Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-02-18

and WITH wealth greatly inferior to that oil
the Empire State; with debt as large IN pre-
pc, ton to people and product and properly
as our own and yet Canada finds no din
Guilty in maintaining specie payment. And
at Toronto. Montreal and Halifax the
American tourist is Knocked and made
ashamed by the sight of coin dollars and
gold eagles from our own mint. circulating
freely as currency among people whose
wealth and resources are but an ineonsld-
cradle fraction. of our own magnificent IN
heritance and possessions.
When the National Government was |
organized in 1888 the most Liberal esti-
mate of the property of the entire |
thirteen states placed it at six hundred |
millions of dollars - less than the |
wealth of Boston or Of Chicago to-day. |
The population was four millions, showing |
a properly of one hundred and fifty dollars |
to each inhabitant. By the census OF 1870 |
our population had increased to thirty
eigtA millions, and our wealth to thnty
thousand millions, showing eight hundred
dollars per capita for the whole people.
Our population had increased in the eighty
intervening years not quite ten-told, but
our wealth had increased ffty-fold. The
patriots of 1876. with their slender reSour-
ces, did not hesitate 20 assume pa-
tioral debt Of ninety millions OF dollars,
being more than one-seventh OF their en-
tire possessions; and it never occurred to
them that an abandonment OF the specie
basis would make their burdens lighter.
They knew from their terrible experience
with continental currency that al their
evils would be painfully increased by a
resort to paper money. AND In their pow
erty, with no accumulated capital, with
manufactures in feeblest infancy, with com
lAU frr
their agricultural products. they maintain
ed the gold and silver standard, they paid
their great debt, they grew rich in the pro-
perry which we inherited, but far richer
in that bright, unsullied honor which they
also equeathed TO US.
Today. the total debts Of the American
! people, national, State and municipal, are
not 80 large in proportion to already &C.
| quired property as was the national debt
alone in 1890. And when we take into
the account the relative productive power
of the two periods, our present burdens are
absolutely uncomfortable. When we re-
| feet what the railway, the telegraph, the
| cottOn-gin. and our endless mechanical IN
ventiOns and agencies have done for US in
/ the way Of Increasing our capacity Tor pro
| ducing wealth, We should be ashamed 10
pretend that We cannot bear larger burdens
]
| Chairman. that our wealth from 1890 TO
! $50 increased more than five times as rap
| idly as our population, and the same de-
velopment is even now progressing with
/ continually acceleratlng ratio. Remember,
/ also, that the annual income and earnings OF
/ our people are larger than those of any
/ European country, larger than those Of
/ England, or France, or Russia, or the Ger
man Empire The English people stand
( next u Us, but we are largely IN advance
I Of them. The annual income Of our entire
people exceeds SIX thousand millions in gold.
/ and despite financial reyerses and revulsions
I i steadily Increasing.
/ In view Of these facts, it would be an un-
pardonable moral weakness in our people
[ ALWAYS heroic when herOIsm Is demanded
/ - doubt their own capacity to maintain
/ specie payment | am not willing, myself,
to acknowledge that, as people, we are
| less honorable, less c01rageou or less COM
petent than were our ancestors in 1890;
still less am ! ready 10 own that the people
Of the entire | MON have not the pluck and
the capacity Of our friends and kinsmen in
| California: and last OF all would | confess
that the United States of America, with
| fortv-four millions of inhabitants, with
territory surprising al Europe II area,
and ! might almost say all the world IN
fertility of resources, are not able to do
what handful of British subjects, scatter
ed from Cape Race to Vancouver Island,
can do 50 easily, 50 steadily and 50 success
AL wise legislation toward resumption
/ will take care that no needless burden be
: thrown on those who have debts TO pay,
and that in the transition the banks shall
be kept in such condition a. will make
them a. helpful a. possible 10 the BUSH
mess community. But this policy would
! drive the banks into d struggle for
/ self-preservatiCn in which debtors would
necessarily be sacrificed. Ii | correctly
spprehend the sound public Judgment
on this question. there l. no desire - de-
strOy the legal-tender character OF the note,
but settled determination to bring it to
par with coin. and by this means bring
every bank note 10 the same standard.
This policy will restore the coin of the
country. Of which We arc producing over
eight millions per annum. TO active clrcula-
tiOns in the channels of trade. and will re-
suit not only in making our money better,
but assuredy more plentiful among the
people Ii l. a Illuminating tact that. pro-
dncIng e. We do far greater amount Of
precious metal than all the rest Of the world
| beside we drive II into export because we
/ will not create a demand for it at home,
/ And the miners Of the Pacific slope are
/ furnishing the circulating medium for every
country OF the civilized world except their
/ own. whose financial policy. to-day, out
| laws and expafriates the product Of their
labor.
The act providing for resumption in
/ Is - requires, in the judgment Of the sec
rotary of the treasury, some additional
/ legislation to make It practical and otfec-
| tive A. il stanis. it fixes date but gives
no adequate process; and the paramount
duty OF Congress Is TO provide process.
In any event. Mr. Chairman. whatever
we NAV do. or whatever we may leave IN
! done on this whole financial question. let
u not delude ourselves with the belief
/ that We can escape the specie standard. IL
I rules Us to-day, and has ruled Us through
/ out the whole lcgal-tender period. ust a.
| absolutely a. though We were paying and
receiving coin daily. Our work. our IA
I brics, our commodities. are all measured by
/ it. and 30 long a. We cling to Irredeemable
/ paper we have all the burdens and disad-
yaDtages of the gold standard, with none
Of its aids and gains and! profits. The
| thing which hath been Is that which shall
be. The great law-glver Of antiquity re-
cords in the very opening chapter OF Genesis
/ that the gold of the land Of HRvIlah Is
good" And with another precious metal. it
has maintained its rank 10 this day. No
nation has ever succeeded in establishing
any other standard ofyalue; no nation has
ever made the experiment except at great
cost and sorrow and the advocates Of ire
deemsble money. to-day, are but asking Us
to travel the worn and weary road. travel
led so many times befOre-a road that has
alwsys ended IN disaster I'd often in dis
grace