Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-02-02
TENN, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1873

eyed want I'm more than milliO
hitherto happy homes. The d'
mOnetization of silver was purposel
accomplished before the policy {
specie resumption was declared, |
!, order to make money as scarce 9
possible in reaching, by forced cor
; traction, the single standard of gold
We could reach the double standar
easier than the single one, but tn
purpose of the money power was tn
diminution of money in circulation
and 1t better accomplished that oh
ject by first Outlawing silver ant
then seeking the specie basis com
posed of but one metal. 1t cannO
be denied that great progress ha
been made in this work of destroy
ing moneys, and all values, excep
the value of money, which is made
greater by being made scarcer anC
harder to obtain
! At the date of the act of January
1875, our volume of currency was
reduced in proportion to population
far below European nations, where
labor commands barely subsistence
wages. We had nearly one-half less
! per capita than Germany, England
or France. Financial distress was
even then upon us. Business wrecks
were afioat on every hand. We had
the warnings ofnine preceding years
during which the money of the coun-
try had been diminished nearly
| $400, 900, 900 by contraction, and dur
ing which time the liabilities for
commercial failures and bankrupt-
cies had risen from an average of
about $11 900, 900 per annum to near
ly three hundred million. A panic
had just swept over the country with
sufficient havoc and ruin to eXtort
the admission from Gen. Grant in
his message, of December, 1873, that
our volume of currency was too
small for our business, even at its
dullest stages. We had less than
$735, 900, 900, not counting fractional
currency, and yet against the sup
pllcatiOnS of every business and in
dustry still further reduction was
dictated, and has been effected to
the extent of nearly one hundred
million. If, however, the law for
the enforced resumption of specie
payments is to stand unrepealed on
our statute books, then there still re-
mains a work of destruction to be
done in this country far more ex-
pensive, dangerous and full of
wretchedness than we have yet wit
messed. That law declares that
On and after the lst day of January, A d.
1879 the Secretary of the Treasury shall re-
deem in coin the United States legal tender
notes then outstanding, on their presenta-
tion for redemption at the office of the Assis-
tant Treasurer of the United States, in the
city of New York, in sums not less than $50.
The term coin here used means
only gold now, and the law, in order
to enable the Secretary of the Treas
ury to carry out this plan for retiring
the greenback money from circula-
ton, authorizes him to sell interest
bearing bonds to obtain gold and to
use such surplus revenues as he may
have on hand.
The Government has undertaken
two things: first, the shrinkage of
the amount of currency; and, Sec
Ond, the possession of gold in such
quantity that the one can be con-
Verted into the other. The smaller,
therefore, the quantity of gold that
can be obtained, the greater must be
the reduction of paper money in or
der to rest dollar for dollar on such
narrow metallic basis. 1t becomes
important in this view to know
what has been done under the law
of January, 1875, in accumulating
gold as basis for specie payments
q year hence. Many effJrts have |
been made to ascertain the exact |
amount of actual gold which this |
Government now owns, none of !
which have been entirely successful,
for the reason that the sum is so
small but it is perfectly safe to state,
after deducting the amount due as
interest on the bonds, that there are |
not this day fifty millions of gold in
the United States Treasury and in
all the national banks besides. If
is to take place on that |
basis, the gigantic task of this poor |
pittance will be to stand good for 1
the redemption Of $3.50, 0,007 ,30S.50 of /
notes, commonly called |
and 1921 ,S74, ,234 Of ma
tional bank note circulation, making
in all the sum of S64l ,681 .444.5O. 1t
is very plain, even to those who be-
lieve that 81 in gold is sufficient for
the circulation and redemption of
So in paper, that our present cOndi-
ton of 81 in gold to about $l4 in pa
per must be radically revOlutiOnized
against the day fixed for specie re-
What probability is
there of any large increase of gold
in the vaults of the Treasury? Will
specie resumption be reached WA-lin
the present year by leveling up the
of gold in our possession or
by leveling down the amount of cur
rency in circulation? No one claims
that foreign nations will supply our
want of gold. On the contrary,
nearly all the produce of our mines
goes to them to pay interest on pub
lie securities held abroad.
But even if this Government could
turn the entire gold yield of every
mine into the Treasury
between this and the 1st day of jan
uary, 1879, the supply would fall far
short Of specie basis for one-tenth
part of our present circulation. Dur
ing the year just closed, 1877, the
gold coinage of our mints reached
only the sum of 44,078, 1919. The
bulk of this sum went abroad,
portion of it is boarded by private
parties, and a small fraction, per-
naps, found its way into the Golfers
If the Government. An eXamina-
ton of the report of the Director of
-he Mint for 1877 shows that the en-
ire coinage of gold in the United
States, from the establishment of
the mint 1893 to the present time,
to but 1888, 459, ,695. This
IS the slow and comparatively small
of gold money in the
ong space of eighty-four years
nearly the whole lifetime of the
American republic; less than 81, ,000,-
J00, 600; less than enough to pay for
Dne single crop of agricultural pro-
lucts in the Western States of Ohio,
Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Michi-
gan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Minneso-
"a, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska ;
md less than one-half enough to pay
he national debt as its exists to-day.
Is there no lesson of wisdom in these
figures for the statesmen of these
lines? They are the experience of
almost a century. Do they encOur-
ige any reasonable being to believe
hat gold enough can be obtained by