The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-03-08
THE FINANCIAL QUESTION.

Letter from Judge John BrannOn.
Frem the Weston Democrat of March 9th.
Judge Brannon has consented to the
publication Of the following copy of a
letter written some time since by him to
distinguished friend in Ohio:
WESTON, w. VA, 1875.
Ny Dear Sir:
When we separated, you extorted from
me the promise of an expression of some
views, touching relief for hard times"
currency, etc. l now comply.
l look upon the present financial con-
dition of the country, to be of alarming
import. That diseased condition ex-
lists, all realize The practical question
is to apply remedy; but before the ap-
propriate remedy can be discovered, we
must not be insensible to the distinctive
marks and characteristics Of the disease
"a diagnosis should always p-ecede the
administration of the remedy. The
causes which have produced the disease,
should be traced and removed in order
that the body may be restored TO health
and vigor.
. For a number of years borrowed cap
ital has been employed at a ruinOus rate
of interest; and the great money centres
| have absorbed the fruits of labor. EX-
cessive interest has left labor without
profit; aud the inevitable consequences
Is realized to-day in the existing fact
that money is abundant where capital
exists; and especially so in the money
centres.
The country must at last be relieved
by the fruits of labor-our surplus pro-
ductions. To get this production, in
dustry capital and natural agencies must
concur in producing it, and in this coun-
try much of this capital is loaned. Our
country, being so wonderfully productive,
with lust laws, it can hardly be ques
toned that it has the inherent capacity
to relieve itself, could capital be required
TO perform its Just share IN producing this
result. To BRING about this proper COM
bnatioa of capital and labor is the
trouble, and, in my judgment,
the chief trouble. There has al
WAYS been an antagonism between
labor and capital. and to bring them into
| active combination with reciprocal ad
vantages, has been and will be, the trou-
| BILE with the most skilled. If one, when
| in combination with the other. reaps the
| Joint production of both the other is val
uless, and unless the combination works
justice to both, injustice and wrong is the
result. Exact justice is not always attain
able, but can any man now hesitate to adj
nit that capital has decided advantage,
and when employed with labor impairs
its Just value? maintain its chief advan.
tage in its rapid tendency to supremacy
is, in the legalized rate of interest, which
is allowed for its use. 1t is absorbing
the product of the combination referred
to, and It Is not difficult, it seems to me,
to anticipate the direful consequences o.
a continuation Of the advantages in ia
vor OF loaned capital. If the enter
prising artlzan, miner. manufacturer,
agriculturalst, mechanic or laborer uses
a loan, he pays rate of interest which
absorbs AN unjust share OF the product
of the labor employed with the capital.
The capital for foam is largely in the
money centres, and when it finds its
wav through its auxiliaries, the National
Banks, and by more direct means. TO
rural and other points, and is employed
with labor, the fruits of both go to the
capital owner. The process has left your
great graln-growing West almost de-
s,roved. Now, almost overwhelmed with
public and individual debts-its proper
" and labor mortgaged To the money
capital. and at the end % each year OF
toll bv It's people, it is left with labor
consumed by the borrowed capital. 1t is
to no purpose 10 suggest that the charges
| for the use of money can be avoided by
not using it. The country is too fast
for that, and it is of the disease only, /
propose to treat.
| believe the country would soon be
relieved with lowered rate of interest,
enforced BY effective laws. operating
alike IN all the States. If this can be
done. money would not then be- as it is
now, used principally tor speculative
purposes, for speculative enterprises can
only paw the high rate of interest de-
msnded, but would be used for more
beneficial purposes to the reasonable
benefit of both capital and labor,
Can Congress pass general uSury
law?
| utterly reject the proposition that
money which is issued as such by the au-
thoritv of the government, should be re-
/ garded as a commodity cithOW control as
/ To the value of Its use, for purposes OF
/ loan. II the power exists in the Fed
/ eral Government to issue currency, and
/ to make it legal tender in payment of
/ debts, it can hardly be then questioned
| that it possesses the power TO make and
enforce u>ury law. The omi sion oft o
| Constitution to provide authority on this
subject re,alted, no doubt, because its
| trainers never considered they were
proposing Ternment with au-
| thority to issue paper money. Thu :,
/ the Government can borrow money, ana
this implies authority to issue evidences
| ., loan do not believe the Federal
| Government possesses the power to issue
nsner currency. but no such question can
now he made. as Congress and the Su-
nreme Court have disposed OF this queS-
non and having made the money ana
declared and enforced 1t as legal ten
/ der. it is now the duty OF the renpie l"
treat it as the only money, and legislate
ueon it as such. Those who have claimed
and exercised this great power, cannot
now hesitate to exercise the miner
mower to make and enforce an uni
form. effective usury law, in every
State. In Veszie Bank vs.. kenno, 1t
was held by the Supreme Court, the
government had not only the right TO
issue currency, but to tax the currency
issued BY State authority out OF exist
o. ence; and Justice Strong, who deliver
/ ed the opinion of the same court in the
| legal tender case. reported IN 18th
! Wallace. remarks: 1T is not easy
to see why, if State bank notes can be
taxed out of existence for the purpose
of indirectly making United States
notes more convenient and useful for
commercial purposes, the same end may