, after months of
careful observation, has come 70 the con-
,l,,sior1 that no woman can eat corn heef