The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-08-21
ion, they are not pursuing the effective

environ us. You see, it is so plausible
to say, as most of the free coinage men
do say, that silver has been degraded,
and ought to be restored to the position
it occupied before the war; that it is the
peoples money and they want it, that it
was the dollar of our daddies,' &C., &c.
Now this all seems very fair and reason
able and proper, but those who claim this
for silver, forget or overlook the changed
condition in the commercial world. In
the ten years intervening between the
years 1852 and 1862, the annual average
production of silver throughout the world
was estimated to be only from forty to
forty-fve millions of dollars, and very
little of this from American mines.
Whereas in 1875 the aggregate products
throughout the world is estimated to have
been seventy-fve millions of dollars.
Silver has deprecated much more than
degraded in value, owing to the large ad-
ditional supply produced by the Ameri-
can mines in recent years. The entire
revenues of India are now collected in
silver, and I commend to the extreme
silver men the experience of the Indian
Government of late years by reason of it.
She lost in exchanges in one year S15,-
000, 900, because of her having nothing
but silver. Besides Germany has de-
monetized silver. The Latin Union has
suspended its coinage. England, the
great financial centre of the world, adop-
ted the gold standard years ago, and she
is to-day the richest nation in the world,
with all countries paying tribute to her
sagacity and superior financial foresight.
Moreover INSTRUMENTATION in the
commercial world required weeks and
months, when only minutes and hours
are now required since the adoption of
the submarine telegraph. The balance
of trade in our favor for the last fiscal
year amounted to some two hundred and
fifty odd millions. I speak from memo
ry. Suppose this amount could be paid
in silver at eighty-fve cents in the dollar
instead of gold-and you will have some
idea of our immense losses. If these
balances should be paid in silver. at its
present value, instead of gold, our losses
would be more than thirty million dol
lars. So that we have not the same con-
ditions as when silver was the Dollar of
our Daddies,' and it is much easier to
talk about restoring it to its former rela-
tion to gold and to the business world,
than to accomplish it. For the life Of
me, I do not comprehend how any man
who has pound of cotton to sell can de-
sire any other than gold standard.
The price of cotton in this country is
regulated by the price, in gold, in Liver
pool. Why then should l be required to
take for my cotton q currency which is
deprecated in England as we'll as Amer
lea, when I ought to get the best price in
the best currency? Let US see how it
affects the chief market crop of the
South. The value of unmanufacture
cotton exported by us for the ten months
ending April 80, 1879, was one hundred
and fifty million eight hundred and sew
enty-nine thousand three hundred and
forty-fve dollars (S15O,S79,345.) Run
fifteen cents in the dollar through that
sum, land I merely adopt that to repre-
sent the depreciation of silver, by way of
illustration-it may be more or less, and
the measure of loss to the cotton producer
may be approximated. This, of course,
would not happen if we could control the
price of silver in England, France, Ger
many and other countries with which we
have commercial transactions, but we
cannot make eighty-6ve cents worth of
silver worth one hundred cents in Eng
land by placing the government stamp
on it as we can at home, for when it gets
to England it rates simply as bullion, and
passes there only at its bullion value"
"Do understand you, then, to favor
single standard of coin currency?"
"No, not absolutely. I think that it
was wise and proper to remonetize silver
and to limit its coinage, as believe,
with proper limitations upon the coinage
of silver, to be regulated by circum-
stances, the two coins might be made to
supplement each other, and operate har-
moniously. Whereas the unlimited free
coinage of silver, as matters now stand,
would have the effect of driving gold out
of the country and entailing great losses
upon our people, as have endeavored to
illustrate by the losses on cotton alone"
Recurring to your suggestions ABOUT
the National Banks, would not their
abolition tend to unsettle business and
produce confusion in monetary circles ?"
''I think not. The repeal of the pro-
vision of the National Bank act, which
imposes a tax of 10 per cent. on State
issues, would settle the troubles, at least
so far as we in the South are concerned.
The comparatively small amount of cap
ital invested in South Carolina in Ma
tional banks would be transferred, no
doubt, to institutions organized under
State authority as banks of issue, and be-
come much more satisfactory to investors
in bank stock. We should then have a
currency answering all the purposes of
our people in their business operations,
as under State banks before the war, and
would be all the better by being kept at
home if such should be its fate. Our
merchants and business men would have
no difficulty in arranging their exchanges
with New York, Baltimore, or even with
Europe, as they had none before the war.
The government issues of greenbacks
would remain in circulation. I have no
doubt of the ability of the government
to maintain resumption upon the present
amount in circulation, or perhaps on a
larger amount, in the progress of the de-
velopment of our increased specie pay
ing capacity. The re-opening of State
banks would aid resumption and supply
the demand for more currency, because
it would be more generally and equitably
distributed than is the case with the Ma
tional bank currency"
consistency thou art q Jewel"