New-York tribune., 1878-10-05
WILL INITIATION REVIVE BUSINESS

WILL INITIATION REVIVE BUSlNESS7
CHEAP GOLD AND HIGH PRICES NEUlRMIHE THE
TARIFF, CLOSE THE DOORS or FOREIGN MAR
KETs TO AMERICAN PRODUCTS, AND DESTROY
OUR NATIVE INDUSTRIES.
To the Edttor Of The Trtbune.
SIR: The currency plank in the platform Of the
National Grccnbacl Labor Reform party, ana
of that large section Of the Democracy which, hav-
ing forgotten its ancient party traditions that gold
and silver constitute the only safe currency has ac-
cepted tbe doctrines of strange teachers rests on
the assumption, rarely disputed that initiation viii
cause an immediate revival of business in this
country. A new issue of grecnbacks, it Is said,
viii cause a rise in prices this i'll turn will restore
confidence and set in motion the idle wheels of
commerce and manufacture. In short, il is preached,
and believed by many intelligent people, that the
sudden issue Of a large volume of rredeemable
paper money which should be made to do the work
of gold including the payment of duties on I'M
Dorts and interest on the public debt. would mark
the beginning of a new era of uneXampled pros
peritv in the United States. If, on the other hand,
the tendency of such policy would be to close the
doors of some of the best foreign markets Tor
American products without opening any Iew ones
AT home-if IN fact, initiation ncutIallZcs our tarin
laws and offers bounty to foreign manufacturers
to compete with our own in our home ma cts
then il for the interest both Of capital and labor
that the business Of this country get back as soon
as possible to a sound and permanent specie basis.
The experience of the United States with ire
deemable paper money, during the last sixteen
years has been that the price of almost every other
commodity, measured by the paper standard, has
increased in greater ratio han that of gold. Acarc-
full examination Of any trustworthy table of prices,
extending back 10 $50, VIII prove the truth 81 this
assertion The price Of gold before the panic in sep
tember. 1873 was 49, and its average price during
that wear was about Ia That is gold was ! I per
cent higher in 1878 than IN 1860 If its price vas
measured in paper. During the same period 'he
nrce of mess beef IN the New-YOTk markets advanced
from SO barrel TO $21 q barrel, an increase of
1873 per cent cotton went up from IL cents 10
2Ol, cents a pound, an advance of SO per cent;
flour. which sold f. .r 81 50 abaTeln 1850, brought
SG Ok in 1879. or AL Increase of 45l3 per cent and
scotch pig iron advanced from ga 90 ton i'll 1850
70 Sl4 in 1873, or more than 10 per cent lhesc
are fair examples of the general advance III prices
from 1860 to 1873 Gold at ia or IS was almost
the cheapest commodity that could be bought in
the New-York market at the later date.
The reason for this disparity between the price OF
cold and that of almost every other article OF Amer
lean production. that the demand Tor the former
had beep artifcially diminished. The uses to which
gold may be put in effecung exchanges are two
fold-it may serve as "A domestic currency and ltmay
be used to pay balances due to foreign countries
The United states bad deprived it Of the hrst ana
most important of these functions except as TO
duties on imports and the interest on the pnbhc
debit, 10y the issue of cheaper currency ana thus
depressed its price much below what 1t otherwise
would have been IT, now, there should be new
imitation of the currency and the duties on imports
and tbe interest on the public debt should be made
payable in irredcemable gold would advmccin
price but probably not IN as great ratlo even
when compared with other things as in 1873. 1t is