The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1879-09-18

ly equalization of paper and coin, that is gold
prices for their lands; labor and products;
that is, 81 .25 per 100 for their pork, 80 cents
per bushel for their wheat, and 70 cents to 81
per day for their labor, with which to pay enor-
nous and undiminishing taxes and debts, con-
tracted when their products and labor were
worth over 80 per cent. moro than they are to.
day. It is true the money earned by days
labor will buy about as much as days earn
ings would have bought four years ago. 1t is
true the money got for 100 pounds of pork or
bushel of grain will buy about as much as
the money got for the same products four
years ago. Here Is neither gain nor loss. But
1t is also true that every mans debts and taxes
cost him in labor or products 50per cent more
to pay them now than four years ago.
The debts of the country, public, corporate
and private, running from four years ago,
amount to not less, as l have heretofore re-
peatedly shown, than S1n,000,0O0,OD. This
shrinkage OF values results in compelling the
payment Of debts with 50 per cent more of
labor and property, and in effect adds $5,0CO,-
600, ,0C0 to the weight of that vast debt burden
Our taxes, national and local, amount, in tine
aggregate, to $S0p, ,000, COO each year. THIS
s6rinkage of values increases the tax burden
one-half, or $400, ,000, coo year. That increase
amounts to interest at 4 per cent on Sl0,U0U,-
000,O00 more than one-third of the present
wealth of the country. .s.,tss-,.-3.
Messrs Sherman and Schurz adroitIy and
there is vast gain in increasing the purchasing
power Of their money. deny it. The green
back of 1874 was precisely as good for all the
purposes Of business in the hands of the pro-
ducers and exchangers of wealth as the green
back of 1879. 1t is true the greenback dollar
now buys 81 per cent more than 1t bought then,
but it takes 50 per cent more of wheat, pork,
land or labor to get itnow than then. There IL
no gain at all to the industrial classes by this
appreciation of the dollar, which means merely
the lowering of prices of land, labor and pro-
ducts When we consider the vast distress in
ficted upon the industrial classes in the pro-
cess of forcing prices down to the low gold
level, and the vast addition to debt aud tax bur-
dens which are necessary consequences of that
reduction of values, the pretended advantage of
adding 50 per cent to the purchasing power of
our paper currency is met by set-off of losses
hundred times greater than the vaunted gain.
The two Secretaries think it fine sport to un-
derrate and ridicule the industrial dstresses
and disasters which have strewn with the
wrecks of lives and fortunes the pathway to
resumption. The fiddling Nero was once de-
lighted at somewhat similar spectacle. l
doubt if their fun will be shared by the masses
Of the people. The ore diggers, the furnace
men, the coal miners, the day laborers, and
mechanics and tradesmen, and mortgagers and
other debtors throughout Ohio have not found
the cup of resumption and decentralization
cheering one Disfressful days and sieepless
nights, scanty food and ragged clothes, lost
homes and broken hearts have been the price
of resumption to them.
Mr. Sherman attempts to make me appear
ridiculous by asserting that l attributed the
panic of 1873 to the Resumption act of 1873.
That is net perversion of anything ever
said, but merely pure invention. have al
ways attributed the panic of 1873 in chief part
to the contraction of the currency which went
on steadily after 1866, causing an expansion of
credits to take the place of diminishing cur
rency, which credits collapsed in the panic
But Mr.. Sherman says tie amount of paper
money outstanding on the 30th of June, 1878,
was more than it was on the 30th of June, 1865;
the amount on the 30th Of June, 1873, was
$749, Az, 600; and on the 30th of June, 1866,
was but $747, ,233 ,000." 1 answer this assertion
by quoting from his own report, Issued from
the Treasury Department on the 1st of July
last, giving the total amount of currency out
standing at various dates as follows:
June 30, 1865. .S9S3 31S 600
Ipna 1879 fSll MD 000