Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-04-16
ADisordered Currency.

The evils al ulsOfueTeu currency are
WE trust soon to pass away. Only short
time can elapse until greenbacks are at
par with gold. With resumption of specie
payments the finances OF the country will
again be planted on the solid basis of a
sound currency. The country has been
suffering, not for a lack of currency, but
on account of that which was unsound.
disordered. What we have needed was
better currency, not more.
In the year 1860, before the war, we had
as prosperous a state OF business affairs as
the country ever knew; yet the amount of
currency in circulation at that time, upon
which all the great and prosperous bust
ness of the year was done, was not halt
The amount of currency in circulation in
any year since 1873. But the currency of
1860 was sound. 1t was as good as gold
1t was stable, not fuctuating from day to
day. Business men could reckon upon it
with certainty. They were not afraid to
make contracts, to build houses, to buy or
sell real estate. for the measure OF value
was steady, honest, reliable. and so bust
ness went on with confidence, while work
was plenty and profits regular and fair.
In 1873. with twice as much currency
in circulation as in 1860. came the panic
and prostralion of business which years
of imitation had been preparing for the
country. This WAS not the work of sim
gle year, but the effect of series oi years
ot indulgence in an unsound, incYverti-
Bile Inflated, currency, beginning with the
first issue of paper money by the govern
ment as a measure to tide the country over
the war. Speculation. extravaganza,
over-prodGction, fraud in high and low
places, haste to get rich, the building of
railroads beyond present needs and means,
these and other evils fastened themselves
upon the nation, and it was not until the
shock to business and credit in 1873 that our
people began to experience fully the dire
ful effect OF disordered and unreliable
currency. The picture which Daniel
Webster drew of such currency, in
speech made in 1882. describes it so truth
fully that we copy it for the benefit of our
readers. He said:
"a disordered currency is
one of the greatest politi-
cal evils. 1t undermines the
virtues necessary for the sup
port of the social system,
and encourages propensities
destructive to its happiness.
1t wars against industry, fru-
gality and economy, and it
fosters the evil spirits of ex-
travagance and speculation,
Of all the contrivances for
cheating the laboring
classes of mankind, none has
been more ef1ectual than that
which deludes them with pa
per money. This is the most
effectual of inventions to fer
tilize the rich mans field by
the sweat of the poor mans
brow. Ordinary tyranny, OPP
preston, excessive taxation,
these bear lightly on the hap
piness of the mass of the
community, compared with
fraudulent currencies and the
robberies committed by de-
preciated paper. Our own
history has recorded for our
instruction enough, and more
than enough, of the democrat
izing tendency, the injustice,
and the intolerable oppres-
sion on the virtuous and Well
disposed, of a degraded pa
per currency, authorized by
law, or any way counte-
nanced by government"
After the panic in 1873, more currency
was issued, but afforded no relief In
1874 the amount of currency issued
reached its highest point. The four years
which have elapsed since the panic have
been the years when the greatest amount
of currency has been in circulation, and
they have also been the years of our great
est business depression and suffering. 1t
was not more currency we needed, as the
greenback quacks pretend, but a better
currency, and that we are going to have
very soon. Let the fuglers of the green
back party hide their heads, for the day of
their destruction is at hand Blind lead
ers of the blind they would have led the
nation iuto the deepest ditch of bankrupt
cy and degradation.