The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1876-06-02
REsUaaPTION AGAIN.
HIS Exepsy TO MIR. Graham.


ZIONIST as l supposed he was. He
made one or two mistakes in his
statements, which l presume he
will at once see if he takes the
trouble to read my article carefully.
He was of course justified in argu-
ing the question from his stand
Ipoint. l was net arguing for any
measure ner set of measures.
have never defended the present
resumption law, in any way what
ever. AS 3 measure looking to-
ward honestly doing what impera.
lively needs to be done, and that at
the earliest possible moment, am
in favor of it. 1 think it will prac-
tically prove failure, and princi-
paily for the reasons stated by Mr..
Graham, that there is no ample
provision made 10 carry it into eff
feet. / fear resolution to resume
in four years will not be any more
sffectual than that other plan of
SIR. Greeley, viz. 'the way to re-
sumo is to resume" unless it has
more blcking than it has now. And
l confess my faith is not go san
guine as Mr.. Graham's about
the three-sixty-five-interconvertible
bond plan. As 1 understand it the
bonds are to be Issued in exchange
for the notes and the notes will be
accepted f)r the bonds, as holders
choose. The market value of each
will rest upon the other. How
much will thousand dollar three
sixty-fiVe bond be worth ? just the
same as the greenback. Will either
be at par with gold? Will the ex-
ceedingly low rate of interest save
the bond from depreciation would
not q AZ or per cent. bond be
nearer the mark +? This is on the
supposition that the interest on the
bonds and the principal when due
are to be paid in gold. If not, it is
the thinnest kind of moonshiue to
suppose they can be kept at par by
merely changing from one to the
other.
With Mr.. Graham's position, that
the decrease in the value of the
-reenbacks is the result of the re-
ump:ion law, most emphatlcaliy
disagree
think we have lar more sensible
and likely reasons than simple
resolution of Congress that in four
years s'greenback dollar" shall be
exchanged for gold one. We have
been borrowing teO much. "Peo-
pie have borrowed as they nevar
| borrowed before. Credit has been
piled on credit and obligation on
obligation till all the floating cap
ital in the country and all that
could be borro we'd in foreign coun-
tries has been absorbed and ex-
pended. Enormous sums have been
wasted in immature and unfinished
enterprises, and hundreds of mill
lions of dollars sunk; the great
fires of Chicago and Boston sunk
hundreds of millions more; these
with the vast municipal indebted
ness, much of which represents
stolen property, have decreased the
resources of the country" We do
not lack money, we lack capital.
We must borrow less and produce
more. Money lies idle. Trade is
stagnant not for lack of money, for
we have 26 millions more in circu
lation now than in 1868, and any
l. soA
collateral can borrow money to-day
for less rate of interest than at any
time within the last fifteen years.
Spelling gold with big G. isn't
doing the mischief.
We must stop borrowing and pay.
Governments are as morally bound
to pay as individuals.
Our present money system is the |
result of q war necessity, IF q ne
cessitY at all. Senator Fessenden, |
well said ''The right of Congress
to borrow money and issue obliga- |
lions for loaEs in such form as may
be convenient is unQuestionable: |
but the authority to issue obliga-
tons for a circulating medium as
money and to make these obliga-
tions a legal tender. can only be
found in the ritteu UnOritten, which
sanctive Whatever the representa-
tons of the people, whose duty is
to maintain the government against
its enemies, may consider in a
great emergency necessary to be
dOne.o
The present issue is a forced loan
which the government ought to
pay, aud which it has sOlemnly and
publicly pledged its faith to do in
coin or its equivalent, and that sat
the earliest practicable moment"
It is as mischievous and dishonest
for Congress to expand and con-
tract the currency at each session as
it would be to change the number
of ounces in pound or the num-
Der of inches in yard. It 'trests
with the changeable and ever chang
ing opinions of some three or four
hundred very promiscuons gentle
men what shall be the length of
our financial yard-stick."
/ take it to be an error that there
is not gold and silver enough to do
the business of the country. Coin
lie abundant ali over the world and
daily increasing in volume, and al
ways goes where there is u demand |;
fOriit, as certainly as water seeks list
level.
It has been carefully estimated
that since 1850, when we were on G
gold basis, with no lack of money,
the production of the geld mines
of the world has been relatively
more than ten fold greater than the
increase of business. In California
where the greenbscks were never
tolerated, or to very limited ex-
tent, they have never lacked for
money to do the business of her
vasts and varied enterprises. "The
people hold fast to gold and silver,
of whose scarcity there is no CON-
plant and of whose value there is
no question"
l believe l have the highest an.
thority in the land for saying that
the legsl-tender notes are "obliga-
tions of the United States. Their
name imports obligation. Every
one of them expresses on its face :
an engagement of the Nation to