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

The speech of Representative Garfield OF
ohio on the bill to repeal the law providing
Tor resumption of specie payment on the
hrst of January 1870 is so concise, clear and
conclusive that we present it entire to our
readers, although the PRESS of Saturday con-
talned an excellent abstract of it. The
speech is good enough to circulate as tract
ana should be read attentiyely by every one
VINO has the slightest question in his mind
about the desirability OF the speediest poss-
Die return to the currency of the world. It
y compact statement OF well-known and
thoroughly verified principles OF political econ
omy applied to the circumstances now exist
ing. 1t furnishes an abundance of arguments
for hard-money men to use everywhere. A
difficulty that has been noted in respect of
this financial subject is, that the hard-money
men who form the bulk of the population of
Maine, although certain of the correctness of
their opinions, are not ready with the reasons
for them, while the few greenbackers are full
of specious and flippant arguments and ap-
pealssderived from their newspapers. The ref
utation of these arguments and appeals in
wolves the repetition of such trite and venera-
Bile truisms that the hard-money newspapers
have omitted to pay that attention to the
commonplace fallscies of the infationists
which was really needed. So it has fallen out
that many honest men, even in Maine, have
become bewildered and have lent credulous
ears to the stuff of the greenbackers from
sheer want of familiarity with financial truths.
To such comes Mr.. Garfield's speech like a
sunburst upon the darkness of night. Before
it the shadows fly and leave the folly of infa-
ton to be clearly seen of men,
There is scarcely prominent point made
by the in1ationists which he does not touch
and he does it SO brightly and goodnaturedly
that even its advocates cannot be much
offended. His citation of authorities in Que
own history is complete; he shows that every
President, every Secretary of the Treasury
and every eminent writer on political econ
omy sustains his views; he sets forth with
perfect distinctness the necessities which led to
the original issue of greenbacks aud the great
regret with which our public men yielded to
the pressure of those necessities; he disposes
of the example of France, so much cited by
infationists, with absolute conclusiveness; he
makes short work of the absurd theory that
the volume of currency is now too small he
shows from the history of England that the
fever of imitation recurs at intervals. and that
the craze of to-day is but the imitation of old
follies which have had their run and have
gone to their own place; but the most import
ant part of his speech, so far as effect on the
popular feeling is concerned, is that which
shows the division between the debtor and
creditor classes. He points out the fact
that by our system Of savings banks and life
insurance companies the poor have come to
be the creditors and the rich the debtors.
Let everybody read that and see if it
be not so. How wild and how wicked
then is the attempt to infame the poor
against the rich and to seek means for paying
debts in anything but good money. 1t is a
movement against the substance of widows
and orphans, against the savings of every
poor man who has life insurance policy or a
savings bank book, and against every MANNED
soldier who draws pension. 1t seeks to re-
duce the laboring mans daily wages and to
impair the income of every man or woman
who works for pay. In conclusion he shows
the SOFT of money we want, and that the men
who seek to make the greenback better are
doing more practical service for the people
than those who seek to make it worse.
Mr.. Garfield is entitled to the highest hon.
or and praise for his timely and powerful
speech. He comes from Ohio, state which
has been thoroughly infected with the ipfa-
tion mania, and his positive position on the
subject shows courage as well as ability. He
has done the country good service which will
not be forgotten. Hs has furnished just the
sort of material that was needed and has put
it in apt form. He does not of course give
much that is new, but he combines it in at
tractive and effective shape. We earnestly
commend the speech to careful perusal.