The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-01-22
SHALL THE COUNTRY BE BANK
RUPTED?

in the House to-day. and we hope they will
receive the same emphatic endorsement from
that branch Of the Legislature
The country Is already feeling the disastrous
consequence Of the unwise, If not criminal,
efforts of the Secretary Of the Treasury to en-
force the resumption act and establish the
single gold standard. Every morning the
| papers are filled with accounts of the suspcl,-
sion and failure Of banks and commercial
| firms; business everywhere Is depressed !;
| industry in every portion Of the Union is par
alyzed, the value of real and personal property
| has already fallen in price; every great public
| enterprise is at a standstill We see before
our own eyes:a work Of the first Importance to
| New Orleans. and the State Mt large, the New
| Orleans Pacific Railroad, unfinished for the
want Of comparative insignificant sum, and
| the money cannot be had in this great city or
elsewhere
Evidently there Is some great, general all
pervading cause at the bottom of all this.
What sit Beyond question it is the cruel. the
ruinous financial policy Of the government
which demonetized silver, and which IL grad
ually curtailing the circulating medium Of the
country under the resumption act
The government, indeed, Ia pursuing
policy which has several times very
nearly destroyed the framework of So
oiety In the height of its power and
grandeur the metallic money Of the
Roman Empire amounted to S1,sO0,OOO.OO0.
At the end Of the fifteenth century 1t had
shrunk through different causes and tho fail
ure of mines to s2op,ooO,o00. During the in
-, vira n1tot
took place In the world.
Population" says an able writer, "dwindled,
ana commerce. arts, wealth and freedom oil
disappeared. The people were reduced by pow
erty and misery to the most degraded condi-
tions Of serfdom and slavery. The disintegra
tion OF society was almost complete. rhe con
ditions of life were so hard that individual sell
hshness was the only thing oonsistep with the
instinct of self preservation. All public spirit,
all generous emotions, all the noble aspira-
tons Of man shriveled and disappeared as the
volume Of money shrunk and prices FELL
History" continues our author records
no such disastrous transition as that from
the Roman Empire to the Dark Ages. Various
explanations have been given of tht s entire
breaking down of the framework of society,
but it was certainly eoncdent with shrink
age in the volume of money. which was also
without historical parallel
On Sunday we briefly reviewed the effect OF
the shrinkage of the volume Of money in Eng
land through resumption policy similar to
that which the government Of the United
States s attempting to carry out. We
showed that in England that policy reduced
the value Of tho real and personal prop
erty of the nation 80 per cent, carried
ruin and bankruptcy into every corner Of
The kndom. lowered the price of labor and
filed the land with misery, poverty and
want
Can the policy of demonetization and forced
resumption of specie payments in gold work
differently in America from what it did
in England? Can the policy Of contracting
the volume of the currency prove less dis
astrous now than 1t proved to civilization be-
tween the beginning Of the Christian era and
the fifteenth century, when it destroyed the
civilization of the world and engulfed man.
kind In misery and darkness We think not.
We believe that the men who talk and the
journals which write 50 lightly about 'the
single standard and the necessity of main
tanning 'the pledged faith of the govern
ment" have but very imperfect conception Of
what their policy will bring upon themselves
and the country if it be carried out
The gold men have represented that the re-
sumption of specie payments in gold will be
an easy thing, because the premium on gold
has been reduced to an insignificant percent
ago 1t is remarkable that this was the very
argument used by the English resumptionists
in support of the policy which, when put in
operation lowered the wages Of labor, reduced
the value of real and personal property 80 per
cent, and bankrupted the kingdom. Mr.. Ri
cardo, who led that movement. said, in the
British House of Commons, in 1919:
The question Ia not deserving half an hours
cons ideration of the House. The difficulty Is
only that of raising the currency per cent in
value
After the fearful consequences of the re-
sumption measure had fallen upon the coun
try, Mr.. Ricardo changed his views, and on
his death bed said to Sir w. Heygate, who was
with him.:
Heygate, You and the few others who OBJ
posed us on the cash payments. have proved
right | said the difference, at most. would be
only FIVE per cent, and you said that, at least it
would be twenty-hv per cent.
Now, what will be the reduction in the
prices of labor property and all commodities
in this country if the gold policy is forced to
anti-silvcr men claim that 1t will be from two
to three per cent only-scarcely more than
tho present premium on gold.
The gold policy will, in truth, involve re-
duction in wages and values of at least from
90 to Is per cent and such fall in prices wdl
force half the property of the Union in .tiue
gears to change hands. 1t will require-we
make the statement on the best and highest
official authority $500 100000 in gold to make
the resumption policy practical reality, that
is, to resume and maintain specie payments
in that coinage: now $500, 100000 is 90 per cent
OF all the gold in this country, and 'no such
draugbt can be- as has been well said
in an able report on this subject,
successfully made upon that stock without
causing a ruinous fall in prices everywhere"
The real reduction will not be from present
greenback to present gold prices, as is al
legged, but from present greenback prices TO-
The prices In gold uhich wiN preraH after gold
L. I..f Ill