The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-11-20

1 7
| round III l3borers, mechanics, ministers and
% men OF Slender means, who had kept what they
au nau ana put it 10 the hands of the United
States that it might be safe; and theV were the
"bloated boudholders" against whom so much
eio4usnce Is Illuminated IN the House.
Ihere Is another way in which poor men dis
| pose OF tnelr money. A man saws II can
keep my wife and babies from starvation
while live and have my health but If die,
they may be compelled to go over the hills TO
| the poor-house;" and, agonized by that Thought
he saves out of his hard earnings enough to
take out and keep alive small life insurance
poncy; SO that, II he dies there may be some
| tblng left, provided the insurance company to
which he intrusted his money is honest enough
| TO Keep the pledges. And how many men do
you tnlnk have done that in the United States?
l. 40 not know the number for the whole coun-
| try, but do know this that from late report
| OF the Insurance Commissioner of the State of
| new YORK 1t appears that the companies doing
business IN that State had 774, GA policies in
force, and the face value of these policies was
| Sl,92OO 000 1 find by looking over the re-
turns that in my State there are 5000 policies
outstanding; in Pennsylvania, $4,000; in
| Maine 1900; lin Mary land $4,000; and in the
State OF New York 100000. There are, of
Course, some rich men in these companies, but
| do not average mora than So, 200 each. What
/ is done with the assets of these conpapiss
which amount to S445.0O0,000? They arc
| loaned out. Here. again, the creditor class Is
i tHo pOVI, duu Tue INSURANCE companies are the
| agents OF the poor, to lend their money for
them. 1t would be dishonorable for Congress
70 eglsate either for the dF btor class or for the
creditor class alone. We ought to legislate for
tne whole country. But when gentlemen at
| Tempt to manufacture sentiment against the
| Resumption Act by saying it will help the rich
sno hurt the poor, they are overwhelmingly
answered by the facts
| TO UNDO THE WORK DISASTROUS.
Suppose you undo the work. that Congress
has attempted, to resume specie payments,
what will the result be? You will deprsciate
the value of the greenbsck. Suppose it falls
ten cents 10 the dollar. You will have des-
troyed ten per cent. of every life Insurance.
policy and fire insurance policy, of every peu-
sion to the soldiers, and of every DAYS wages
OF every laborer in the nation. In the cam
| eus OF 1870, it was estimated that on any given
day there were S12O, 100000 due to laborers for
| their unpaid wages. That is a small estimate.
Let the greeDback dollar come down 10 per
cent. and you take S12000000 from the men
| VINO have already earned it, In the name Of
| every interest connected with the poor. / de-
| nounce this effort to prevent resumption. Dan
| let webster never uttered q greater truth than
when he said that of all contrivances to cheat
| the laboring classes of mankind none were so
effective as that which 6eluded them with an
lrredeemaole paper money. The rich can take
care OF themselves, bat the dead weight of all
fluctuations and loss fall ultimately on the
| poor man who has only his day's work to sell
l admit that in the passage from peace to
war there was a great loss to Que class of the
| community, to the creditors and in the return
| 10 the Dasls OF peace, some loss to debtors was
| inevitable. The injustice was Unavoidable
The loss and gain did not fall upon the same.
The evils could MT be balanced nor adjusted
1877.
The most competent Judges declare that tbe
l Of ha lab ~, IT
| States Is not more than two years. Now, we
nave already gone two years on the road to
| resumption, and the country has been adjust
| log Itself to the new condition of things. The
| people have expected resumption and haye
already discounted most Of the hsrdships and
| suHer1ugs incident to the change The agony
IS almost over, and If we no embark again
upon Tue open sea, We lose all that has been
gained and plonge the country once more over
| the same Dolsterous ocean with all its perils
aud uncertainties. l speak the deepest convic-
| tlon OF my heart when say that should this
resumption act be repealed and no effective
substitute be put in its place. the day is not far
| distant when all of us looking back on this
time from the depth of the evils which will result
will iregret with all our power to regret, the
day when we let loose the dangers of imitation
| upon the country,
Gentlemen speak Of the years of hish prices
as years of prosperity. Ii is true there was .
