Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-08-10


fixed there is no such thing as lowering them.
On a scale of p.ices greatly reduced by the
destruction of the interest bearing treasury
notes in 1867, the private debts existing
when the resumption law passed were in
CURED. Honesty, honor and sound policy
demand that, as the government had no
power TO scale the debts and expenditures, it
should abstain from reducing the currency,
and thereby the value of labor and products
with which debts and taxes were to be paid.
But such considerations of common honesty
and sound policy are utterl y ignored and spit
upon by the honest money" men who In
vented this subtle scheme to break down
values and rob the masses of their labor and
their property To repeal this most destruct-
i've and rascally law, and restore the volume
of the currency, and thereby restore the
prices of commodities to where they stood
when it was enacted, Is demanded alike by
every consideration of justice and sound
policy.
CAN THE COUNTRY BE HARMED BY SUCH
RESTORATION OF THE CURRENCY
and values to where they stood in January,
1875. Is it not rather now being destroyed
by the opposite policy? Look abroad over
the land from Name to Florida, from Cape
Cod to the Golden Gate? What do you see
but ruin? Idleness, starvation and beggary
of labor; pestilence of insolvency; business
stagnant; enterprise dead; and all in the
midst of every bounty a kindly heaven can
pour on its favorite land. Even the blessing
of Northumberland by God to alleviate
the curse of slavish toll by substituting the
forces of nature for the muscle OF manly
the devillsh alchemy of this scheme is changed
to a curse. In ordinary times production, in
creased and cheapened by invention. is met
by consumption increased by the lessened
cost of products; and an equal amount of
human labor, but lighter and less drudging,
is required to fill the growing demand. But
now the cunning of invention, forced by the
abnormal fall of prices, is compelled to fill
the shriveling markets by employing hands
of steel instead of hands of flesh and blood,
thus hourly swelling the ranks of the unem-
ployed. So that, With invention stimulated,
and consumption stopped, our society drifts
like a Mississippi steamer with one wheel
broken and the other moving, while the
heavy current sweeps it helplessly along. A
restoration of the currency, and consequently
of prices, to where they stood in January,
1875, means justice to debtors and tax pay
ers, public and private solvency, revival of
business, increased production and consump-
ton, with full employment and fair pay to
labor, and the reawakenlng of every dormant
energy of our industrious and progressive
people. The assumption that this great ma
ton must be paralyzed to keep it from rush.
ing to
AwILD EXCESS OF PAPER MONEY
must be crushed with double deGt and taxes,
and impoverished by enforced idleness SO as
to chain its currency to gold as the only
method OF saving it from illimitable initiation
is an error too monstrous and insulting to
be tolerated by a self governing people. If
resumption could now be reached without
costing another pang of hunger or another
groan from broken heart, we would have
paid for it a thousand times more than it is
worth. Be it worth much or little, it is, under
existing conditions, wholly unattalnable, and
the struggle for it must be indefinitely post
poned. Whether currency kept by incon-
controyertlbility at par with gold were desir-
able, IT practicable, Is question on which
there is difference of opinion among the OPP
ponents of the resumption law. For myself,
believe that government paper currency
full legal tender except for pre-existing
contracts, redeemabe only by receivability
for public dues, fixed In amount by consttu-
tlonal provision las suggested In the Ohio
Democratic platform) and increased each year
in ratio equal to the annual per cent. of
increase of business-would be a far more
stable measurer and exchanger of values
than any currency which fluctuates in GUAM
tity with the fitful ebb and flow of gold, and
losses the business of the country up and
down In a see-saw of alternate prosperity and
panic.
IN ADDITION TO THE REPEAL OF THE RE-
SUMPTION LAW
and the restoration of values to their status |
when it was enacted, the chief measures of |
currency reform are the full RECOMMENDATION |
of silver and the substitution of greenbacks |
for national bank notes. The partial remon- |
tizatlon of silver was the result of what | re- |
garded as an unnecessary and inexpedient |
compromise with the money power. If that |
concession had not been made, and the force !
OF public sentiment broken by it, l believe we |
would have to-day a complete restoration of |
our great product to its equal rank with gold |
as money metal The question cannot be !
settled until that act of justice is accom-
plished. By the substitution of greenbacks |
for national bank notes, and the purchase |
with the new issue of about three hundred
million dollars of six per cent bonds for can
collation., we will stop eighteen million dol
lars of annual interest Deducting the tax
on circulation now paid by the national |
banks, the saving to the people will be near
fifteen million dollars annually. To accom-
plish this need not disturb the business of the |
country, nor interrupt the legitimate func- |
tons of single bank. The banks can retain |
their charters, and go on with their business |
of deposit, discount and exchange precisely |
as they do now. In fact, many national |
banks never had a circulation, and many |
more have voluntarily surrendered all or |
nearly all they originally had, and still keep !
on in business as national banks. The profit |
on circulation is mere subsidy, which about |
two thousand national banks enjoy against |
five thousand State and private banks which |
flourish without subsidy.
WHY SHOULD NATIONAL BANKS HAVE THIS |
BOUNTY
when all other banks, which pay the same |
taxes, State and National Except the tax on |
have none? Why should the |
banking business be sing led out from all 9TH
ers, and a favored part of 1t be subsidized, |
when it is far more generally prosperous than !
a t1ybo
all else decays? The division of the circula-
ton between the government and the banks |
toward the close of the war was the first step |
to the destruction of the greenback currency
and the control of the whole paper circula-
ton by the money power. The resumption
law was the second step, and if the Democ-
racy had not raised the hue and cry against |
it, the total destruction of the greenbacks
and complete monopoly of circulation by the
banks would have been accomplished. The
making and control of the volume of the
is a vital attribute of sovereign
ty. To surrender that prerogative, in whole
or in part, to private corporations, is to en-
dow them with despotic power over all other
business. They can make flush times by ex-
pansion, and hard times by contraction, as
their interest may dictate, and rob the people
at every change of values. This bank mo-
nopoly of making and issuing money is the
most dangerous of all forms of favoritism,
anu SnOulQ DC IOIGQWlUn anu utterly
abolished. | have now, gentlemen OF the
presented very briefly the out
lines of the issue of currency reform on
which is beng fought the great battle of
productive industry against idle capital. So
far as the struggle has gone, only the Re-
publican and the Democratic parties have en-
gagged in it. The Republican party made the
law and the national tank law as
party measures, and have stood by them with
almost absolute unanimity from first TO last.
Every Republican in congress voted to create
'he bank paper, and almost every Democrat
voted against it. Repeatedly, since the bank
act was passed the Democrats have voted
almost unanimously
TO SUBSTITUTE GREENBACKs
'or bank notes, and the Republicans with
nearly equal unanimity against it. Six weeks
ago l moved in the house of representatives
10 pass bill to substitute treasury notes for
oank notes, and the vote stood ninety-six
Democrats and fourteen Republicans for the
and nlnety-eight Republicans
nd ciyfaar Dapooarafc n On thn hill |