The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-12-07

cry uCll6E OF tBB COtuOQ DGOUuCS Vi
our mines and able 70 drain the pet
ty accommodations IN our treasury or
the banks atwilI by simply demand
ing coin payment Of the interest on
our public and private securities or
by sending home our bonds for sale.
Under these conditions how utterly
futile it is TO hope that we can main
tain resumption without the swim
destruction of much of the greater
part Of the present currency of the
country.
If we were wholly out OF debt to
Europe, if your foreign commerce
floated under our own flag, If there
were no system of absenteeism
among our wealthy classes, expend-
ing their wealth abroad, resumption
In gold or even in gold and silver,
would be impossible on our present
volume of paper currencyfOr many
years to- come. In the proportion
of coin in England to redeemabie
paper money, it would require
eighteen hundred millions Ofcoiu In
our country TO maintain resumption
on the ak hundred and fifty-eight
millions of paper money we have
Outstanding on the frat of this
month. In the, proportion Of
Frances paper money TO her coin,
we would require an eecumulation
or sixteen hundred millions. Take
even the proportion of coin in our
country In 1856, the highest volume
of paper money then in circulation
and nominslly redeemsble, and it
would require nine hundred mill
lions of coin to float our present pa
per money.
How can we accamulate such O
vast sum Of gold? The coin pro-
duct of our mines if it were all re-
tanned here, would not yield it in
forty years. If we were free from
debt to-day, and were to offer six
per cent. gold bonds in the markets
of Europe in exchange for gold, we
could not get q hundred millions.
Recollect, sir. that neither England,
France, nor Germany, suffer chip
ment of gold from their shores, it
by any artifice or power they can
prevent it. All the vast sales OF
bonds fer fifteen years past have
brought ns nothing but our own Sc
curities or merchandise. England
fifteen and a half millions In gold,
but paid it in securities. An expan-
sion of ten to fifteen millions OF
gold will always produce q panic
| there. 1t is the base of the pyramid
OF currency and credits in every
specie-paying country, and the with
drawal of any part of the base
shakes the industrial fabric resting
on it. Hence every monarch OF
Europe guards his country's gold
as he does his crown or scepter.
RESUMPTION NECESSARILY INvoLvEs
CONTRACTION OF THE CURRENCY.
Hence resumption can only be main.
tanned by the destruction of the great.
er part of the present paper currency
To accomplish that purpose the means
provided in the law are probably ade-
quate. Mr.. Sherman says they are
He ought to know. His plan, prOba-
bly,, will be to limit the amonnt of re.
demption per day to, say, two millions
to require all the greenbacks to be pre-.
sented through chosen syndicate,
which can pay him two millions o.
gold per day for per cent. bonds and
present two millions of greenbacks pei
day and receive the gold back. II
could probably be managed so tina
most of the gold thus used would b
merely diverted from European anC
American money markets long
| and back to the same markets, causing
comparatively little disturbance ant
accomplishing in effect merely a fund
ing of most of the greenbacks int
gold bearing bonds.
But my colleague Mr.. Garfield say
the people will not want the gold wheI
greenbacks are at par. True, the mass
es will not. They never have wante1
it in preference TO greenbacks, which
they always have regarded as being il
the language of General Grants mes
sage in 1873, "the best paper none.
they ever had. " But the people gen
orally will have no more to say as t.
the redemption and cancellation o
their currency than they have had witt
the finance policy of the goYernmen
for the past twelve years than the!
had with the establishment of the ma
tiOnal bank system; or the fundinl
of the 81 200, 00O, 600 of interest bearing
: Treasury notes or the passage of tn
Infamous act of 1863; or the rascal,
sleight of hand by which silver was de
monetized; or the enactment of tina
sum of financial Villainies-the re
sumption law. But the national banks
the importers, the gold rings in NeV
York, the desperadoes of Wall street
the money Kings of Europe to whoE
we are financially enslaved, THEY viii
present the greenbacks for redemption
and destruction as fast as the gold ca
be paid over the counters of the Treas
ury.
But we are assured there will be lit
J tie more contraction, because gold vii
take the place of the redeemed green
backs in the business OF the country
That is a most fallaciOus conjecture
The dearth of gold here, the presen
large demand for it, the immeasurabl,
increased demand arising from the fac
that considerably more than two thou
sand millions of national, savings, an
other bank deposits will then be pays
; bic in gold; that seven or eight bill
lions of other debts, corporate and pri
vate, and seven hundred and fifty mil
lions of annual taxes new payable j
: currency, will then be payable only il
gold; that every banking insLitutlo
r in the land will be at the mercy OF th
millionaire gamblers who may boar
it to burst the banks and place the bu
siness of the country at their feet, wi
! create a general scramble for coiI
which will Keep every dollar of it GU
, of general circulation.
f RESUMPTION INVOLVES RETIREMENT o
LARGE PART OF THE BANK CURREcY
: But after our currency shall hav
= been contracted over q half, by de
: struction of the greenbaeks, the ban
Z circulation must also be largely reduc
, ed TO maintain resumption. The ma
, tional banks, since the resumption La
|, was enacted, have made a net reduC
tion of fOTtp-eight millions of their Gil
culation. Whatever causes have lie
to it, the obvious imp.acticability {
2 maintaining even the present Volum
2 of bank currency redeemable in gol
! was the main cause Over three nun
: dred national banks have already SUI
T rendered their circulation in whole {
: In part. Tney are chiefly the banks
D the country districts, that know pei
? fectly well that it will be impossibl
for any banks 20 maintain their circT
lation except those situated in the gre.
. importing ccnters, where whatever
gold may remain in the country wi
accumulate and where alone Tedemy
ton will be practicable.
: OUR BUSINESS DISTRESS IS THE REsUI
OF CONTRACTORS