The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1878-09-19

II the class best abe to bear til
hose who have either money in
land, or to whom it is due from 9TH
RS.
But let the currency be suddenly
contracted, and it will result that he
whose wealth is in,ready cash or the
obligations of others to pay it. will
Immediately find himself richer than
he was before, by the exact percent
age of the contraction; while in the1
same ratio, the man without money,
but under obligation to pay it, be-
comes at once poorer. 1t is ajproil
cess of giving to himthat hath, and
from him that hath not, taking away
even that which he hath. Contrac-|
ton, it is easy to see, menaces with
failure and bankruptcy all enterpris-
es conducted on credit. They must
either stop or fail; and in either case
multitudes of laborers are deprived
of employment.
Initiation or contraction is the re-
suit of changing the relations be-
tween the volume Of currency and
the extent of the population and bus
mess by which it is used. 1t is OBJ
vious-a mere truism, indeed-that
a circulating medium may be infiat-
ed or contracted by simply adding
to or taking from it. 1t is equally
clear, however obscure it would seem
to be to some minds, that the same
effect will follow if we enlarge or
narrow the field of circulation. If
the volume of money remain the
same, and the population and bust
ness by which it is used be reduced
one half, it is the same as if populaS
tion and business remaining con
slant, you had doubled the currency.
On the other hand, double the popn-
%lation and business employing it, al
lowing the currency to stand as be-
fore, and the result is precisely
equivalent to what would have been
reached by leaving the population
and business unchanged, and reduc-
ing the currency to half its original
volume.
To this single elementary truth,
the managers of the Republican par
ty appear to have been totally blind,
1t would seem to have never occur
red to them that when, at the close
Of the war, the whole territory, pop
ulation, and business of the South,
from which our paper currency had
been before excluded, were added to
its sphere of circulation; that fact
alone was equivalent to a vast reduc-
ton of its volume. If up to that
period there had been, undue intia-
ton, the new field thus opened to
our circulation, afforded all the con-
traction required, a contraction whose
effect would have gradually increas.
ed as the South recovered from the
effect of the war, and redeyeloped
her industries.
But this natural and self-regulat
ing contraction, dependenton the fix
ed laws of trade, and which, had the
Southern people been left to reorgan
ize and properly apply their crippled
resources, unmolested by predatory
carpet bag governments, would lons
ago have placed our paper currency
at par, was not enough for the Re
publican money-tinkers. Either ig
norant of Natures laws, or feeling
competent to improve on them, they
inaugurated a luminous policy of di
rect reduction of the circulating me
dunn, eliminating in the Resump
ton Act of 1875, since which year
without going further back, the, ag
gregate of contraction has exceeded
seventy-six millions of dollars, O
about a million and four-fifths pc,
month!
Is it any wonder, under such cir
cumstances, that men owing money
or doing business on borrowed cap
ital, have been driven to Insolvency
and ruin?-that thousands have beef
driven from employment?-that witt
many an industrious mechanic ant
laborer, the question lies between
beggary and starvation?-that CAPT
tai is boarded, either because its pos
SCISSORS hope that still further con
fractions will continue to enhanc'
its value, through the timidit,
ard want of confidence natural il
seasons of financial arrangement
1t is strange, Isay, that these thing
exists, when the veriest noviceirpo
litical science must see they are tn
inevitable consequence Of the reck
less scheme of contraction whici
Republican rulers have been forcin;
upon us for the past thirteen years
Nor have we yet seen the worst,
an immediate and decisive check b
not put to this mad policy. Can W
expect to alleviate the disease Will
fostering and intensifying the cause
Must we.not rather purge the vii
: US from the system, if we would Sc
the popular body restored to health
Let contraction cease at one,
Let the Resumption Act be repealed
5 Let silver be fully reinstated as MI
ney. Liberate the coin boarded i
the treasury, and, if the circulatin
medium be still too small to meet tt
demands of business, replenish
E with United States legal tend,
! notes. Above all, give assurance
7 men waiting to embark in ~enterpri
g es affording employment to labo
that they may do o without ruppin
e the risk of waking up some mornin
to find themselves ruined by the SUI,
a den addition of a heavy per cent.
their business debts-not for ar
I value received, but because the Sc
: rotary of the Treasury has seen
/ to lock up from circulation a few od
I millions just by way of experimen
Do these things, and I am much mi
IL taken if we do not soon see the ski,
beginning to brighten.
/ But here l will be asked if am