The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-01-17

cess even Of the depreciation during
the war and after the war enhanced
IS per cent. by the same oppression
It is not wonderful that Sir James
Graham was Indignantly bitter in his
denunciatiOn of Peel's act.
WHAT THE PEOPLE GAINED BY THE
ACT.
/ have shown you what the fund
holders. the officeholders, and the
pensioners of the state gained under
the operation Of Peel's bill; now. what
did the people gain! Was there any
compensation to them for this vast
enhancement in the value of the prop.
erty of the favored classes! They
were promised great benefits to result
from the restoration Of the ''ancient
Standard but how were those prom
ises realized! Did they gain freedom
from any of the monetary evils they
had suffered during the suspension
No, from not one. Did they escape
fluctuations in prices No, for expe-
rience proved, and Lord Overstone
admitted, that he could detect no diff
ference between the fluctuations
which took place during the suspension
and those which took place after the
resumption had been accomplished
Did they escape speculation and over.
trading! No; and Lord Overstone
frankly admitted that, under the most
restrictive system of convertible
notes, speculation had been pushed to
the most eXtravagant length Did
they escape panics! No, for expert
ence proved, and Lord OverstOne and
Mr.. Tooke both admit what indeed
they could not truthfully deny. that
the commercial commissions under the
convertible system were as great, if
not even greater, than under an in
convertible system. Mr.. TOOke said,
after very careful review. that sus.
ceptibility to great expansion of
credit and consequent liability to col
lapse are not peculiar to an incOnvert-
IDLE state of the currency, and he de-
clared, moreover; that commercial
commissions under the convertible
system has been more striking and
destructive than under the inconvert-
ible system But surely the English
people gained something by way of
compensation for the enormous losses,
sutferings, and burdens put upon
them by Peel's act ! Nothing in the
world Z! What then was Peel's act |!
1t was a swindle devised and execut-
ed in the interest of the few at the
expense of the many.
GARFIELD's DELUsION.
General Garfield nursed the delusion
that it is possible to resume specie
payments at the time fixed by the re-
sumption act; that is to say, Jan. l,
1870. Has my old friend reflected up
on the magnitude of this work of re-
sumption Let me call his attention
to two or three facts. Last year the
clearinghouse exchanges in fifteen
cities amounted to more than fifty
thousand millions of dollars. These
were exclusive of that vast aggregate
of transactions of which no record IS
or can be made The whole annual
exchanges of the country cannot be
less than two hundred and fifty thous-
and millions of dollars; of which at
this time not more than one per cent
proceed upon the gold basis. But re-
sumption of specie payments means
the use of gold as the agent, not of
one per cent. of the whole stupendous
fabric of American traffic but of one
hundred per cent. of it. 1t means the
actual physical presence of gold, in
greater or less ample supply, in every
city and every county in the country;
in every bank, whether state bank.
private bank, savings bank. or nation
al bank. and in all the public treasur-
les, Federal, state and municipal. 1t
means the extension of gold into act
ual use rs a fund into which not only
all the circulating paper-notes both of
the government and the banks are to
be convertible at the will of the hold
ers-many of whom will demand gold
but all the loans and deposits of the
banks, and all the debts of the states
and municipalities. of all the corpora
tions. and of all the people: in word.
it means the extension of gold into
actual physical use AS the instrument
of exchange and measure of value in
all the two hundred and fifty thousand
millions of exchanges which annually
of this work of extending the use of
gold let me give You an illustration.
The report OF the Comptroller of the
currency for 1916 showed that there
was at that time III the whole country.
2.0S9 national banks. have analysed
the condition of those banks at that
time tand there has been no apprecia-
bic change slncel, and see the result:
AS reported themselves as having no
specie at all: l21 had less than SlO0
each: 5os had less than $500 each. 3l6
had less than Sl.ooofach: 24o had less
than $1,000 each, and of the whole
number only 223+ had over 5000, and
of these % had less than Sl0. 900 each.
SO You see that nine hundred and sew
enty-one national banks had less than
five hundred dollars in specie each:
and that thirteen hundred of them had
less than one thousand dollars each.
But II by specie payments is honestly
meant \ system of payments in specie
hot the confidence game PLAYED by
state banks upon the people of this
country for seventy years. under IA
pretense of paying in specie-then into
every one OF these two thousand and
eighty-nine institutions located in
thirty-nine states and territories-and
IS an absolutely essential preparation
for reSumption-must he drawn gold
enough TO meet demands amounting to