New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-09-20
TIE pnnR MINIS ERIEND.

Will it pay the poor men of this country to
turn back. now that we have virtually reached
specie resumption, and overcome all difficult
ties and endured all losses that resumption can
mvOlve2 This is prominently poor mans
question. There, at least, the Greenback men
are right If resumption is bad, 1t is bad
mainly for the poor, and especially the labor
ing man. If it is good, it is TO him more
beneficial than to anybody else. For men of
capital, of trade, of credit or of fixed incomes,
use checks and credits largely, and notes but
little; they buy largely at wholesale, and
have less cause to care when retail
prices are suddenly showed upward because
the purchasing power Of the currency has di-
minished. But the poor men, who carry IN
their pockets the great proportion of circulat-
ing notes; who have no bank accounts, or use
few checks who live upon daily or weekly
wages and buy mainly at retail-to them every
change in the value of the dollar means seri-
ous gain or loss. Can these people afford, now
that resumption is here, TO turn back again
over the weary road trodden since the war;
About $500 100000 of paper notes are
in active circulation, mainly in the pock-
cts of the poor. Every dollar that the
Door man now holds is worth G0a4 cents in
gold II matters not TO him whether the note
is from the United States itself, or from
bank secured by deposit of United States
bonds. In either case it is virtually the same
to-day, TO the poor man or labOring man who
holds it, as the gold which the note promises
TO pay. In small transactions, the difference
is inagnihcant-sO small that it can neither
be measured nor exacted. He can pay any
rol1 mil nd
to the full satisfaction of a creditor. He can
buy lust as much with it as with gold IN the
retail purchases which constitute nearly all
the dealings of the poor and the laboring
classes. No one charges him more for meat
or bread. sugar or tobacco, clothes or house
rent, if he pays paper dollars, than would be
charged if he paid gold dollars For all the
uses of the wage-earner, paper dollars paid
to him on Saturday are as good as gold dol
lars, and would be preferred by most because
more convenient TO carry. To the poor man,
resumption has virtually come already; prices
have generally fallen to the specie level, and
the notes are as good in hIs hands as the gold
itself.
But the Greenback agitatOr proposes to rob
the poor man by making his dollars less val
liable. He proposes to make every dollar in
the Door mans pocket worth less than gold, and
how much less no man can say. Less in the
bargain for rents less in the purchase Of
clothes less in the buying of anything at the
store or in the market. Every intelligent man
knows that large increase of the issue OF
notes must cause them to fall in value. If
Smith has given but one note to a creditor,
and that a note far within his known means
81 10 oe la
begins to food the street with notes they grow
less in value, until at last nobody will take
them. SO it is with government, as with any
individual the more promises to pay it has out
the less those promises are held worth. By
issuing more greenbacks il is openly proposed
to make greenbacks cheaper, and that will
rob the poor man who holds them. The baker
will want war prices" for his bread again.
the butcher for his meat, and the clothes now
bought for So or So will cost once more $40
OF $40. as they did not many years ago. Re
tail prices always jump upward swiftly when
there is the least excuse. The wordngmen,
who hold in their pockets the greater part Of
the 100000, 900 in notes outstanding, will not
only lose by the depreciation of those notes
by being unable 10 buy as much with them
but will lose far more because wages never
advance as quickly OF as far, and can never
by any combinations leagues or unions, be
made to advance as quickly OF as far, as the
retail prices of the markets and the shops
For months. if the dollar sinks in purchasing
power the wage-earning class will lose the
whole difference and for years they must lose
a large part of the difference.
But the professional "p0or mans friend
will say that the greater issue of green
backs viii make it easier to get green
backs. Not by labor; the wages will