Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1875-10-23
The Question Of the Day.
REPLY OF WENDELL PHILLIPS ~ i"E
SPEECH OF CARL scHURz-LErrER FROM
GEN. BUTLER.

The following letter has been address
"a - the United States Legal tender
Club by Wendell Philips
Eugene Beebe, Esq, Secretary, Etc.
Dear Sir--In compliance with the
reouest of the Honorable Richard Schell
and other prominent members OF the
Legal-tender Club, of which you are
the Secretary, l have to submit the fol
lowing to the gentlemen OF your club
and at the country at large. 3e'tf.
Draining off from Mr.. Schurzs speech
the whipt-syllobub- excuse, apology, per-
sonal abuse, and his own history, these
substantial matters remain.
The charge that Governor Allen and
his friends do not know that % per
cent. Of business transactions are oy
checks, notes, and bills OF exchange
while only per cent of such trahsac,
lions are effected by bank currency anu
preenbacks. II Emperor Carl coulo
have afforded to come home a little ear,
l;er from his European festivities and
;nforme5 himself of the actual state OF
the discussion he filings himself luto the
,n;ddle of. he would know not only that
Governor Allen and his friends were
oware of this fact, but that they were
the first to bring it out and publish 1t In
This discussion. He would know also
that this is the corner stone OF one OF
their eravest charges against our pres
ent system of finance. This it is that
leaves in the hands of the bank direct
ors the power to initiate at their sover-
eign will and pleasure. In one city,
New York, the banks inflated the cur
rency S1,7OO,OOO in one week OF last
February, and contracted it $5,OOO,OOO
in one week of last March. Can gov
eminent take in or force out currency
much faster than that? This Is the ans
tocracv of money manufacture, resting
in some 5000 bank directors, that we
resist. Our system-greenbacks and
introvertible bonds leaves this
mower of imitation and contraction III
the hands of the whole mass OF business
men; this is where it should rest and
where it always does rest until law and
force interfere with business by creating
monopoIies like the national banks
Would Ohio submit if only few capt
talists, residing in Cincinnati and Co
lumbus, were allowed to plant wheat
and every one else forbidden? Yet
this is our present system OF money
manufacture. Banks raise or lessen the
price of every farm as they please. They
manufacture and destroy currency as
suits their own interests. Indeed, our
present system of finance is one sided
device-not to say tricky which cap.
ilal oets constant and uniform advantage
over business and labor. -t
Another point Of Mr. Schurz IS
"There never was State ever so well
administered, there never was q people
ever so frugal, there never was gov
eminent ever so careful, which did not
bv the emission of large quantities OF II
yedeemable paper money run IN the ror-
tex of rofgacies and corruption. 1t
has never been, it will never be other
wise"
Did Mr.. Schurz never hear OF coun-
,rv called Great Britain, which used IT.
redeemable paper money from 1897 TIL
1921? And ali that time she was mel
ther so weak, poor, prot'lgate, nor cor
rupt but that Bowen, Bullion Professor
in Harvard College, allows that with
out irredeemable paper money England
could not have conquered Napoleon;
that paper notes fought the battle OF
Waterloo, kept her wOr&ingmeu em-
ployed, gave them ease under almost
incredible taxes, and secured to trade
unexampled prosperity. Our late war
tells the same story. Yet there are
those who seem never able to learn the
lesson.
Did Mr. Senator Schurz never hear OF
q country called France, which survived
the German war by means of well reg
ulated irredeemaOle paper money, has
increased her exports since FROM SS0o,
900, 900 to 100000, O0o, is prosperous,
every one employed, her paper, though
enormous in amount, at par with gold,
and that she is able to return to the old
specie system whenever she pieases
While at the same time specie-bas's
Germany, having just received 81 600,
10000 in coin from this same france,
is herself in deep water, tens OF thouS-
ands of unemployed men in her streets,
no money to be had to start her mills,
taxes increased, and one OF her Berlin
writer's complaining:-"We are in as
great distress as ii we had to pay thous-
ands of millions instead OF having had
as much to receive" When Mr.. Schurz
has studied up these two instances OF
frugal and careful Governments which
have issued ''large quantities of IRE
deemable paper money" without tum-
bling into vortex of profigacy and
corruption, we will furnish him with
Others. Meanwhile we commend him
to the reading at safe intervals of some
sound doctrines in Carey's letter to
Field.
Another poiut of the speech isl
'Nothing but specie basis can give sta
bility to current prices or restore that
confidence which is the first requisite of
a new field of prosperity.
Yes, confidence" is, indeed, the first
great need. No dispute about that.
Does it necessarily and always accom-
pany a specie basiSa Then Will DIR.
Schurz please explain the present panic
and distress in Ger'rany-almost as bit
ter as ours? Yet Germany reoices In
specie basis. SO does London, that