Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-12-27
Remonetfzatseu af silver and H
sumption Of specie Payment.

FIAA01 - ENNNaB ~ AACnNa
NO. II.
To the Editor Of the Ledgsrs
The third prOposition in my 6rst nam
Der was, resumption is feasible il silver
be restored to its old time use as money
in its full legal tender sense" This is
apparent when the effecto Of such a change
10 the character Of the currency is
studied. There is no disposition, no in.
clination, necessity or intention to les
sen the volume Of g~reonbacks, or to dis.
trust free banking under the amended
national bank system; the banks will in
no sense be further constrained then
than now, but, like greenbacks as to cir
culation, will sway to and fro 10 current
business as the monetary needs of the
people in any given locality may require
or more extended commerce may de-
mand.
1t is evident, in fact, that with the
remonetizstion of silver the problem of
a permanent arrangement of our coin
currency will be settled. Aud now that
the United States is fast looming up into
the position Of a ruling power in the
commerce between nations, aud with her
vast production of agriculture and other
raw material Of wealth and of increasing
manufactures for export, is yearly be-
coming more and more a creditor coun-
try whose money system must, to a large
extent, be acquiesccd in and yielded to
by the debtor ones, we may fairly con-
clude that our adoption of the ~bi.metalic
system will soon, if not at once, meet
their reciprocsl concurrence and action
and, by and by, of all. With it or with
out it, however, there will be with us in
our money system greater elasticity
and a reader adaptation Of money
means to trade and other financial wants,
than Of late years, because of a more
regular and healthy ~pulsation Of money
supply TO wholesome demands for it.
This beneficial change is bound TO
follow upon legitimate expansion Of the
real money basis; Of so increasing the
totality of that which really constitutes
the measure Of ali values; Of the actual
visible accumulation in the most conye.
nisnt form to interchange or pay at the
most eligible points as circumstances
may dictate and wants of trade of all
kinds may require, and as rapidly as
possible, of those real dollars which the
greenbacks have not in the past, with ell
their promises to pay, been the true rep
resentative Of. Then value attached to
greenbaeks because Of faith in their
eventual conversion into that which was
promised. That conversion being iudef-
nitely in the future rendered them ever
liable through %extraEsous influences, to
those fluctuations Of measuring quality,
destructive to confidence, disastrous to
prudent enterprise and beue6cient only
to sharp spectators in financial neces.
} sites, who quietly find out and know
!, we'll hcw TO work on them for their own
exclusive benefit at the cost Of all legiti-
mate business and of public good.
Let once, by the accession of silver,
+, the aggregate of real money be as
4 greatly enlarged as it should be land
while the process is going on and pro.
~portionately as it goes on the addition to
. gold, nominally limited as it is in the
amount it furnishes or can furnish OF
: another precious metal worth i%ntrinsi.
q eally, when restored to its coin use, in pro.
portion to its coin value, as much as
gold), it is evident that the measure oil
all property will be that much increased
10 which %.greenbscks must be added as
| being then true representatives of real
!; money from their quality Of prompt con.
vertibility into it at par, which now they
e are not, making then the whole of such
n mixed currency equal to coin and the
q actual measure of all property values
instead of the absurdly short one that
. gold, in the sole interest and by the
planning of the great European 6nan-
q cial autocrats has been. Such enlarge,
ment of the measure on a real specie
basis will, by the law Of expansion, have
an effect similar to that sought for and
believed in, as obtainable by the advo-
{ Gates Of the greenback initiation theory
: but, unlike that, the expansion here in.
ulChleu ID lOuuutu Ou sOHu tOch, mol
mere Dugatory promises of it.
The law as regards the medium of ex-
change of property is that unnatural
contraction Of the first leads inevitably
to unnatural or abnormal. low estimates
. of the other. So, too, undue initiation O
the one, as, say by the use Of unredeem
i able pledges or promises to pay tina
which, under the circumstances, is seer
to be Elusive, leads as surely to undue
? high estimate Of the other. The country
q ever since the march stolen on its pros.
a perity by the Interpolation of q silver de
v moneuzing Paragraph in an act relating
! to coinage, in 1873, has been suffering
: through the veaomous depressing action
eutailed on its property values by tn,
a ~unnaturslly short medium Of a golC
!, standard. Remonetizing silver aud tn,
d policy consequent on it, will enable tn,
7 country to recover from the %ruiuous ef
I fects of the u%raatural short measure b.
placing it under a natural one. Nor
a anon. PHILo 6UsTITIA.
Personal.