Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-12-22
WHOLE NO. 2,317.

g reduced Its effective volume at lens
c one-third, resulting in an averag
0 fall OF valnes in like proportion.
! ! EFFECT on DEBTORS, TAx-PAY-ER
I AND wAGE-PBOPIE.
!. Now, Mr.. Speaker, what Il tn,
, extent of injury thus inflictedP How
/, have taxpayers suffered ? We paN
more taxes each year than the ae.
gregate volume OF our currency
seven hundred and fifty millions
for the support OF national, State
and local governments. That Is, q
tax Of $l7 .50per head for every man.
woman ard child In the United
States-an enormous burden, far
surprising any borne By any other
people on earth. The British pay
$ll.09 per head the French, &II.4l;
the Germans, 1924; the Austrians,
S7.22. This burden h bSinsupportable,
unless industries prosper. The re-
sumption law has broken down in
1 dustries and reduced one-third the
average values of land, labor and
/ products, by the sale Of which alone
4 taxes are paid, and IN effect has thus
! Increased the tax burden 80 per cent.
4 The burden has thus been mada, in
! heavily taxed communities, absO-
lutely insuppOrtable. Several great
States, and many counties and cities,
have already sought relief In repu-
diation. Continue that process OF
reduction values, bring them down
much more, as will inevitably be
done II this law benOt repealed, and
one-half Of the corporate and munic-
ipal debts in the United States will
be repudiated. The greed of tfit
money power, I'm thus seeking To-
enhance so enormously the value Of
the dollar, is only equaled by its ar
rOgant and dogged stupidity.
Consider, MIR. Speaker, the wrong
done to individual debtors by this
contrived shrinkage Of values. The
aggregate of private debts in the
United States, including railway
mortgages, is probably not less than
seven and One-half billions Of dol
lars, or three and One-half times the
sum of our national debt. They arc
owed generally by the young, ener-
getic, driving business men of the
country, who are seeking to rise
from poverty to competence, or from
prise twO-thirds of the merchants,
manufacturers and exchangers Of
values, and give employment TO
two-thirds of the wage-men Of the
country. This law breaks down
their business, strips them OF their
property, and casts out of employ
ment millions Of labOrers dependent
on them. Above all, Mr.. Speaker,
consider the effect of the shrinkage
of values on wage-labOrers and their
on the millions who are
compelled to eat up in idleness the
little accumulatiOns Of thrifty indus
try; on the millions who have no
but rely only ON
daily labor for daily bread, and who
are now unemployed, or half cm-
plOyed, or living ON pauper wages.
The president of the Springfield and
POmerOy Railway Company, Mr..
Emmett, who is struggling 10 con-
Ohio, told me recently that he had
plenty of laborers Offering To build
his road without other compensation
than enough bread and meat TO keep
the poor machines OF their bodies in
order-asking nothing for
nothing for wives or chill
lren, nothing TO lay up in store for
this too I'm the midst Of
harvests, IN region one
)f the fairest ever fashioned by the
for the abode of man.
Oh, God thnt bread should be NJ denr.
And flesh and blood ~ cheap
ESTIMATE OF INJURIES THUS FAR
INFLICTED.
Suppose, Mr.. Speaker, that re-
were attainable without
'urther fall of values and depression
IF industries, and that after january
|, 1879, prosperity should promptly
'eturn. Let rs make a rough esdi-
nate Of the cost of resumption. Il
will have cost the people ut large,
through the enforced idleness Of fat,-
ories, an enormous sum. probably
several times the aggrt,-
rate of our national debt.
,e,1are %aae debtor class, instead Of paying
would haveps, which they owe,
he shrinkage Of f0rlne.half more by
s, the enormous sum OF ab0ti ,lhat
md three-quarters billions of dollars
would be wrongfully taken from
hem, so far as they have power To
)ay it, and given TO the creditor
lass, without consideration and I'm
violation Of the spirit Of the con-
racts.
The census of 1870 indicates that
here are not less than ten millions
If wage-peOple in the United States,
men, women and children. Ifthere
)e no increase OF demand for labor
~ resumption day, we may safely
Iut the loss of labor, unemployed,
,r only partly employed, at daily
Iverage Of three millions of days
abOr; and putting wages at an ave-
age of a dollar day, the loss, from
want of employment alone, will
nave been nine hundred millions a
year for about three years-an ag-
yregate Of 81, 200, 900, 600 wrung from
he poorest class Of our people.
The loss to taxpayers In deprecia-
ion Of property with which taxes
ire paid, while the sum of taxes re-
mains the same, would be three
and fifty millions r year,
,r over a thousand millions In the
hree years; and the increase Of
,Onded debt in purchase Of gold and
liver to pay and cancel the green
)ack and fractional currency, will
,e four hundred and sixteen mil
ions more. Thus, under thespeciOus
)reteXt that national honor requires
Is to add ten per cent. 10 the value
II three hundred and fifty-fOur mil
ions of greenbacks, the cOntrivers
If this scheme will have wrested
rom the people many times thesum
If our vast national debt.
AND GREATER DISASTERS
TO FOLLOW.
But the shrinkage Of the currency
md of all values cannot stop here,
f the resumption scheme be not ar
'ested. The entire industrial sys-
em Of this country has been pushed
% the verge Of destruction. Savings
lanks and insurance companies are
low failing everywhere through de
lreciatiOn Of real estate mOrtgaged
% them. Yet my colleague Mr..
fairfield appeals to us in the name
If the wOrkingmen whose means
ire in these falling companies, tO
.dhere 20 the policy Of contraction,
which involves the loss of their saw