The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-09-18
PAPER VERSUS COIN.

Forci5le Letter from Wendell Phillips M III
| Currency Question-Strorg Presentation of III
Crimc and Curse Of Fo-ciblr .Spsc,e Rssums,
The following letter from Wendell
| Phillips has been addressed to Mr.
| Eugene Beebe, secretary of the Lega
| Tender Club, New York. It gives il
| forcible language that gentleman's view
on the delicate question of a circulating
| medium, and will be read with interes
| by all who have money or want it
AUGUST %, 1875.
Mr. Eugene Beebe, Secretary of the Lega
Tender Club:
DEAR StR-I appreciate the great i'm
portance of your agitation to prevent
further contraction of the currency, and
am sorry I shall not be able to attend
your meeting in September. 1t seems
to me there are but two questions to be
considered tonching the currency:
First-Upon what basis shall it rest
Second-How much of it shall We
have?
A long time ago there might have
been third-of what shall it be made,
gold and silver or paper? But the e1.
perience of business men long ago an
swered that inquiry and settled it be-
yond recall, that throughout christen-
dom the currency must be paper. 1t is
idle to talk to. day of a specie basis.
That gentle hallucination has been en-
couraeed to quiet timid men and delude
the masses. But the thing itself has not
really existed for fifty or a hundred
years. Great britain, where, if any.
where, such basis could be main
tanned, has to-day so cents of coin to
800 of paper. patterson. Science of
Finance. PIP. 8, 6, 81, %, 81, 38. Edin-
burg, 1868.
Any individual may have that fifty
cents provided he does not need it, and
provided there is no special reason why
he should have it. If at any time his
business absolutely requires that he
should have that fifty cents of coin at
that time, he cannot have it. A specie
basis of fifty cents coin to support 800
paper It reminds me of that Irish
six bottle topper who always sat down to
drink with small bit of a strawberry
at the bottom of his wine glass, and
kept it there during the evening-''it
gave SO fine a flavor to the wine -
Doubtless that fifty cents coin gives a
strong specie flavor to the vast system
of British paper, and makes Bull feel
warm and comfortable.
Political economy settles very few
points by theorizing. Now and then
experience decides a question, and it
passes into accepted and undeniable
truth. In this way business experience
has decided that currency. in civilized
and commercial nations must rest on
credit and consist of paper. Thus ex-
perience answers our first question, the
currency does rest and must rest on
credit. Whose shall that credit be
Shall it be the credit of banks and their
or the credit of the nation
This question also experience has
Before the war we had
banks resting each one on its own
credit. We all remember the result.
The bills of q bank ceased generally to
own counter. You lost ten per cent. in
for eastern bills and Horace Greeley
told the committee who paid
him a handful of western bills, ''if con-
venient I should much prefer we'll
counterfeit on some eastern
bank. What makes our National bills
good, and equally good, everywhere to-
lay? The nation stands behind them.
Such notes pass everywhere at the
,ame value, because the nation guaran-
ices them. All the note currency we
nave rests on national credit, directly
u indirectly. No man can give reason
Why they should not all rest directly
IN national credit why all bank bills
Ihould not be withdrawn and legal
enders supply their place.
In building house you do not put a !
platform between the house and its
oundation. Certainly not. Your walls
est directly on your foundation. To-
lay the nation pays the banks 800, 0O0,- |
700 or more to allow them to play the |
Useless part of standing between it Cthe |
lation) and it's own currency. DIR. |
Hranklin's hero, who asked his victim to |
Jay for heating the poker, was a most
person and Solomon com
Jared with ourselves in the matter. I
AVE heard of an incompetent man put
lnder guardianship and obliged to pay
rustees literally for taking care of his
but never heard of one put
Inder guardianship and paying guar
ian most literally and then obliged to
10 all his own business besides, which
8 exactly our case. We furnish the
redit that supports these bank bills
nd then we pay the banks for using
hat credit.
Bagehot, the highest authority in
England, says the public takes bank of
England bills without inquiry or hest
alton, because it knows in any enler-
ency the government will sustain the
he bank. Here our bills pass because
he government is distinctly pledged to
10 80. The two great commercial CEN
ers have drifted into currency based,
q fact, on government credit, and they
accept the situation.
Our first question (On what shall our
urrency rest p is fully answered by
acts. In commercial nations it rests,
nd must rest, on government credit.
Second-How much currency shall
re have?
No single man, officer or institution
an decide or ever did decide this ques-
ion. Currency made up of bank bills,
eposits, notes, bills of exchange, etc.,
J like any other article of manufacture
we make as much of it as we need.
he business of country, when not
1terferred with, always settles the
mount of its currency. Business
reates, every where and at all times,
1st such and 80 much currency as it
eeds. Banks and Secretaries of Treas
ries imagine they determine the
mount of the currency. AS we'll
hight Old Probability claim that he de-
srmined the weather. He and they only
ecord what mightier forces do. Hats,
hoes, wagons, rails, clothes, cotton,
year we want more, the
ext less-who decides? The dealers
/ the article and the users of it. Does
nybody advise going back to other
avs, and having some board of WISE
,res decide how much wheat shall be
lanted and how much cotton, how
ANY loaves and wagons made. No
1ch dreamer obtrudes himself on the
ublic. But thousands clamor for al
wing bank Directors, and them alone,
settle the amount of the currency.
nd they are allowed more control than
ny other agency. The New York city
anks alone increased the currency
J, 900, 600 in one week of March, 1875.
This aristocracy in the money manu-
,cture is an odious monopoly, alien to
ur Institutions and harmful to our
What should we say if five