The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-10-14

circulation which cannot find employment
in the legitimate achannels of business,
which cannot even be profitably used for
specializing purposes, and which are there
fore loaned at rates of interest low beyond
all example in the United States.
The second of these assumptions pro-
ceeds upon total disregard of two we'll
known facts; First, that vast increase Of
business may be transacted by means of
bills of exchange and other commercial
facilities with very little enlargement of
the paper circulation or the basis of specie
by which it is supported; and, second, that
the abundant production of the precious
metals during the last hundred years has
not only greatly diminished their purchas-
ing power, but so exceeded the demand for
them as a circulating medium as to furnish
large surplus for ornamental purposes
and domestic use. In the United States
alone during the last twenty five years we
have produced, as nearly as can be ascer-
tanned, over fourteen hundred and sixty
seven millions of gold and silver. Dur
ing the same period we have exported of
our own coin and bullion over thirteen
hundred and twenty eight millions at
least four times as much as is needed to
sustain the whole paper currency of the
country, even in its present inflated condi-
ton. During the years 1871, 1872, and
1873 the average annual product OF our
gold and silver mines amounted to SOC,
100000. At the same rate we shall pro-
duce enough in the next three years to
warrant, if kept at home, a resumption OF
specie payments in 1879, and preserve the
plighted faith of the government from VIC
lation
5. The most formidable corps of the
army of infationists-the dishonest portion
of the debtor interests of the country,
are aiming to pay their debts in depre-
oiated paper, and to defraud their credi-
tors of their Just dues; for if the paper
currency can be so augmented as to reduce
it so per cent. below the par of specie, a
man who owes $4,000 can pay his debt
with $4,000. But it is fatality of nearly
every species of injustice and fraud that
the means by which it seeks to effect its
object almost always defeats it. The
debtors who desire to defraud their credi-
tors by making paper money more abun-
dant and less valuable would be the very
| first to suffer from the measures they pro-
pose. The indication of purpose on the
part of the government to increase the
volume of paper would be asignalfor cred
itors to enforce the payment Of their
dues. Every man who had mortgaged
his real estate or hypothetical his per,
sonal property would be called on tc
pay before paper, which the legal
tender act compels the creditor to take
had become so deprecated as to render hi:
security less valuable or possibly worthless
Thus the most numerous and clamorous
class of infationists would be the frs
victims of the fraudulent purpose they are
seeking to accomplish.
Finally, there is class who really think
our paper circulation, though varying from
thirteen to seventeen per cent. below par, t.
be the best currency in the world, and WIFI
honestly believe that the country would bt
benefited by having more of it. But m.
respect for the intelligence of my country
men compels me to think that they ar,
comparatively few in number.