| klud or prosperity in the day Of high prices;
| bat do not gentlemen know that war prices
cannot 6s kept up forever? Notbiug but the
extraordinary calamltes OF war could produce
| such prices as we knew from 1865 to 1870 To
| our foreign and domestic markets was added
| the war market. War sat like a grim mon
ster swallowing up the accumulated wealth Of
the country. More than million men wero
taken out OF the ranks of the producers and
added to the ranks Of the consumers and all
| prices went up. But does anybody dream tn at
these prices could be kept up foreyer-when
the soldiers were mustered out and the war
had n 011k kr.z. l..
| itssnormal level of peace. Oh, no, gentlemen,
| II was inevitable that the country must CONS
| down from the level of war prices, aud to
attempt to get it back is to fight against fate
Onless we bring ourselves steadily and surely
| Dg tne strong courage and guidance Of law,
| oack to resumption, we shall reach that level
py disastrous fall. But down to it we must
| come.
| THE SORT OF MONEY WE WANT
Now, gentlemen think that we have got mon
| ey that is good enough for our country. dom.
undervalue the greenback nor its great service
to the country; but when the gentleman from
PeDnsylvanis, (Mr. Kelley talked about the
greenbAck as being the thing that put down the
rebellion. thought il had been on the other
side L wouldshave said, "we had more liberal
supply of that than you had. and why did it
not put yoa down daughter; our money was
bstter than yours in one respect, for ours set
day of resumption, which was six months after
the Independence of the Confederate States -
tLsugbter) think sir, that gentlemen who
| sGow the hnaucial history of the Confederacy
would not ioin the gentleman in the eulogy on
| the paper currency when cut loose from the
standard and basis of value.
Gentlemen, you want not only q national but
| an international currency. Let me state one
fact. which think, ,commends itself to every
mans mind The foreign trade of the country its
| expor S. and imports, amounts to 81 800, 600 600
in value, and every dollar of that trade
must be transacted in coin. We cannot help
| ourselves. Every dollar of the exports we send
abroad we sell in coin. Every dollar of imports
we buy we buy 10 coin. We must translate the
prices in our currency into coin. We must use
coin 10 every foreign transaction, and every
fuctuation 10 the value of the greenback be-
tween itself and coin falls upon us and not up-
on the countries with which we trade; and,
therefore, the entire commercial world of
America demands that the international and
national value of our money shall be one 80
that what is a dollar in Ohio shall be dollar
the world over. Our money must be inter-
national as well as national unless you wish to
isolate this country and have no trade or COM
merce or glory on the sea.
| The trouble with our greenback dollar in
this: 1t has two distinct functions one Q pur-
chasing power, and the other debt paying
power. As debt paying power it 10 equal to
one hundred cents. That Is. to pay an old
| 01ScQhrR1
one hundred cents of debt; but noslaw can give
1t purchasing power in the general markets OF
the world unless it represents q known stand
ard of coin value. Now what we want is that
these two qualities of our greenback dollar
shall be made equal, its debt power and its
general purchasing power. When you have
made those two things equal, You have got Q
| good representative of value. We who defend
the Resumption Act propose not to destroy the
greenback, bat to dignity it, to glorify it, The
Law that 1--WE defend does not destroy II. 1t
simply reduces its volume to $500, ,000, 600, and
it makes the greenback convertible into coin,
bat it does not destroy and cancel it.
| Now admit that the law is not entirely free
from ambiguity; but the Secretary Of the Treas
ury, who has the execution IF the law, declares
that Section $3.50 of the Revised Statutes is in
full force, viz that the whole amount of Treas-
ury notes returned to the Treasury shall be is
sued again, except that the Resumption Act
cuts that amount down to $500 900, 900. Now, al
though do not believe in keeping greenbacks
as permanent currency In the United States,
although. l do not myself believe in this gov.
ernment becoming banker yet 1 am willing
for one, that IN order to prevent the check OF
business which gentlemen fear, the $500 ,O0O,-
| 600 of the greenbacks shall be allowed to re-
| main in circulation as long as the wants OF