The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-02-14

at from six TO ten thousand million
dollars. Every dollar of this vast in
debtedness will call for gold coin after
the LIST day January, 1879. Where are
the people to obtain sufficient gold
with which TO pay their debts and
transact thier business? The question
is one that may well terrify every man
who owes his Iieighbor anything, for
there is not now, and never has been
at any one time, enough gold in circu-
latiOn as IN )ney on the whole face of the
earth to meet this demand. If, there
fore, specie payments are in reality to
be resumed in January, 1879, the gov
eminent has yet to destroy at least two
thirds of It's present paper circulation,
and the people on this reduced basis,
and under the gold standard alone,
will be compelled to meet their debts
and their taxes, which have undergone
no elimination.
Sir, here the bad faith of this govern
ment toward the great mass of its clGi-
zens eliminates. To the people in
debt the destruction of their money is
the virtual increase of their indebted
ness to the extent of the money de-
stroyed. If man makes a contract
to pay 500 on given day, and has
just that sum of money in his posses
sion at the date of the contract. he is
doing business securely. If, however,
$50 are. taken from him by force, ana
he is left to meet his contract on one
half the amount needed, his bankrupt
cy necessarily follows. The American
people were supplied with one amount
of currency on which to control debts,
both public and private, and they are
now to have another and far smaller
amount with which to pay them. They
entered into all their existing obliga-
tons with comparatively plenty of
money in their hands. By the laws
of this government now they are first
| to be deprived of One-haif their money,
and then required 10 pay every obliga-
| ton in full. The national debt was
contraction on the basis of imitation,
and is to be paid on the narrrOwest
| basis of the most merclless contraction.
A thousand dollar bond, for which
only 5000 in gold was realized by the
| government, in its distress, at the
time of its issue, has now to be taken
| up and paid for with over thousand
dollars in gold by the taxpayers. The
| farmer who bought land with deferred
payments; the mechanic who pur-
chased house and lot and made a
mortgage for the balance of the pur-
chase money; the business man who
uses his credit as part OF his capital,
have all found the weight of their OBJ
legations largely increased by being
| deprived of the means of meeting them.
They must be met, however, and pro-
perty itself, in the absence of money,
changes hands from the debtor to the
creditor classes in payment of debts. Ii
changes hands, too, at such reduced
| values that the business man is sold
| out and closed up, and homes are
swept away, often for the want OF d
very small sum of money.
| Since the act demonetizing silver,
| supplemented as it has been by the acI
for forced resumption of specie pay
mehts, the property of the people Of
the United States has shrunk not less
than 30 per cent. in value. What
could be sold for 500 five years age
can be bought now for $65 ON an aver.
age all over the county. This is 8
criminal confiscatiOn of property
amounting to not less in value than
$40, 900 100000 when the estimate is
applied to every state and section alike
In this vast shrinkage OF all values
arising from the shrinkage of money
in circulation is to be found the imme
date cause of that general bankruptcy
and ruin which now fill the land with
the sound of falling business houses
commercial failures, broken savings
banks, and the lamentations of THE
poor who have been robbed OF theil
hard earnings and of the opportunity
to earn more. Under the influence OF
tbs policy nearly forty thousand bust
ness failures have taken place in this
/
| liabilities amounting in the aggregate tC
| over 81, 900, 100000. The heart sickenS
! inthinking for moment 1.-THE sorrows
| the broken hearts, the shattered hopes
tho suicides which these tignres repre-.
sent. Ifthis policy of the government
has been to infiict the greatest misery
| on the greatest number its success HIS
been complete. 1t is in vain to attri-
butte such widespread disasters to
| other causes. We sometimes heal
them ascribed to what is vaguely st, /
| ed oVerproduction. | would gladly
know what is meant by this oracular
| term. OVerprOductiOn What Is il
that we overprOduced Is there too
| much food, clothing, and other neces-
sites of life? Has the soil yielded too
much wheat, corn, hay, cotton, sugar,
rice? The producer is one who creates
wealth, and OverprOduction would
| therefore signify too great an amount
of wealth. 1t will be hard to convince
sane mind that an overflow of weallh
is the cause of depression and gloom,
| of financial calamities and rapidly in
creasing poverty, ana of laborers pray
| ing and praying in vain, tor the privi-
lege, once offered to slaves, of working
for the bare means of subsistence. The
hrr fSNff
from the bosom of the earth is far diff
ferent from this. Unless deprived of
its natural functions by pernicious
laws it brings abundant happiness to
a people and establishes smiling content
in their midst.
But the cause most commonly as
signed by the authors of our financial
policy for its baleful effects on the bus
mess and labor of the country is that
the currency has been and is yet in an
inflated condition. and that real pros
perity can only be attained by its re-
luctiOn to the gold basis. The evils of
initiation have been painted in the dark
est cOlOrs for years past, and on all
occasions. am not an inflationist in
any sense that would disturb the true
interest of trade and commerce, nor
would it ever be necessary to discuss
the question at all, If the contracdonist
had only been willing to let the volume
of our currency remain at the point
where the country prospered most and
the people were happiest. A compari-
son between the periods when our
paper circulation was greatest and the
years of contraction which have follow
ed, is crushing to the advocates of the
latter policy. During the whole four
years of 1868, 1864, 1865, and 1866,
when the volume OF our currency av-
eraged over a thousand millions, the
business failures of the country reach
ed only 2,I67-less in number than oc-
Cured in any three months of the year
just closed. Is this an argument
against full and generous circulation
of money? During the period which
is now stigmatized as one of imitation