The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1878-08-16
NEW SERIES---NO. 80.

fears of capitalists AS to the effect of the re-
sumption law; and this contraction has
resulted in IN enormous fall of prices, ruin
Of debtors and taxpayers, proftless
business, bankruptcy pauper wages want
OF employment, starvation, raggedness,
beggary and crime.
But we are told that there can be no
further contraction, because---thanks TO the
agitation by the Democratic party against
the resumption law-Congress has forbidden
the destruction of the greenback currency,
and required the Secretary of the Treas
ury to pay it out when redeemed. But
that law is dead letter on our statute
books, except for the moral effect of the
declaration that the grecnback shall not ut
tcrly perish The secretary in his telegram
to the Hon. William A. Phillips, of Kansas,
OF June II, 1873, which you will find in
McPhcrson's Political Manual for this year,
declares that he will keep in circulation all
United States notes that can be maintained
at par with coin" That means that he will
hoard all the redeemed greenbacks,
II necessary to maintain resump-
ton. The law Of January IA, 1875,
permanently appropriatcs for re-
dempton purposes 'all surplus moneys in
the treasury not otherwise appropriated"
When the grccnbacks shall be redeemed,
after the 1st Of January next, they will
become at once appropriated by the law
to resumption purposes; and the secretary
ayows his intention to hold and hoard
them as fast as he thinks necessary for
those purposes In other words, he
thinks that the law prohibiting the de-
structon of greenbacks and requiring
them to be paid out again only requires
him to pay them out in obedience to ap-
preparations, and that the sweeping ap-
preparations for resumption purposes Of
all greenbacks that may come in by re-
demption puts the reissue entirely at his
discretion, to be made only if, and when
the needs Of resumption demand. What
difference will it be to the business of the
country whether grcenbacks are destroyed
or only boarded and held in the treasury
Mr.. Sherman has repeatedly declared and
everybody who has studied the subject
knows, that large contraction of the paper
currency is necessary to maintain resump-
ton. So that, after the LIST of January next,
| contraction will go on with all its calami-
tous consequences, precisely as if no law
had been passed forbidding the destruction
of grecnbacks.
Because Of this construction by MI.
Sherman Of the resumption law in connec-
ton with the law torbidding the can
| collation. OF greenbacks. | resisted and was
instrumental in defeating, on the 18th of
June last, a motion TO concur in the SEN
ate substitute for the house bill to repeal
the resumption law. That substitute pro-
posed to strike out all of the house bill
repeating the resumption scheme, and in
sert in lieu thereof Il provision making
grecnbacks receivable for customs and re-
cciyabc for four per cent bonds. II was q
drag-nct devised by Mr.. Sherman to haul
in the greenbacks in payment for bonds,
ana thus make them SO scarce that few
would he presented for redemption. Three
days later the House passed bill making
| grccnbacks receivable for Customs, but not
for bonds, The bill will probably pass the
Senate next session. Meantime heHouse bill
to repeal the resumption law, with Mr.. Sher-
mans Senate substitute, lies on the Speak
cr's tablc-and hope the people this fall will
tell the House and Sosatc in thunder tones
that the resumption law shall be repealed.
without substitute or compromise.
Nothing is more certain than that a fur
ther large contraction Of the paper currcn-
cy is indispensable to the maintenance of
resumption. Our paper currency is from
two 10 three times greater than all the coin
in the limits Of the United States. No
nation on earth ever maintained redeem
able paper currency equal to the amount of
coin in such country. In fact no great
debtor nation ever maintained specie pay
ments at all. England, France and Ger
many, the chief creditor and specie paying
countries, have three times more coin than
redecmabe paper, Before the war, when
we had paper currency systematically re-
dccmable, we never had n volume of paper
equal to the amount of coin in the United
States. How can we now expect
to maintain resumption with less than
S3OO,OOO,OOO of coin in the country, and
near S6j0OOO,OOO in paper-loadcd down
as we are with enormous foreign debts and
expenditures which in any year can drain
"N'l WHY N'liul VI pul NOIH1 II Gall 10
done. The only possible way to maintain
specie payment is by the extinguishment
of our annual foreign tribute and by a
sweeping reduction of our paper currency,
cntailing far greater business calamities
than we have yet endured.
The Democracy is practically a unit on
these questions almost everywhere, except
in the northeast corner of the Republic.
They are the supreme controlling issues of
the day They come home to the "busi
ness and bosoms of men, and are studied,
discussed, and, above ALL felt, at every
hcorthstonc in the land. They demand
and will receive honest, open, fearless action
at the hands Of our great party. No adroit
cquivocations can obscure, no trading poll
licians can suppress them, The great mass
OF the party has them at heart and in hand
and the whole party is Drawer, wiser and
stronger than any leaders or factions in its
fold.