The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1878-05-31

These measures will not do; the
but add to the existing distress. VIII;
are the proper means of relief? VIII
shall decide? Shall we take the COZ
sideration of these questions ava
from the people? If SO, to whOI
shall we refer them? 1t is sut1icieu
now to say that the people have, III
! der the Constitution, the cOnsideratio
Ofthese measures before them, an
are fearfully divided in their opinion
in regard TO them. The Issues ar
well and sharply defined. Parties ar
strongly arrayed on each side.
Upon the one hand, adherence t
the present legislation of the cOuntr.
is maintained with great Obstinacy
| The party in power, with all the IL
| fiuence of the Government, cOnsciOu
| in its strength, is the advocate of ad
herence. Pointing to the fact tina
gold and paper currency are nearly a
par and that resumption is nearly al
accomplished fact, they promise tha
when resumption is such fact the
streams of confidence will commence
to flow, and the gates which now con
fine locked-up currency will be open
ed, values will be adjusted, and new
era of prosperity will dawn upon the
country and all of its industrial pJIr-
suits; that our bonds calling for low
rates-Of interest can be sold at OIL
above par, thus enabling the Govern
ment to reduce the amount of eXpen-
ditures per annum; that now, With
such an era, with these means in
sight, it would be a great error to re-
hcrence there is no proposition to
o,,,nVI IN. modify tha fnriH fn tho in
ternaI revenue laws. Adherence
means no change in the laws which
have brought the country to its press
ent condition; no protest against the
mOnOpOlics that control the trade and
industries of the country; no mOdifi~
cation of the banking laws, under
which the bOndholder controls and
dictates the rewards of labor, and no
relief from the burdens of taxation.
five accept the measures Of relief
proposed by the policy of MIR. Sher-
man, we must prepare to adjust our
debts, (national, State, municipal,
corporate and individual upon a spe~
Gle basis, and that basis, according to
the palicy of adherence, must he
maintained. Step by step, as we ap~
proach the day of resumption, banks
ruptcy, distress, poverty and ruin
mark and Qvertake every industrial
pursuit and enter into almost every
household of the land. Is the eXpe>
rience of other countries of any value
to us in this crisis? Let us turn for a
moment to what is said by two dis
tinguished writers in reference to the
legislation of Great Britain cOercing
resumption Ofspecie payments. The
Bank of England, which was the
governments financial agent, had
suspended specie payments i'll 1897,
and in 1919 the British Parliament de-
clared that resumption should take
place in 1923; in reference to the eff
fects of which, says Allison, in his his
tory of that period:
"The effect of this extraordinary
piece of legislation were soon appar-
ent. The industry of the nation was
speedily CONCEALED, as flowing stream
is by the severity of an arctic winter
The alarm became rs universal & ID
widespread as confidence and activity
had recently been. The country
bankers, who had advanced largely on
the stocks of goods imported, refused
to continue their support to their GUS
toners, and they were forced to bring
their stocks into the market. Prices
in consequence fell rapidly; that of
cotton, in particular, sank in three
months to half its former level. The
entire circulation of England fell from
S232, 600, 900 in 1918 to S174, 900 in
1920, and in the succeeding year it
sank as low as S142, 100000.
The effects of this sudden and prOdi-
gious contraction of the currency We're
soon apparent, and they rendered the
next three years a period of ceaSclesS
distress and suffering in the British
islands. The accommodation granted
by bankers diminished so much in
of the obligation laid upon
them to pay in specie, which was not
to be got, that the paper under dis
count at the Bank of England, which
in 1915 had been SOB, 800, 600, sank in
1920 to $23, $50, 600, and in 1921 to Sl3,-
10000. The effect upon prices was
not less immediate or appalling. They
declined in general, within six months
to half their former amount, and re-
manned at that low level for the next
three years. Distress was universal in
the latter months of 1919, and that dis
trust and discOuragementw were felt in
all branches of industry which are at
once the forerunner and the cause of
DISASTER
Doubleday, in his Financial, None
tary, and Statistical History of Eng
land, says:
"We have already seen the fall in
prices produced by the immense mar
rowing of the paper circulation. The
ruin, and bankruptcy which
now took place were universal, affect
ing the great interests both Ofland and
trade; but especially among landlords,
whose estates We're burdened by mort
cages, settlements, legacies, and the
like, the effects were most marked.
In hundreds of cases, from the tre-
mendous reductions which took place
in the price of land, the estates barely
sold for as much as would pay on: the
and the owners were strip
ped of all and made beggars."
Now, Mr.. Speaker, when we look
to the immense amount which must
be paid by the labQr of this C1untFy an-
nuallY to the payment OF interest upon
the vast amount of Indebtedness exist
ing iii various forms among and from
our people, then to the support of our
gOvernmentS-natio State
and municipal-andt to the protected
classes, under our existing taIlH and
laws, With the adj
mitted fact fhat under this weight of
taAatiGn and interest our products do
not and cannot successfully compete
with the products of other people in
the markets of the world, is it posi-
BILE to maintain specie resumptidnF TO
it successfully we must be
able to ray and adjust necessary eX-
penses from our productions, and from
this source alone mot by bOrrowiGg
and so increasing our debt pay the IN
terest uEop So llaauch Of our debt as is
held abroad.
1t is estimsted that for interest paid
to foreign bondhOlders of American Sc
curities and freight paid to foreign car
rierS of our commerce, as well as the
coin taken from our midst by alspa-
teeism of our citizens. there is a coin
demand upon the predictions of our
country AMOUNTING to about Sl75, 5,OOO,-
600 per annum. With the statement
by the explanation recently
made by the SecretarY VI the Treasury
before the COMMITTEE on Banking and
CurIepcY OF this House, that there will
be available for purposes of resumption
in the Treasury probably the sum of
81 SS, ,357, COS, in coin, to redeem three
and forty millions of legal
tenders, about one hundred a3lIOnS
of other demand obligations, and to
support tLF iaakS, While the banks
will have on hand about the sum of
twenty-five millions in coin and sew
enty millions in currency to meet