The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1878-08-15

Oh credit. Money IS merely the legt
representative of values, and when tn
war closed twenty-five hundred mi
lions was the representative or legs
equivalent of all the values in the land
The men who went in debt did go o
that basis, and they had a right to ex
pect that it would be maintained. r,
make money scarce was to make
dear-tO increase its purchasing pow
er-tO enable one dollar to buy tw
and half dollars worth of property
to make the debtor pay the credfto
two and q half times as much as wa
due him according to the spirit of tn
contract under which the debt wa
made.
And maintain, citizens, that every
sound principle of public economy wa
violated by the contraction of the cur
rency. General prosperity was tn
best evidence that we were in a sOun(
condition. Production and consump
idlers. The disbanded soldiers wer,
rs if by magic, absorbed into the vari
Gus branches of industry. The people
Of ten States had been restored 10 the
Union without a dollar of money, fOl
by their own laws their currency was
repudiated on their failure to establish
an independent government. YheiI
Industries had been utterly destroyed
their sugar houses and cotton gins had
been burned, and there was al imme.
diate and pressing need for large vol
ume of money; and yet, at such time
the men then in power Withdrew from
circulation in q single year six hund-
red and fifty millions by substituting
for the same gold interest bearing
bonds. BY this process the federal
NIL; ;nl~ fc
on the dollar, commanded premium
sometimes as high as twenty-five per
cent, and as the bonds went up, agri-
culture and commerce and manufac-
turing went down, and stagnation and
bankruptcy became the universal con-
dition of the country.
Strange as it may seem, fellOw-citi-
Zens. there are men who yet maintain
that the paralysis of commerce and the
stagnatfOn of all other industries was
caused by too large a volume of mon
ey, by too much production and too
much consumption, although every
one knows that production aud wealth
are the same, and that consumption
creates trade. But let us test this
strange fallacy by the dread facts
the currency. No one denies that
when contraction was commenced in
1866 the country was in the enjoy
ment of unrivaled prosperity. Men
were in debt in proportion to the ex-
tent of their business, but their returns
were large and certain, and creditor
and debtor were alike secure. In 1865
was commenced. That
year there were only $50 failures and
the liabilities were less than eighteen
millions. One year of contraction in
creased the number of failures from
five to fifteen hundred and trebled the
of liabilities. In 1867 the fail
ures increased to $500 and the liabili-
ties to ninety-seven millions, and the
work of contraction and ruin went
on. In 1872 there were four
thousand failures, which .swelled to
nearly eight thousand in 1875, and to
about nine thousand in 1877, and there
We're 100 MORE failures during the
first QUARTER of 1878 than in the first
QUARTER of 1877 and during this peri
cd of twelve years the volume of the
currency was reduced fifteen hundred
millions. These facts, thus consider
ed, are Irresistible. and there is ao CO.
cape from the conclusion that the con-
of the currency has brought
all this ruin and woe upon the land.
One more significant fact. Your
companies are generally bank
rupt. and their gross earnings were
millions less in 1877 than
in 1876, and they are still on the down.
ward grade to ruin.
When contraction commenced COM
mon laborers were receiving So SO per
day. Now we have what? A million
of men who cannot obtain employ
lnent at any price-they cannot get
work at all. They are forced to begOr
steal. They fill your workhouses,
your jails and penitentiaries,a and hund-
reds of thousands of them are wander
ing over the land in bewilderment aud
despair. And who have gained The
owners of idle capital, the bondhOlder,
the banker and the usurer. And who
have lost? The men whose money
has been actively employed in busi-
ness the men of industry and toll, no
matter what the character of that in
dustry has been.
I charge then, sirs, that bankrupt
cy and contraction are twins, that they
in proportion as the wheel of contrac-
lion has turned, just in that proportion
have we heard the crash of merchants
and manufacturers and owners of real
estate.
The other day my eye fell on an edi-
torial in an able Ohio journal which
read as follows "Mr. Edward Atkin-
,on has Just made the encouraging
statement that the signs of the times
indicate a return to prosperity at an
early day and we feel like placing con-.
idence in Mr.. Atkinson's judgment
because In 1869 he predicted that bank
'uptcy would befall US, because we had
90 large volume of meney, and
bankruptcy did come as he predicted.
But, my friends, bankruptcy was up
IN us in 1869. The previous year there
we're 26OO commercial failures, and the
was on the increase. It was
lot difficult to predict what actually
existed. But in that year. while Mr..
Atkinson was predicting bankruptcy
we had too much money, too
much business, too many men and
women earning an honest livelihood
~ their industry; in q word, because,
according to him, there was ''too much
too much general wealth,
md ''tOO much consumption ;" in.
bill III the House of Repre-
entatives to increase the volume of
he currency by the issue of two hun
lred millions in legal tender notes,
ief was given by expanding the vol
lme of currency, that bankruptcy
would become universal, and lead to
of most disastrous
haracter, and universal bankruptcy is
lpon us now, and every observing man
Who has travelled through the country
,nOWs that times are steadily getting |
worse, instead of getting better. Sirs,
here is nothing new in all this. It is
m old saying and true one that his
Ory repeats itself. The same condi-
ion of things which exists in our
ountry now existed in other lands
ong centuries ago. The powerful few
ave always sought to prey upon the
many, ami free peoples aud republic
an governments have been utterly
rushed out and destroyed by the same
ind of human vultures who are prey
ny on the vitals Of the American peO-
lie now.
(Will some one be kind enough to
end me cane-thanks.) Suppose
hat this cane is a beam with scales on
ithor end The left end Of the beam