The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-10-14
PHILLIPS ON SCHURZ.
FOUR SUBSTANTIAL MATTERS
ANSWERED.

THE NECESSITY FOR MORE GREEN
BACKS.
THE ARIsTocRACY OF MONEY MANUFACTURE
PAPER MONEY IN THE LIGHT OF EUROPEAN
FINANCIAL HISTORY.
The following is the full text of the letter
written by the Hon. Wendell Phillips in
answer to Schurz's speech, and which clio
tied the letter from the ex-senator tele-
graphed over the country and published in
the Sentinel. 1t was addressed to Eugene
Beebe, secretary of the Legal Tender Club,
of New York City, and treats the speech
under four beads. Mr.. Phillips says:
Draining off from Mr.. Schurz's speech the
whipt- syllabub excuse, apology, personal
abuse and his own history, four substantial
matters remain:
/. The charge that Governor Allen and his
friends do not know that ninety-three per
cent, of business transactions are by checks,
notes and bills OF exchange, while only
seven per cent. of such transactions are
effected by bank currency and greenbacks.
II Emperor Carl could have afforded to
come home a little earlier from his European
festivities and informed himself of the
actual state of the discussion he filings him.
self into the middle of he would know not
! only that Governor Allen and his
friends were aware of this fact, but
| that they were the first to bring it
out and publish it in this discussion. He
would know also that this is the corner
stone of one of their gravest charges against
our present system of finance. This it is
| that leaves in the hands of the bank direc-
| tors the power to initiate at their sovereign
will and pleasure. In one city, New York,
the banks inflated the currency SI,7O0,0O0
| in one week of last February, and con-
trscted it s., 900 in one week of last
| March. Can government take in or force
than
is the aristocracy of money manufacture
| resting in some five thousand bank direc-
tors that we resist. Our system-green-
backs and interconvertibie bonds-leaves
this
POWER OF INITIATION AND CONTRACTION
in 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 inter-
fere with business by creating monopolies
like national banks. Would Ohio submit if
only few capitalists, residing in Cincinnati
and Columbus, were allowed to plant wheat
and every one else was forbidden? Yet this
Is our present system OF money manufac-
ture. Banks raise or lessen the price of every
farm as they please. They manufacture and
destroy currency as suits their own inter-
ests. Indeed, our present system OF finance
Is one-sided device-not to say trick-by
which capital gets constant and uniform ad-
vantage over business and labor.
2. The second point OF the speech is, IT the
government increases the number of green
backs they will depreciate and gold will ad-
vance. Mr.. Schurz forgets that our system
does not contemplate any neces-
sary increase of the whole cur
rency made up of bank bills, greenbacks,
deposits, checks and bills Of exchange. We
mean to have more greenbacks and less
checks; more democracy and less aristocracy
in the money market; more money in
| everybody's reach and less Of bank fayors
for the petted few. But suppose we do
double the real currency, as Mr.. Schurz
fears, will that Of itself, and necessarily, in
| crease prices, and especially the price Of