Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-01-26

ON n g0lQ OASIS, the Secretary OF the
Treasury calls attention TO the graf
flying fact that in the fiscal year
ending Both June, 1877, our exports
eceeded our Imports Sl66, 539, 900.
But although he records yet he
does not give prominence to the
fact that in the same year our eX-
ports Of gold and silver exceeded our
imports of these metals SIS, 1897, 00U.
All this immense surplus Sl66, 000,
600 added nothing to the wealth of
the country. Every dollar was re-
quired TO pay our debts abroad.
Has the debt been diminished =?
Not at all. We still pay and with
each returning year will have to
pay more than 500, 0O0,000 of trib-
ute to the foreign bondholder.
Look to the conditions under
which we will maintain the unequal
contest. Germany is not in debt.
Her bankers and merchants hold our
bonds to the amount of hundreds of
millions, and every dollar taken from
her vaults will be restored from the
payments of interest. France is in
debted to her own people, and the
management other finances is purely
a domestic operation. England col
lects annually from other nations a
sum twOfold greater than the inter
est upon her funded debt. The Uni
ted States begins with commerce
crippled, industries Frustrated, arti-
sans unemployed, want and wretch
edness in thousands of homes, the
spirit of her people crushed, taxed
more than one hundred millions to
balance each years accounts. Who
can doubt the result? We will go
to the wall, and resumption upon Il
stable basis will be postponed beyond
this generation.
But should we succeed in amass-
ing three or four hundred millions
of gold and throw it into the chan
nels of circulation, how long will
we be able to retain it and maintain
resumption ? Why, sir, the first
failure in Il crop of cotton or bread
stuffs, the faintest indications in
London of a financial storm, an adj
vance by the Bank of England of
the rate of interest, will cause a re-
flow of gold to Europe, rush upon
the Government or the banks for
the redemption of greenbacks or ma
tiOnal currency or whatever form of
paper credit may be in use, and we
will be thrown back into the clutch
es of the gOld-gamblers of Wall st.
We can adopt no surer method of
binding our fortunes to the tiuctua-
ting conditions of European politics.
The study of the map of Europe and
its varying changes will become an
essential work of the American
statesman. The vast complications
of the British colonial system, the
future of India and of the Cape of
Good Hope, the security of Gibral-
tar and Malta and of the English
military outpOsts will become of vi
tai importance to our finances and
commercial operations and if the
spectral DOrking" shall loom upas
a possible reality to the minds of the
English people, and great battle
for the mastery of the worlds COM
merce shall be imminent, our money
will be called to take part in the
great struggle and American indus
tries will be hurled into utter ruin.
We want no such entangling ALI
ances."
1t is said that these are imaginary
dangers. Admit this to be 50.
There still lies back of all this the ia
tai objection that the adoption of the
single gold standard by Europe and
America will vastly increase theva
ne of gold. In my opinion, and |
mean no disrespeCt to those who diff
fer from me, it is the sheerest nom
sense to say that the decentralization
of silver will not, of necessity, in
creasethe purchasing powers of gold.
This appreciation is seen already
it was predicted by those who advo-
Gated Il single standard it was de-
sired by some, and to-day is ac-
knOWledged by many. American
bankers and capitalists alone dispute
SO self-evident proposition. They
declare that silver has deprecated
in value and will continue to depre-
ciate, but that gold is stable and has
not advanced and will not advance.
They point with satisfaction to Ia
bles showing the value of silver in
the London markets from year to
year. They tell us I" Do you not see
that gold for one hundred years has
never varied? The pound sterling
of the Georges is the pound sterling
of to-day. 1t has been and will con-
tinue to be of the same value. Gold
is the yardstick, the measure of val
ueS, while silver is forever chang
ing" When told that gold and sill
yer are different in substance, differ
ent in qualities, and therefore that
the measure of one is not common
to both, and that the tables show
only a relation, they continue tocry
that gold is inyariable. They for
get that as comm pdity gold has no
fixed value that Nature has not or
dained a standard and made it ahSO-
lutte.
The law regulates the yardstick,
and the law prescribeS the standard.
In London gOldis thelegal standard,
and legal-tender money and val
ues, whether of silver, of cotton, or
of wheat, find expression in pounds,
shillings, and pence, of English gold.
In New York greenbackS are legal
tender and a legal standard, and
gold there is quoted at one price and
silver at another and wheat at an
other. All are commodities and
have commercial values, which find
expression in legal-tender money.
In Germany, before 1871, with silver
as the sole legal standard, gold was
quoted, not silver and for the rea-
son it was not legal money, but a
commodity. No, sir ; gold has APP
preciated its purchasing power has
increased. Silver has deprecated
its purchasing power has relatively
diminished, and the measure Of the
difference is the extent to which sill
Yer has been demOnetized.
If there could be any doubt that an
increase in the volume of money di-
minishes its purchasing power, that
doubt will easily be settled by look
ing back to the history of our own
race, by referring to the pages Of the
chronicIer, that bring before oureyes
the domestic and business life of the
English people in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries. | have now
within reach such transcript, that
gives the wages of the mechanicand
day-laborer, the profits of the farmer,
the rentals of the landlord, the pri-
ce5 Of wheat and rye, of horses and
kline, and of every production Of the
farm and in that day, before Amer
iCa had been discovered and begun
to pHur its flood Of GOLD and silver