Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-07-31
WHAT wiLLTAE LAsTsTEP COST
Tho Fail Of Cold from ass to 100 10
Tho Alleged Ruin that Resunnp-
ton Would Bring--A Common
sense Statement.
From the New York Times.

'd; 1877 began with premium OF Is,
md worked off two-thirds of it; and
II the present year the decline has
,een 50 imperceptiblc that it has ceas-
d to attract attention. Yet there is
10 cessation of the shricks about con-
raction, ruin of industries, and the
destructive work of the resumption
lct; intiationists of various stripes of
lunacy, but having fora COM
non motive hatred of gold and a
to have more paper
md only paper, are busily organizing
what they claim will prove the bal
,nce of power. As the goldpremium
falls the anti-gold fury rises. The OBJ
charge all existing dis
tress upon the approach of resumption,
and profess to believe that its actual
will be the crack Of doom
i'm the economic sense.
We have already often replied to
the charge of injury by contraction
and preparations for resumption, and,
so far as the possibly injurious effects
of actually accomplishing resumption
are concerned, it is of no consequence
whether the waiting and making
ready are hurtful or not; as concerns
the present purpose, we could afford
to admit the widest shrieks of the
Cincinnati Enquirer to be within the
truth. The only question now is, ac-
cepting the situation as it is, what
harm the contamination of resump-
ton can work; the journey having
been made, how can the simple act of
stepping from the vehicle do any in
Jury to the passenger? The worn plea
about the debtor is still advanced,
and answering it at length is unneces-
sary. Debtors and creditors, asa class,
do not exist; everybody is debtor and
creditor both. The poor man, in
whose behalf the most piteous appeals
profess to be made, is generally debt
or, simply because he has not the
credit of a borrower, even if he wish
ed to become one. There are no pri-
vate obligations existing-so gradual
has been the rise of the legal dollar
which can be materially swollen by
the last step in that rise. 1t is true
that bonded debts are in different
position, but the Western municipali-
| ties that sold their high-rate bonds be-
low par havelargely repudiated them.
| The creditor had to suffer during the
war, without anybody's pity, when
his money, lent i'm gold before green.
backs We're thought of, was repaid, by
count, i'm paper, and now it is not 81
very unfair that he should have his
| @,,r oh of n,,
we may add: There isahardship rest.
ing on longtime debtors, but incon
vertible paper always robs one party
or the other: the argument on behal
of the debtor lasts forever, but it j.
strong or weak according as the differ
ence between gold and paper increase.
or the contrary, and there is no posi-
bility of getting from the wrong
course to the right one without pair
somewhere.
To talk about the shock of resump
ton is mere vaporing. Trade and in
dustry stood the shock when the dol
lar was fiuctuating from one to TWEEN
ty cents month, and no change coult
be more gradual, publicand thorough
ly discounted in its successive step
than the appreciation of the dollar
has been since the passage of the re
sumption act. Those intiationist
whose madness has the most method
Lprobably anticipate no shock whatev
er, and vet, in their pnint of view
THEY are r1g1lt and consistentin dread
ing the formal completion of resump
ton. Under the combined influence
! of the densest ignorance of financial
laws, the recollection of the delights
of flush times, and the confusion O
mind which the use of incon
vertible paper always produces, the
mass of inflationists confound none,
with wealth and property, cherish the
ment stamp gives money its value
and maintains it in circulation, anC
hence believe the issue of sufficient
Government paper of full legal tender
quality absolute money they cal
it-would be the universal panacea
Upon people possessed of this delu
sion, argument can can have no more
effect than a moral thesis could upon
a hungry tiger.
They are assisted by the thousand.
who are clinging to the wrecks of in.
vestments which they cannot sell but
are not willing to abandon or to re.
| value according to the facts. Owners
of unprOductive real estate, consisting
of fancy lots whose value has been
largely eaten out by assessments and
interest, or of property that will nei.
ther sell nor rent except at new fig.
ures, are pretty sure to be found de.
plOring the depression of trade and
the insutiiciency of money; holders
of shrunken securities, and all who
mourn defeated expectations, are APT
to long, like the Others, for an in.
tiation wave that will enable
them to unload" and refuse tC
accept the situation. In SO refusing
to accept it, they prolong it, but have
no power to change it. In longing
for renewed imitation, they want yes.
terday back again. In remembering
the flush times, they mistakenly con-
slider the greenback the cause of the
imaginary prosperity, now so dear to
memory, and forget the influence OF
Government as a purchaser in guam.
titles unlimited and at prices over
which there was no tine to chatter
half million of men, suddenly with.
drawn from production and turned
to consumption on vast and eXclu.
sively destructive scale, were an influ.
ence upon the markets which must
not be overlooked. More greenbacks
might be issued, but they would not
reproduce the effect; they would be
like powder without the spark. The
old industrial and exchange activity
with rising prices, cannot be brought
back until the old conditions are re.
produced. Granting it were desira.
Bile to do so, it is utterly impossible !;
the thing is dream.
But all who long for the past or are
infected with the "sbsolute money
delusion have reason to dread the
consumation of resumption, for they
know. as well as resumption advocates
do, that it will be finality. There
will be no shock except to their hopes
and the injury they predict is really
the ending of all schemes for legal
lied paper for although schemes for
various sorts of unreal money will al
ways find some heads for Judgment,
inconvertible paper will not long re.
tain any popular strength after it
goes out of use. On the contrary,
just as the advantages of national
bank-notes over the wildcat sort,gave
the former quick hold, the revival of
industry, consequent upon financial
tranquility, will soon make the peo-
pie satisfied with sound money. FL
nancial tranquility will come with
settlement, and that will come with
the fact of resumption.
HENRY CLAY DEAN, more famil-
iarly known as ''Dirty DEAN" in his
late speech at Kansas City, said: "The
time is coming when there will arise
among the people ''men with sand in
their craw, iron in their blood, God in
their love and hell in their hate. Then
there will sweep across the land a
whirlwind- cyclone which will re-
deem land intended to be a land of
fraadop1 Int now a realm IF white