The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-04-20
RESUMPTION.


Somehow there never was so unfortunate ;
school of prophets as those who predicted moth
ing but evil from the passage Of the silvcl
bill Gold would 90 up kitng, they said; sill
yer would drop to 10 per cent below par
greenbacks and national bank bill, would tai
to the level of silver; our bonds would come
home from Europe in floods; all our goo
would be speedily carried away, and rcsump
ton would be postponed indefinitely.
SO said the professors Of political economy
of Harvard, Yale, Andover, &c. 50 said the
New England and Wall street money lords
stock gamblers and finance philosophers ano
experts. "Thc silver bill means dcbascmcn'
of the currency and financial degradation and
ruin
They we're lying spirits that inspired tho
prophets Of Baal, and Baal is but another name
for Mammon, the god Of the money kings Of
the east, Silver has not gone down, but the
bright new dollar is at par with gold green
backs have not gone down, but are at par with
gold; our bonds do not come home from Eu
rope with a rush to be sold at a sacrifice, but
are drawn here moderately only on account OF
a steady rise in price; gold is not leaving the
country but Sj00O0 600 are readily offered Nhcr
man for Al per cent bonds at "A premium, and
resumption, instead of being indefinitely post
poncd, has come of itself, mise months in adj
vance Of the earliest period its most ardent
friends had set for it. One-cighth per cent
premium for gold in New York is no premium
at all. Even IN the days Of specie payment
before 1860 bank paper was usually Z per
cent below gold in Wall street Grccnbacks
and national bank bills are worth more in gold
in New York to-day than were bills Of the best
specie paying banks of interior New York and
New England in 1859
The fact is, specie payment has come
Whether congress says so or not, the New
York merchants can now pay their duties at
the custom house in grccnbacks and national
bank bills, for they are as good as gold Many
banks throughout the country have already
given notice that they are ready to redeem their
paper on presentation in gold over their count
ers.
What will be the effect? Hitherto all the
money the country has had was some $3.50,
100000 in grccnbacks, $685., 900 900 in national
bank bills and $4O00O,OO0 in postal currency
or subsidiary silver coin. Now the silver bill
is adding 100000 month to our currency
in silver dollars; and resumption at once fur
ther floods our currency with some 100000.
600 of gold that was hitherto out of circulation
and held as merchandise. Here is imitation
for you! Not that rascally kind that proposes
to double the number of apples by cutting
them IN two, which the greenbacker dcusion-
lists howl for; but genuine increase of two or
three hundred millions of real, solid hard cash.
If more money is what the country wants,
here, then, we have it. If more money is to
cure hard times, raise prices and revive indus
try and enterprise the money has come and the
hard times are about to vanish.
And such-unless all former experience Is
at fault-we may now confidently anticipate.
The hard times of 1882 vanished on the
return to specie payment; the same in 1877
60; and the same must be the case now. We
shall, of course, not all get rich at jump
Business always rcvives slowly-it may be
months-a year or two or three ycars-bciorc
we can again safely say that business is once
more prosperous and times are good, but this
at least we confidently believe, that the return
tide has set in, and hcnCcforh the course will
be upward instead of downward