Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-08-23


Country Richer and Growing More So
Folly to Think that Imitation Would
Benefit Anyone.
N, Y. Herald
The voters in this country who incline
to support the greenback- labor party do
so on these grounds: they see that in
dustry and trade are PROSTATE; they
would like to see the country once more
son the high wave of prosperity; they
have been told that severe and pinch
ing contraction of the currency caused
the collapse of 1873 and the prostration
which followed; and they believe that,
in some way, they know not how, a new
would give us new period of good
times.
Now, if they are right in their conclu-
sions and belief, we should agree with
them and support the greenback- labor
party. If they are wrong, however, they
are in the position of physician who,
when called in to treat very serious
case of disease, should mistake it's ma
ture and give the wrong remedies. He
would injure the patient and not help
him. Where the sick man is a big coun-
try like this it becomes grave matter
to offer prescriptions, and we have at
least right to require that the doctor
who presses his medicine upon us shall
understand the disease
|. Now, it is greenback- labor falla-
cy to assert that a great contraction of
the currency has caused the collapse
and hard times. There has been, in fact,
no such great contraction. Official sta
tistics show that the amount of paper
money out, exclusive of interest bearing
notes, which cannot properly be count
ed, because they very rapidly disappear
from circulation, was greatest in 1874,
after the collapse and panic of 1873;
that, therefore, the greatest amount Of
paper money in circulation did not pre-
vent or cure collapse or panic, but, as
we hold, was one Of it's main causes.
The total paper circulation, exclusive Of
interest-bearing notes was in 1870 $685.
600 1000; in 1871, $71600O,000 in 1872,
$737 ,0OO, 900; in 1873, the year when the
panic and depression began, $749. OOO,-
600; in 1874, $7S3, 0O0, 900; in 1873, $773,-
600 600. In 1873, the present year, when
for the first time there arc real signs of
an industrial revival-slow, but appar-
emily sure-and on a sound basis, the
circulation is within few millions Of
the year 1870 ($6SS, 000,0 0Ol, and when
the honest greenback labor man looks
back with sigh to the good times of
1870, he should understand that the
country has now substantially the same
amount of circulating medium as then;
and when he is told by some quack like
Ewing or Cary that what is needed is
more currency, he oughA to reply by
pointing to the fact that it was precisely
when the greenbacks were most abund-
ant that the big panic broke But he
ought to add, for the information Of the
quacks who are misleading him, that
while the currency is now nearly at the
same volume as in the prosperous year
1870, its value, reokoned in gold, has
greatly appreciated, and if we count in
gold there was but $599,00O,0 900 worth
OF paper in circulation in 1870 against
1864, 600, 600 worth in the present year.
Ii. 1t is another greenback fallacy
that the country is poor. If it were
really poor, surely no one is so absurd
as to say that the printing of great
quantities of paper promises could make
it rich. 1t is not the amount of notes
farmer or merchant has out which make
him rich man, but the amount of grain
or cattle or merchandise he owns, and
the country is in this respect like the
individual. IN fact, however, the coun-
try Is not poor 1t has had succession
OF great crops; it produces, as official
statistics show, more cotton and wooden
goods, more iron, more coal, more pro-
ducts of all kinds this year than in 1870.
which was the year of model prosperity
to which the greenback- labor man al
ways refers. In fact the American peo-
pie are so ingenious and Industrious
that in many and perhaps most branch
es OF industry, they produce more than
they can themselves use. But prices
are low" is the general complaint; and
so they are, to the great comfort Of ev-
eryhody who consumes.
Ill. 1t is greenback- labor fallacy
that irredeemable paper and plenty Of
it is good for the workingmen. On this
head the history of the years 1863 and
1873 ought to be enough to warn the
workingmen. Citizen Schwab summed
up that experience so well the other
day that we cannot do better than re-
peat what he said A new imitation of
the currency would give the Spectator
a new chance, perhaps; it would make
the fortunes of merchants with stocks
OF goods on hand, but it would raise pri-
oes faster than it would raise wages,
and thus impoverish and not benefit the
workingman Mr.. Schwab said: "The
most the national-labor greenback par
ty can do is to help the middle
classes OF society, to bring back
for few years the hollow prosper
ity of the war times by flooding the
country with paper money and Civ
ing these classes | refer to chance to
speculate and make fortunes quickly.
The working people would not be bene-
fitted. Everything they eat and wear
would go up, but not as igh as their
expenses. Badly off as they are now,
they might be worse off then. Though
it might give them 4 few years of high |
or wages. hut always higher prices, the
reaction would leave them worse off
than ever"
Nv. A correspondent, who is evil
IDENTIFY q greenhack- labor man, writes
us:--"In recent visit to Massachusetts
Fall River, Lynn, Essex county and
Boston, find that the aboring people
who are living on starvation wages, the |
small dealers and shop-keepers who see
the accumulation of years melting away
before the dry rot; the real estate men
who owe mortgages on dead property
ALL all are in favor of the Ohio idea or
Al