The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1878-05-02
That Money Question.
SEATTLE, Nav 1st, 1878

SEATTLE, May 1st, 1878.
ED. INTELLIsEScER My notion is
and always has been, that, while Con-
gress has the power to coin money,
regulate the value thereof, and of for
eign coin, and fix the standard of
weights and measures, the matter of
accommodating money rests entirely
with the individual sovereign. Some
will accumulate, aud others will dis
pose of what has been accumulated for
them. If all the property in the
United States was to stay equally dis
tributed among the people thereof, to-
morrow would find great inequality in
individual property.
or course it is the duty Of Congress
under the Constitution, to provide .
circulating medium sufficient in guam
tity and suitable in quality for the
wants of the commerce of the country,
and when Congress has done this it has
exhausted its power, and the use and
distribution of this circulating medium
rests with the people alone.
In the history Of nations grea: emer-
gencies arise, when it may be necessary
to increase or decrease the volume of
this circulating medium. and these
changes and attendant circumstances
may largely affect the money markets
and cause great fluctuations, but this
cannot be avoided by the action of
Congress any more than can financial
panic
At the commencement and during
the progress of the war of the rebellion,
the circulating medium on hand was
totally unequal to the eAigencies of the
times, and a new circulating medium
was created and put upon the market
in large quantities, and the necessary
result was an imitation in the price of
all property.
After the close of the war prices
began to decline rs naturally as they
rose during the war, and as also with
the close of the war, a large portion of
this newly created circulating medium
was no longer needed for commercial
use, and the retirement thereof was
necessary and proper.
Gold and silver are the standards of
value in the commercial world, and no
doubt it is the true policy Of our gov
eminent now to return to specie pay
ment.
It is admitted that there is money
enough in the country to enable the
government to do this, and as a matter
Of fact the premium OH gold is reduced
to nominal sum.
AS we'll might we legislate against
the whirlwind or thunder storm, as
against wars and financial panics.
Such legislation is like the Pope Bull
against the Comet.
But some one will say is there no
remedy for the poverty and suffering
in the over-crowded towns and cities
of the East.
Yes; AID that remedy consists in the
migration Of the many thousands un-
employed and surplus laborers to the
vast agricultural regions of the West.
Labor, like merchandise, is regulated
as to price, by the law Of supply and
demand.
There seems to be growing dispo-
sition on the part of the American citi-
zen to crowd into the towns and cities
of our country. This is the grand err
ror. If man desires labor, let him go
where labor is to be had.
If the surplus population of the East
would seek homes in the fine agricul-
tural regions of the West we should
hear less of hard times, and nothing of
suffering for want of the accessories of
life.
There is room and to spare for many
thousands of these surplus latorers Of
the East in our own prosperous and
growing Territory, soon to / ,come one
of the States Of the American Union,
and would it not bs full as interesting
and more profitable for all concerned If
IN. s. b." "Terad" and others would
devote tEeir attention to devising ways
and means to bring these sufferers to
our own fair land. rather than spec
ulating as to the cause and effect of
panics. mutations, ETC.. etc.
Come, gentlemen. give us something
on the Seattle and Walla Walla Rail
road, or something else of practical in
!