Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-09-05
The following official statement, furnished by Il
Treasury Department, shows the volume of the p
per circulation at the several periods stated

This statement exhibits steady increase of the
currency volume from 1864 until 1873, when it
reached its maximum, since which time there has
been slight decrease. 1t greater in 1873 when
the financial crash occurred. than at any former
period, OF the Si4,O00OOO OF legal tenders re-
tired under President johnson. Congress ordered the
reissue OF S24 000000 in vain effort to tide tie
country over the panic, which swelled the volume
to s5S2 600 0OO. The decrease in the paper volume
since 1879 has been more than COMPENSATED by its
money volume. The coin value or the purchasing
power of money, motifs number of nominal dollars,
constitute its true volume. In 1875 the coin value
of the aggregate currency only S675 OO0O0 its
depreciation being little more than 10 per cent.
Now its coin value exceeds S6S5 000000- Since then
600 900 of postal currency has been retired and
fractional silver coin substituted. The recoinage of
the silver dollar and the products of gold mines
have added many millions more; so that instead of
contraction there has been large increase il the
aggregate volume OF circulation, which now reaches
one billion dollars in coin value, larger Uolue than
eUer eriSted at any former period.
ITS BUSINESS POWER.
The period of greatest business activity in the his
tory of the country was from 1869 to 1873. Every
enterprise was stimulated and the whole productive
power of the nation employed; not muscle
ment securities, which had in any degree entered
into the circulation, had been paid or funded and
retired under President johnson. The working
power of the currency was its volume of legal tender
and national bank notes, the average coin value of
which did not exceed S6lO. 900, 900; its maximum
being S4S 600 900 in 1873 when the panic occurred
Their depreciation had practically demonetized
coin, which boarded by the miser, or held for
then volume of exclusively paper currency was
sufficient to animate and give employment to the
entire industrial and commercial capacity of the ma
ton then, how can it be asserted that thousand
millions of currency and coin are insufficient to do
so now? Surely some other cause than lack of cur
rency must have produced the depression of subse-
quent years. Not lack of currency is the cause but
lack of market commensurate with the capacity of
production This Judge Thurman frankly con
@ Which he ssd By the ss sfa
of labor saving machinery about 80 per cent.
of our population using the improved tools and ma
chimes can produce all that 100 per cent.
can consume. and can in addition produce all that
we have yet been able to find market for abroad.
The consequence is that one-tenth of the labor of
the country is dispensed with"
This is forced deness and its cause Is it not dis
ingenious in Senator Thurman now 10 ascribe ii to
the government Of an additional thousand millions
of legal tender notes prevent this result? Would it
create for US an additional foreign market? Would
it compel the whole population to consume more
than they can consume-more than 30 per cent
can produce? Would it destroy the power and
capacity of the 80 per cent. to still produce
more than 100 per cent can consume?
Would it dispense with the employment of machin-
cry? The suggestion is preposterous.
Healthful prosperity exists only when the capacity
for consumption is substantially commensurate
with the capacity for production in all the various
deDartmens dHs,io OF industry the capacity
market demand for its wares. diminish
ed activity, employment in some other department
of industry, or idleneSs is inevitable. When the
whole capacity OF production is employed in work
ing its various departments to the full capacity of
in each, then, and then only can and
will industrial equilibrium and solid prosperity
exist.
This condition of things was disturbed and broken
up by the violence of 1t only be restored
by read justment to the conditions of peace. The
exigencies of the diminished production crea-
ted unnatural market, relatively augmented |
and correspondingly stimulated the |
highest pitch of activity in order 10 supply its enor-
nous demands. The resulting prosperity was I'M |
natural and ephemeral ana destined TO inevitable |
collapse when its cause should cease to operate:
when peace should transform the consuming de- |
Stroyer into a competing producer
The war closed. For a while the wild extrava-
5ance and reckless adventure which it stimulated,
swept on like reSisteSs torrent: but no policy no
currency wit OF man could forever float the base
less balloon. Collapse, and the crash came as they
always have, and inevitably must from
ike causes, and from which re-
;overy is possible only by time, economy, and the
operation of natural and industrial forces. The
iemagogue may agravate the evils, agitation may
Intensity and proong them, but can not avert their
coming nor hasten relief Hear Senator Thurman
Igain on this point. In the Senate, in December,
S74, he said:
1.-The panic was the result of our trading and ex-
ravagance. until at last the bubble burst and then
anne a season OF retrenchment and economy In
he history of this country it has been shown that
he business of the country never revives in less
,eriod than four years after panic. Nothing hut
ime honesty, economy, and retrenchment will set
he business in motion and make the country pros
'erous Tinkering at financial system will
lever accomplish this result"