The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-10-13
HOW TO RESUME.

Il
| preparatory 10 resumption in 1919 Thoug
: the plan involve. resumption by the nationa
= banks in 1879 as well us by the nationa! trca.
uiy. the bills Of the national banks being +,
deemablc in grcenbacks, thc burden of pro
curing the gold for resumption is cast upoI
the national treasury. The banks expect E
get their gold =, Presenting grccnbackS TO tn
J national treasury There are now in cXistenc
about S3S0Cp0 Hu" OF grecnback;, and abou
$31j, coo 900 Of national bank bills After re
sumption in 1879 the bank, will redeem thci
, paper with grpcnbacks until The bulk Of Tx
greenback> have been presented to the nation
al treasury and cancelled, after that the bank
expect of the $3.50 geo. 600 Of gold thus draw
from the national treasury, to retain enough il
their vaults to take care Of their Own paper
The plan, it will thus be seen, involves the
Withdrawal and cancellation Of the grccnbacks
1t is true, Secretary Sherman in his Obi,
speech q month ago, dcnlcl that it necessarily
Ibid so but he admitted that the resumption
law, at the best, left the question as to wha
should be done with the ggccnbacks aitC 70
Idemption an open one for the Secretary Of ;h,
Treasury or Congress afterwards TO set Z"
, But whatever may be Shcrnan's idea on thu
head, real or pretended such is not the idea of
Wall street, the Belmonts and the eastern re-
sumptonists generally. BY resumption they
mean the utter divorce Of the government
from the banking business rs they call it
meaning the cessation by the government Of
any further issue OF or connection with paper
money, and the turning over Of the whole OF
! that business TO the national banks.
That is what is meant by resumption under
the act Of 1885, that is the resumption which
all the bullionists mean; and that is the re-
sumption for which Secretary Sherman is now
preparing and TO which the Hayes administra-
ton and the whole republican party stand
pledged
And the question what is to bc done with
the grecnbacks after redemption in that con
ncction, is in reality not an open one. If the
grecnbacks are to be paid out again after be-
ing redeemed, complete resumption will never
take place. The government by that opera
ton would incur the liability of being called
upon not only to redeem its $3S0000,000 of
greenbacks once, but two or three times in the
same year The government will run no such
risks. Depend upon it, the greenbacks once
redeemed by the government in gold will ney.
er be put ailoat to come back second time for
the gold
What then, does such resumption involve =?
1t involves CONTRACTION. There is not can
did bullionist or banker but will tell you it Is
insanity to suppose there can be resumption
without contraction. Resumption means, in
a word, the entire Withdrawal of the grcenback
currency, and therefore contraction of the
paper circulation of the country to the amount
of $3.50 1000. 1t is true as the bankers say,
we shall have that amount of gold instead
but will the gold, like the greenbacks, remain
in circulations Not att all. The gold Is In ex-
istence now--in the vaults Of the Frankfort
and London banks-and with our silver and
national bank bills as a lower grade currency
in general circulation, the gold with which the
greenbacks are redeemed will return as fast as
paid out by the national treasury to the vaults
of the bankers and brokers it came from, and
that, for all purposes of general circulation,
will be the end of ii.
"But," say the advocates of the Sherman
scheme, "a large proportion of the gold paid for
the grecnbacks will go into the national banks
n,I tI |, at ,,1o.nl in a
dition to issue paper rcdcemable in gold on
presentation to replace the greenbacks." Is
that probabley Will the national banks, al
ready carrying Il circulation Of nearly Sl0O,
0O0,0O0 be able to issue 10000, 900 more on
the basis Of some Sl5o00O,0O0 or $200,00 600
of gold they may have saved from the govern
mcnt's grcenback redemption? The expert
ence Of not only this country but of all the
word has shown that no banks can maintain
specie payment without maintaining in their
vaults at least 80 per cent Of gold and bullion
upon all paper money issued. The banks of
this country, We know, did try it at 33 per cent,
but the history of the banks of this country
has been that of suspension and failure once
in ten years. In short, the banks cannot give
us currency TO take the place of the green
backs
What then? Can there be no resumption
Must this country stand forever alone among
the great civilized and commercial nations of
the earth that cannot afford To have general
currency equal in value TO the worlds stand
ard-gold: Not at all. The government of the
United States can resume tomorrow can raise
the grccnback and the national bank bill 10
gold value tomorrow; can do il without one
dollars contraction; and what IS more, can
largely increase the amount Of our active cir
culaton by the coinage of silver dollars equal
in value 10 gold The way to do it is rs sim
pie as \ i C. All the government need do is
to stick To the solemn promise il made when
the grccnback was first issued lie; it either
redeem the grccnback in gold on presentation
at the national treasury, or, moi having the