Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-02-27

all the gold values Of the country, held by all
the people, whose interest it would be to keep
| it at steady measure of value to which all
property would soon accommodate itself and
| ultimately the whole national debt would be
brought home from abroad and funded into
this national bond,
This would give to America a unacceptable
currency, better than any other, capable at all
times of being invested at home at an equal
rate of interest with the gold of the world which
is now, in the best government securities,
invested at an average of per cent. only.
Before Mr.. Butler had taken his seat, Mr..
! Chittenden rose to ask him some questions.
Mr.. Chittenden-What would become of poor
men and women who owned five hundred mill
! lions savings banks deposits when United
States bonds were returned from Europe, and
| when their price fell, Mr.. Butler desired
them to fall, to SO per cent. of their par
| value;
Mr.. Butler-This will be what will happen to
them: they will be just where they are now,
| with their deposits not in 6 per cent. bonds
| but in tumble-down real estate in New York,
that is not worth Is cents on the dollar when
the taxes are paid.
Mr.. Chittenden-Does the gentleman mean
by that, that every savings bank in Massachu-
sets and New York will be bankrupted.
Mr.. Butler-They are 80 far as United
States bonds are concerned, bankrupt to-day.
They have not got them, they have sold them.
Mr.. Chittenden-That is not an answer.
Does the gentleman mean all savings banks of
New York and Massachusetts will be and ought
to be bankrupted by the return Of these bonds.
Mr.. Butler-They will be, but they ought not
to be bankrupt. They will be bankrupt be-
the value of their securities in real estate.
in railroads and in everything else but govern
ment bonds, has been sunk three times by
their internal lust for gold.
Mr.. Chittenden, excitedly-I wish to hold the
gentleman to the point.
Mr.. Butler-Well, am content.
Mr.. Chittenden, with his voice at the highest
pitch-If you, as an advocate of the unlimited
| reconciliation of silver, force back on this
| country the many hundred millions Of bonds
now held in Germany, and thereby break down
every savings bank in Massachusetts, and New
York, who will be responsible? Will not you
be fairly entitled to be hung to the lamp post
where you desired the secretary Of the treasury
to be hung.
Mr.. Butler-1 will take my chance with the
rest when the lamp posts come around. | have
no fears on that subject. But it will not be the
return of the bonds that will break the savings
banks because they are broken and are break
ing-they rotten and are sinking.
Mr.. Chittenden, without waiting for Butler
to come to stop-I know a savings bank that
has ten millions of government bonds, and if
it shall be obliged to take five millions for
them, it will be ruined, and it's 1000 depositors
with it. The poor people for whom you pro-
TESS to speak, the laboring and women
there are 20, 900 of them depositors in that one
bank, and they will be sent to beggary forever.
Mr.. Butler-And the directors should be
hung to lamp post, and roasted afterwards.
Mr.. Chittenden-I am no joker
Mr.. Butler-I know that.
Mr.. Chittenden-I believe that the gentleman
from Massachusetts has moments of seriousness,
and wish to appeal to his possibly serious
temper.
MI. Butler-I never was in better temper in
NV life
Mr.. Chittenden-I wish to ask the gentleman
if he thinks there will be any more prosperity
in the country prosperity to the laborer, to the
farmer, to the man who works in the black
smith shop, in the shoe shop, until confidence
redeemable miserable greenbacks restore tha-
confidence?
Mr.. Butler-If the prosperity of this countryt
depends upon the two per cent. difference Le-
tween gold and greenbacks, God help the
country.
Mr.. Chittenden- come right down to
the work. my friend. If you have house to
build or q horse to buy, You know what pcac-
| tical business is. l ask you to come up to
| of bankers and brokers. Out Of the two hun
dred and ninety members of this house, two
hundred and fifty are lawyers.
| Mr.. Butler, parenthetically-I wish fifty
| were.
| Mr.. Chittendon--N / ask you to doff your
gown and tell me whether, without confidence
| to capital, you can restore prosperity to this
country.
Mr.. Butler-1 should great deal rather have
than confidence which has been fully be
slowed in capitalists that the country is
ruined.
The committee rose and House adjourned.