Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-02-24

TO sacrifice the navigation and commercial in
terest for all time
We are told, however Mr.. Chairman in tones OF
most solemn warning. that this country is not able
70 maintain it, paper money at par with COIN Sir.
reject the suggestion with scorn, and it seems To
me, if could be persuaded OF its truth, l should
be ashamed 10 rise in the American Congress and
proclaim it, Here is California. OF our young
est States thirty members of the Union being
senior TO herr with vast territory and u sparse
population able to maintain coin payment and
maintaining il through financial storm OF terrific
force. and. by Of it. regaining position Of
solvencv and safety with rapidity and certainty
20 which the paper basis affords no parallel, but
only contrast Here. TO the north of Ms, lies the
Dominion of Canada, stretching from Newfound-
land to the borders of Alaska, with an inhospitabe
climate. soil in great part inferior to ours, COM
merce checked and suspended half the year by
frozen rivers, manufactures scant, crude and I'M
developed; with population throughout the whole
Territory not so large as that OF New York, and
with wealth greatly inferior TO that of the Empire
State; with debt as large. in proportion to peo-
pie, and product. and property. our own; and
yet Canada finds no difficulty in maintaining specie
payment. And at Toronto. Montreal and Ianfax
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 Sn in
considerable fraction Of our own magnificent in
hertance and possessions
When the National Government was organized
in 1882 the most liberal estimate of the property OF
the entire thirteen States placed at $500 00O
less than the wealth OF Boston or of Chicago
to-day. The population four millions, show
ing property Of $50 to each inhabitant BY the
census of 1870 our population had Increased to
thrtyeight millions and wealth to thirty thou
sand millions, showing $500 per capita for the
whole people. Our population had increased in
the eighty intervening years not quite teniold, but
our wealth had increased fifty fold The patriots
OF 1890. with their slender resources did not hest
tate to assume national debt of ninety millions
Of dollars, being more than oneseventh of their en-
tire possessions; and it never occurred to them
that an abandonment of the specie basis would
make their burden lighter. They knew from their
terrible experience with Continental currency
that all their evils would be painfully increased
by a resort to paper money. And in their poverty,
with no accumulated capital, with manufactures
In feeblest ln1ancy, with commerce undeveloped,
with low prices for their agricultural products
they maintained the gold and silver standard they
paid their great debt they grew rich in the property
which we inherited, but far richer in that bright
unsullied honor which they also bequeathed to us
To-day, the total debts of the American people,
~
proportion TO already acquired property as was the
national debt alone in 1890. And when we take
into the account the relative productive power of
the two periods cur present burdens are absolute
ly inconsiderabe. When we reflect what the rail
way, the telegraph the cottong GIN and or endless
mechanical inventions and agencies have done for
us IN the way OF increasing our capacity for pro-
duclng wealth, we should be ashamed to pretend
that cannot bear larger burdens than our an
And
wealth from 1870 to 1870 increased more than FIVE
times as rapidly as our population, and that the
same development is even no" progressing with
continually accelerating 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 German Empire The English people stand
next to lis. but we largely in advance OF them
The annual income OF entire people exceeds
six thousand millions in gold, and despite fnan-
cia reverses and revulsons is steadily increasing
In view of these facts, il would be an unpardon-
able moral weakness in peope-always heroic
when heroism is demanded-to doubt their own
capacity to maintain specie payment. / am not
willing. myself, to acknowledge that. as Il people
we are less honorable, less courageous or less
competent than our ancestors in 1890;
still less am ready to own that the people of the
entire Union 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 a O00 00 of inhabitants. with ter
rltory surprising all Europe in area and l might
almost say all the world IN fertility o. resources,
are not able to do what handful OF itish sub
jecs, scattered from Cape Race Vancouver's Isl
and, can do so easily, steadily, and 90 success
fully.
But whether we shall succeed or shall fail in
10 tha nit ad
privilege with which they originally endowed,
L must here record my earnest protest agan.t the
policy OF repeating the lega-tender clause which
has given to these notes their great strength
culat,ng medium. L cannot see how the Goiern-
ment consistently deprive these notes of
their legal-tender quality until it is ready
to redeem them In coin on presentation:
and when 1t is so ready to redeem them,
what need or advantage will there be in rais-
ing the question? And l have never heari any
argument at all satisfactory to my mind that the
repeal of the legal-tender Clause would tend to
make resumption easier On the contrary it
seems TO me that it would render resumption far
more difficult than it will otherwise prove: that it
would throw undue share OF the burden on the
banks; that it would force them into the most
rigid contraction, and needlessly cripple their
power of discount; TINS plunging the whole coun-
try into confusion, disturbing credits, embarrass-
creating widespread distress among the people
1t would be peculiarly severe blow to the debtor
class, and would make resumption to them the
signal OF bankruptcy and ruin All wise lensla-
ton toward resumption will take care that no
needless burden be thrown those who have
debts to pay and that in the transition the banks
shall be kept in such condition as will make
them as helpful as possible to the business COM
munty. But this policy would drive the banks
into a struggle for self-preseryation, in which
debtors would necessarily be sacrificed go
If l correctly apprehend the sound public judg-
ment on this question: there is desire to destroy
the legal-tender character Of the note but a set
tied determination To bring it TO par with coin,
and by this means bring every bamk-nOte to the
same standard. This policy will restore the coin
of the country. Of which we are producing over
eighty millions per snnum. to active circulation in
the channels of trade. and will result not only in
making our money better. but assuredly more
plentiful among the people. 1t is a humiliating
fact that producing do i far larger amount
of precious metal than all the world beside,
we drive it into export because we will not create
a demand for 1t 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 outlaws
and expatriates the product OF their labor.