The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-02-24
Initiation Rigmo-Ole.

The basis of Mr.. KELLrY's long rigmarole
In the House last Saturday was. thar the
financial breakdown of 1873 was owing to
an insufficient supply OF the circulating
medium, and that the present depression
OF trade and industry is attributable to
the same cause ON this ground he asks
for the issue of more paper money by the
Government.
This is all there is of this undertaking
mans theory of finance. 1t is perfectly
simple and easy of comprehension, and.
happily, can be readily brought to the test
of facts. Our circulation is wholly of
paper, and has been so for many years, and
thus we meet with no difficulty in deter
mining it's precise volume. There is no
chance to befog the subject with any
Imaginary or supposable quantities, as
there would be IL we had an indefinite
quantity of silver OF gold in use as money.
us every other country has. Every indefi-
mite element of the problem ia thus elimi-
mated. Ours is pure and simple paper
money circulation. We can count the
Issue to n dollar.
Now, II we can show that our present
supply Of paper money is as great ~ il has
been any time these seven years, as great
ms it was AT the period Of the great panic
and collapse Of 1873, and as great as it was
in the times Of our greatest apparent pros
perity and our most lavish expenditure,
In the years 1872 1871, 1870, and 1869; and
If we can show that the supply OF money
In circulation was rs great in 1873, at the
time of the financial explosion, as it was in
NIL those preceding years of tremendous
netivity in all branches of business, what
becomes of Mr.. KELLEY's theory
We do not care anything about the
dogmas of Mr.. KELLEY or of Mr.. CAREY, OF
whom he Processes TO be q disciple. They
are the fanciful speculations of n mono
maniac on financial questions of which we
do not believe one word; and like all such
with which the world has been tortured for
an indefinite period, they are no more wor-
thy Of pursuit than the tgnis fdtuus of the
swamp. Their emptiness could be easily
enough exposed, but the object is not
worth the effort. Life is not long enough
to be wasted in the exposure of human
folles of that class.
KELLEY absurdly claims that all the evil
dences of unpaid, floating debt. owed by
the United States ut the close Of the war,
WCIo just 81 iuutI lllOutJ III clTCuldtlOn,
and that when Secretary McCULLocH me-
potiated his final loan and paid them off,
the act brought ruin on the country. As
II the act of the Government in settling
up its accounts and paying OFF what it
owed at the end of u costly war, was
vicious, unprincipled, and ruinous. Yet
this Is just what KELLEY says, and it is the
basis of his entire wall and complaint over
the curI ency. II Is this reduction OF the
Governments obligations, he says, that
causes our ruin. Very likely he will not
like the looks of his position put in this
naked form. We should not think he
would. But that is his fault, not ours.
We merely hold the mirror up TO KELLEY.
We deny that the act had any such eff
feet as he charges. We deny that the
paying of of the certificates of indebted
ness or the compound interest notes or
any other form of debt owed at the close
of the war, was either ruinous or iniuri-
ousi and we sustain the denial by point
ing to the fact that the Government paw
ments of lSG5-GG-G7 and 'Gs produced no
panic and no collapse. The business of the
country was, as everybody knows, undis-
turbed by those payments, and went on
DAY by day growing and expanding all
through those years; and so on oontinu-
ously through lSG0-10-7l-12 and up 70 the
autumn Of 1873; when the bubble burst
from over expansion.
We do not need any profound and occult
theory evolved from anybody's muddy in
ner consciousness, such as KELLEY offers, to
explain why that bubble burst. We had
gone beyond our means. We had gone
ahead of the times in particular branches
oil industry. We had built too many rail-
roads too many iron mills, too many cot
ION factories. We were producing certain
'n'ngs beyond our power Of purchase