Litchfield enquirer., 1878-10-31
"Greenback Ethics. !"

1 As we have said, elsewhere, wessyn1pathiza with the Greenbacker in one matter We lOol upon overgrown corporations, and enormou accumulations of property in few hands, as th' most serious of the dangers that threaten tn. perpetuity of republican institutions among us The temporary ill effects of debased suffrage do not seem to us so full of danger for the fal future as the tendency of property to get out of the hands of the many into the hands of tht few. Whatever wise legislation will check that tendency will command our support.
 We utterly repudiate, however, as most dangerous heresy, the theory which seeks te stop the accumulations of wealth by tamperine with the currency. We believe that such g policy. would have precisely opposite effect Who has not noticed the great accumuIationf of wealth that have grown out of shrewd foresight of the fluctuations of business. In such cases it is not honesty, industry, ,and econo my, that win the prize, but the gamblers fac ulty of accurate computation of chances. A wiser political policy should eliminate as many
 
 they tend to turn all business into game of mixed chance and skill in which simple integ- rity seldom succeeds. One of these elements of fiuctuation is plainly within the control of the legislator He can at least give the coun- try stable currency.
 It is just here, upon question of fact, that we find ourselves at issue with 'tE. w. B." and his school of financial teachers. Nothing seems to us so absurd as the claim that modern experience proves an irredeemable paper cur rency equally stable with currency based on the precious metals, unless it be the claim that the downfall of the Roman Republic was due to contractIons of it's currency. It seems to us that 'E. W. B." has undertaken the stupen- dous task of rewriting all ancient as well as all modern history. AS we have read Roman history the republic owed it's fall to two chief causes: 1st, the fact that the country had out grown the possibilities of republican govern ment, unless upon the principle of representa- tion, which had not then been discovered; 2d, to the general substitution of slave for free la bor Either of these causes accounts for the result, and for the accumulation of property in the hands of the few which undoubtedly pre- 'ceded the fall ot the republic. So, too, mod ern history must be rewritten if the financial crises in our own republic are to be attributed to contractions of the currency. The fever of speculation which proceeded the crashes ef '37, of '67 and of '73 is matter of history To such height did it rage. that financial col lapse was unavoidable, In like manner the fever of speculation which ragged in Germany after the success of the war with France, and after the receipt of an enormous war indemni- ty from that country, was soon followed by it's unavoidable financial collapse. France, on the other hand, busy in repairing the enor- nous losses of unsuccessful war, escaped both the business fever and the business collapse which visited her successful rival.
 In some of these cases ''E w. B. "may per haps claim that it is we who misread history ]; but, as regards the causes of the recent crash in 1878, it seems to us that there ought to be no difference of opinion. We give below a table showing the amount of paper currency (national and bank) in circulation since Au- ;y,Yo ofA Aol1