The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-02-21
PAST AND PRESENT,
The Edinburg Review Of 1890 Describes
our ills, the Cause and the Cure
A Complete Parallel In History.

our ills, the Cause and the Cure
A Complete Parallel In History.
From 1907 to 1924 England used an
exclusively paper currency. The
mighty struggle with Napoleon car
ried all her coins to the continent.
Convertibility of paper bank notes be-
GENE impossible, and in 1907 the bank
of England was forbidden to pay coin
for its bills, The circulation thus re-
1ieved of the arbitrary limits imposed
by convertibility expanded to meet
the demands of the nation. 1t enabled
England to sustain her decimated and
dispairing allies and to destroy the
armies Of Napoleon. 1t gave to her
a glory and prosperity unexampled in
her history. Like our own greenback
it proved her savior in war and her
benefactor in peace.
But when the armies of Napoleon
no longer threatened their possessions,
an army Of bullionists, bondholders,
annuitants, and ''wreckers' at once
came down to prey npOn the substance
of the people. They demanded that
specie payments should be resumed,
and all the debts incurred under pa
per standard should be doubled by
being made payable in coin. Against
the protest of the practical business
men of that time, these conspirators,
aided by the doctrinaires, passed the
resumption act in 1919, to take effect
in 1923. AS with us they gave four
years notice, humanely cutting off the
nations right arm ian inch at 4
time The same process was used as
by our McCulloch's and Sherman's.
The currency was contracted in vol
ume, so as to make it scarce and dear,
and thus enable the fundholder and
mortgagee to obtain a vastly greater
amount of the products of labor for
its use. AS a resumption of specie
payments it was miserable fraud and
disgraceful failure.
AS ameans of bringing measureless
ruin upon prosperous and happy peo-
pie it was magnificent success.
equaled only by the wretched cheat
of resumption by destruction which
is being crowded down the Threats of
Americans to-day by the modern ''pi-
rates of change"
The Edinburg Review OF 1880 con-
tains a picture drawn nearly fifty
years OgO, in whose lineaments we can
see the counterpart of our own coun-
try today. That conservative and
authoritative journal has paint
ed with the utmost minuteness of de-
tail a faithful portraiture of the
United States in this crisis. Let ev-
cry thoughtful citizen read. think,
and resolve. The article from which
we quote is upon ''The cause of the
national distress" and is written sew
en- years after the so-called resumption
act took effect. 1t first ably disposes
of the flippant and shallow excuses of
returning peace and overprOduction,
as the cause of the widespread suffer
ing. 1t points out clearly the true
cause in the appreciation of the value
of money, and it's increased power
over production and trade. 1t says:
peace may perhaps account for a
lowering Of the rate of profit; but it
affords no explanation for fall in
prices exceeding the reduction incOst.
The sinking credit of all engaged in
production or trade, and the general
dependency attests that prices have
been constadtly impelled below cost.
The steadiest industry can no longer
insure success. The best founded ex-
pectations end in disappointment.
The wisest schemes lead only to ruin.
1t is not one branch of industry only
that feels the pressure of the times
all are equally borne down by the Op-
preston.
a rise in the value of money is. in a
national point of view, an unmitigated
evil. 1t is by no means'ihe direct con-
sequences of such rise that consti-
tutes its greatest evil.
The addition which the rise causes
in the pressure of every debt, every
taX-in short, every fixed money
claim-cannot be avoided. Were the
use generally understood beforehand
it wonld not cause half of the distress
which it does now, owing to it's silent
and unsupported progress. There is a
popular disposition to regard the meas
ure of value rs invariable. Thence
the unsversal perseverance of ac-
counting for the fall of prices by any
cause other than this: thence the in
diligence of hopes and reliance on cal
culations founded on past experience
exciting to activity, when the knowl-
edge of the real cause would dictate
strictly passive attitude to all en-
gagged in business. If we consider
that capital to an immense amount has
been destroyed. suffering. moral and
physical, to narrowing extent, in
flicted, we shall see the urgent necess-
ity of promulgating accurate knowl-
edge on this subject, which is the
main cause of the present distress.
In the procession of sufferers prece-
dence is given on every ground to
those who derive their income from
the soil. In the direct ratio to the
rise in value of money the pressure of
rent and taxes on land increases,
while at the same time the fall in the
elementary cost of production is much
slower than in that of prices in mark
ct. The years product fails to meet
the outgoes, and the farmer makes up
the deficiency from his capital. The
next year it is no better: still he feels
confident that better times will soon
come. because he cannot see the invis-
ible hand which relentlessly perse-
veres in depriving him in his toll.
But the yeafs roll on and bring no
vo1snf until nj. SSu v.sAol - ovhNrSA<S3