The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-09-05

opponents has been falsifed. Every step in
| the process of resumption has been open, pub
/ lie and frank, and beneficial in business sense
All the evils which you have suffered are the
direct result of the imitation of paper money
and the panic which preceded the Resumption
act. The whole process of resumption has sub
stantially been carried on since the LIST of May,
| 1877, and has been attended with reviving busi-
ness and prosperity. The failures that have
occurred during this time have been the direct
result OF engagements and contracts made be-
fore that date.
And now, fellow-citizens, the real question
is, shall we go forward and complete this pro-
cess, or shall we go back again to the period of
lrredeemable money, with its inevitable result
ing consequence of expansion imitation and
panic? AS You are the judges Of the last re-
sort on this question, beg of you to consider
some general principles gathered from the ex-
perience, not only of our own people. but of all
nations who have, at any period, maintained
mixed standards OF paper money.
Irredeemable paper money is only justified
by war carried to the extent of national peril,
when the life Of the nation is at stake. 1t ought
to be redeemable as soon as the public exigen-
cles will permit. 1t is not money but the
promise to pay money. These are axioms of
political economy, the truth of which all ex-
perience has demonstrated. We issued this
money only in the midst of such peril. Our
reror, if any, has been that we have delayed
too long the measures of resumption. Now,
when they are almost complete, and gold, and
silver, and paper money are practically con-
vertible one into the other, when there is the
same money for the bondholder and the note
holder, the rich and poor, when silver can be
had for notes. and gold in ample stores awaits
the day of resumption, we Republicans should
not debate the question of the repeal of the
Resumption act.
With all our promises on record we should
not be deluded by the cry for "fiat" money.
Precisely what is the meaning of this phrase |
do not know, but presume it means money
that is not measured by any other-that is not
redeemable in any other-but has it's origin,
force, sanction, and value in the mandate of
the Government, and will vary day by day in
purchasing power.
AS between this kind Of money and the old
greenback, regenerated, restored, convertible
into coin, the standard of all value, and the
medium of all payments am for the green
back against " fiat" money. A great nation
like ours, rich in varied resources, with free
people of remarkable intelligence, is not driven
toresortto any expedient which would affect the
public credit, or the public debt, or disturb our
harmonious relations IN trade with foreign
nations, but should adapt its money to the
money of the civilized world and maintain it's
standard of value as high as that of any coin
ever issued from the mint.
Some of you who believe in "fiat" money
say you desire the same result, but it is clear
that you can only maintain this money at PAL
with coin, either by a careful limitation of its
amount, or by actual redemption in coin wher
demanded. III that is what you mean by " fat
money, then we will not disagree; but it is well
known that those who advocate "6at' money
want to increase the amount beyond a sum
which can be maintained at par with coin, and
who seek thus to cheaper money by making it
less valuable than coin.
can imagine how man deeply in debt, and
hoping to escape bankruptcy, may desire to
cheaper the money in which his debt is to be
paid, but why should the laboring man, whose
daily toll is measured by the money he receives,
desire to cheaper that money! Why should
farmer who sells his productions for money de-
sire to lessen its purchasing power? Why
should prudent, thrifty, industrious man, en-
gagged in any occupation, who hopes by his
thrift and industry to accumulate for himself
competence, desire to see his labor measured
by money of unstable value? 1t is the inter-
est of every one engaged in industrial employ
ment, who is not speculator or oker, to
have fixed standard of value. If any of you
who labor, are farmers, mechanics, or belong to
any of the industrial classes of life, and have
hope from deprecated money, you will be
greatly misled.
All the great men or our country, our Revo-
lutionary fathers, and their descendants in the
war of 1912, and the statesmen of the day of
Gen. Jackson, deeply felt the evils of irredeem-
able paper money, and experience led them to
the conviction that gold and silver coin, or
paper money we'll secured and convertible into
gold and silver coin, was the best for all classes
and for all industries
In these general views in favor of resump-
ton, adopted by the Republican party,we have
had the sympathy and concurrence of certain
portion of the Democratic party, who, though
they always by instinct and habit voted against
every measure of the Republican party from
the beginning of the war to this time, even in
the darkest hour of the war, always professed
to be in favor, and talked in favor, of good
money redeemable in coin. This class Of
Democrats, though they opposed the Resump-
ton act did it because they declared it to be q
hindrance to resumption, and denounced US
because we did not resume sooner. This was
the position of the last national Democratic
convention. 'tt "f