Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-11-01

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on Financial Questions.
The largest political gathering of the
present campaign in Massachusetts,
greeted Hon. Carl Schurz, at fremont
Temple, Boston, on Monday evening
The number of people within the build
ing was estimated at 5000. and another
crowd, nearly as large, was assembled
outside. Mr.. Schurz spoke two hours,
discussing the financial issue mainly
from the standpoint of the interests of
the laboring classes The following ex-
tract is fair specimen of the effort:
That an expansion of our irredeema-
BILE paper currency will stimulate bust
ness and revive prosperity is, l have no
doubt, sincerely believed by many we'll
meaning people. They reason thus:
When the first greenbacks were issued
during the war, and those issues were
rapidly increased, the prices of commod
tiles generally rose; what was worth 81
on the LIST of January was worth $1.1O
on the LIST of March, $1.20 on the LIST of
July, $1.30 on the 1st of October, and
so on. Thus people made money rapid
ly on the goods they had; business went
on at a tremendous rate; the facility
with which money was made inspired
general confidence; enterprise was won
derfully stimulated; and generally pros
perity was the result. What we had
then we may have again, and by the
same means" That is their calculation
now. | might without difficulty show
that while the prices of commodities
did, indeed, rise under the influence of
expanded issues of paper money, and
while business enterprise was stimulat-
ed, our prosperity was more imaginary
than real; the gambling speculation
overshadowed legitimate business; that
vast amounts of capital were wasted in
adventurous undertakings; that ruinous
extravaganza followed; that we ran
recklessly in debt; and that finally when
the day of reckoning came our fictitious
prosperity broke down in widespread
bankruptcy, stagnation and distress. All
| this is
AS TRUE AS ANY FACT OF HISTORY,
and wise men will consider the agency
which the initiation of our paper curren-
cy had in bringing about such disastrous
results But | will not go into that
line of argument now, and, moreover,
some of the more reckless of our paper
money advocates may say: well, even
if such day of reckoning must come,
let us have good time for few years,
and then let the devil take the hind
most
What I want to point out to you is
and | invite you to consider what | say
with candor and calmness-that it is at
least extremely doubtful whether, stu
ated as we now are, an expansion OF our
irredeemable paper currency would have
the effect of stimulating business and
produce even fictitious prosperity Tor
short period. In fact, am convinced
that such would not be the effect, You
must not forget that the circumstances
under which new emissions of paper
currency would now be issued are es
sentially different from those under
which the greenback first made it's APP
pearance. Our paper currency was then
the creature of great public necessity.
1t was an expedient resorted to by
struggling patriotism, and when during
the dark hours of the war some doubt
may have arisen Of the prospective abll-
| ity of the Government to redeem all It's
pledges, there was not a moments
doubt as to the honest intention of the
Government and of the people to do so.
Nobody suspected, indeed nobody saw
| the least reason to suspect, that the
Government would 60 with its paper is
sues beyond the demands of actual ne
cessity, and attempt the carrying out OF
| new tangled theories and schemes. AS
to the good faith of the Government in
this respect there prevailed the com
pletest confidence at home as well as
abroad. Moreover, an irredeemable
Government paper currency was then
comparatively new thing in this coun
try. The experience of the War OF In
dependence, with it's Continental money,
was no longer present to the minds OF
the people But few of them saw any
similarity between the Continental mo-
ney and the greenback and apprehended
that the two things might meet the
same fate. When the expansion of the
greenback money produced an imitation
of prices, the average business man, see
ing his goods rise in nominal value, did
not stop to inquire, elated as he was at
his apparent gain, whether those gains
were real as well as nominal.
He had no experience of the conse-
quences, and so he went on from ven
ture to venture with blind confidence,
as if there could be no end to it. The
capitalists also, with no experience of
the final effects of such Government
currency expansion to warn him, risked
| his means in enterprise after enterprise
without distrust. There was
| AN UNREASONABLE CONFIDENCE
that finally it would all come out right.
And thus business was stimulated into
extraordinary speculative activity.
But the circumstances which sur
round us to-day are very different. IF
new emissions Of Government paper
currency could be constitutionally made
in time of peace, which | do not believe,
those emissions would not appear as the
creature Of a commanding public neces-
sity. 1t should be remembered that we
can have money system based upon
the precious metals if we desire, for it
is within our reach The expansion and
perpetuation of irredeemable paper
money would eventually be equivalent
to the rejection of that moyey system
based upon the precious metals. What
specie payments mean, what gold dol
lar and notes convertible into gold dol
lars are, every sensible man understands.
The gold dollar is real tangible, and
forms a reliable basis for calculation
But the abandonment Of specie pay
ments, the rejection of the gold dollar,
mean that the conduct of our financial
affairs is to be delivered into the hands
of class Of fnanciers whose theories
and schemes move in the realm of mag
nation, and point not to stability. but
to the uncertainty of change as their
real object and inevitable consequence.
There all safety of business calculations
is at an end
What, then, will be the result of the
adoption of such policy? Will it in
spire the capitalist with the confidence
necessary to induce him to venture his
means in business enterprise? Will it
enable the business man to plan his OPP
erations with any degree of reasonable
assurance? 1t will certainly not. The
experience they have gathered during
the disastrous crisis through which we
have just passed will inevitably rise up