The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1875-09-04
And Is Yet to Be Expected
From 1t.


"A orEIkI~G PARALLEL THE BRITISH RE
SUMPTION LAW.
That I du NIT err lu attributing the bust
ness disasters III THE past few years to the
measures for specie payments, nor exag-
geru-e tur evils IN Store far us If this re-
sumption ltN by executed. Is shown by the
history of resumption DO England after her
war with Napoleon, winch Is a striking
uarallel W uur own experience.
Great Britain suspended specie payment
from 1897 Gu ytfectJ tu 1928 twenty six
wears. That suspension enabled her to
conduct her great war and send vast sums
NJ gpld III the Continent to pay troops and
ala allies without the slightest disturbance
{ her home currency, and during that war
htr home industries and her foreign com
merce grew more than IN any equal period
of her history. Napoleon sand she con
guered him with her spindles' The war
ended in lsl6 The paper issues were
large credits eXtended-aud the banks
uuprepared for resumption but the cry
was raised, ION 10 specie payments. Ac-
cordlugly, Ia 1919, four wears after the
close ID the war. an act was passed to re-
sume specie payment IA 1923, giving the
Brush people just AS long notice as has
been gwen us.
SIR Archibald Alison, in his History of
Europe Second series, Vol. 2. pages l44-
40. says
The effects of this extraordinary piece
w legislation we're soon apparent. The in
dustry 81 the nation was speedily CONCEAL
ed as flowing stream Is by the severity of
Al Arctic winter The alarm became as
Md st,raaI
and activity had recently been. The coun-
try bankers, Who had advanced largely on
the stocks uf goods imported, refused to
continue their support 70 their customers,
ana they we're forced to bring their stocks
into the market. Prices IN consequence
fen RAPIDLY, that Of cotton, IN particular,
sank IN three months ID half its former
level. The entire circulation Of England
fell from S232. OO0,UOO in 1918 to STA OOO,-
900 IN 1920. and in the succeeding year it
sank as low as SAP, 600, 900.
'The effects Of this sudden and pro
dianous contraction of the currency were
soon apparent, and they rendered the next
three years a period Of ceaseless distress
and suffering in the British Islands. The
accommodations granted by bankers d.
mlnished 50 much, in consequence Of the
obligation Land upon them to pay IN specie,
winch was not to be got, tAaL-E,A1-- 1ses-Tres1r-
under dise@uat-atis~'s1l;es Bank II England.
> = ifen m 1878 mad been SOB, 300 900, sank
III 1920 tu S23, 800 900 ana III 1921 to
Sl3. go, 900 The effect upon prices was
not less immediate OF appalling. They de-
clned III general, WITHIN SIX months, at
half their former amount, and remained to
that low level for the next three years
Distress was universal IN the latter months
of 1919 and that dlstrust and discourage
ment felt in all branches of industry which
are At once the forerunner and the cause Of
disaster.
Doubleday, in his Financial, Monetary
and Statistical History If England, says :
owe have already seen the fail in prices
produced ny the immense narrowing of the
paper circulation The distress, ruin and
bankruptcy which now took place we're
universal, affecting the great interests
both Of land and trade but especially
among landlords, whose estates were burd-
ened by mortgages, settlements, legacies
and the like, the effects were most marked.
Ia hundreds Of cases, from the tremendous
reduction which took place in the price Of
land, the estates barely sold for as much
AS would pay off the mortgages, and the
wners were stripped Of all and made beg
CARS.
In 1922, three years after the passage of
the Resumption Act, and one year before
it was to go into full effect, tne distress Of
all the industrial classes became 50 great
that Committee Of the House Of Com
mons was appointed to consider the sub
ject, which reported that ~ consequence
not Of .'ouer production Or ''oUer-trGdtag,"
as toas alleged By The buiiioHlsts but solely
of the contraction of the currency, resulting
IRON. the mere passage Of he act-a contrac-
ton in three years OF forty per cent, the
price of labor and an it, products, With
scarcely an exception, had fallen in a still
greater proportion. The Committee furth-
er says: w.
"In the midst of this fall of prices, what
in business could proceed with
out loss or rain There has,been no form
in which the capital Of the usssehans, none
in which the capital of the A5ac;H3ceGfer,
build be invested %ittnnodt the bali of7it