The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-09-27

prefer. such ID not now the case. Gold Is no
more in general circulation now than it was five
years ago. There is, in effect, none in the bank
vaults No man in Ohio can get Thousand
dollars in gold without paying Ms premium
the cost OF expyessage 81 and from New York.
friend Of mine the other day at Columhus-a
city Of $1,000 inhabitants, with dozen bauks--
wanted TO get two $50 gold pieces az presents
for his daughters, and went from bank TO bauk
in vain to find them.
Instead Of resumption the people have mere
ly equalization of paper and coin that is god
prices for their lands, labor and PRODUCES;
that is, 81. 25 per 100 for their pork, % cents
per bushel for then wheat, and IS cents TO 81
per day FOR their labor, with which to pay enor-
nous and undiminishipg taxes and debts, con-
tracted when their products and labor were
worth over 80 per cent more than they are to-
day. 1t 10 true the money earned by days
labor viii buy about as much as a days earn
ings would have bought four years ago IL Is
true the money got for 100 pounds OF pork or
bushel OF grain will buy about as much rs
the money got for the same products four
years ago. Here is neither gain nor loss, But
it is also true that every mans debts and taxes
cost him IN labor or products 80 per cent more
TO pay them now than four years ago,
The debts of the country, public, corporate
and private, running from tour years ago,
amount TO not less, as / have heretofore re-
peatedly shown, than sluOO0Wo 900 This
shrinkage OF values results in compelling the
labor and property. aud in effect adds $1,000
900 eco to the weight of that vast debt burden.
Our taxes, national and local, amount ia the
aggregate, TO $S0e,000,000 each year, This
shrinkage of values increases the tax burden
one half, or S400, 000,G00 year. That increase
amounts 10 interest at per cent on Sl0,UOJ,-
100000, more than one-t third of the present
wealth of the country.
Messrs Sherman and Schurz adroitly and
deliberately attempt TO convince the people that
10 in aQiFt tla al.o
power of their money. deny 10. The green
back OF 1874 was precisely as good for all the
purposes of business in the hands Of the pro-
ducers and exchaDgers OF wealth rs the green
back of 1879 1t is true the greenback dollar
now buys 80 per cent, more than 1t bought then,
but it takes 80 per cent more Of wheat, pork
land or labor to get II now than then. There IL
no gain at all to the industrial classes by this
appre citation of the dollar, which means merely
the lowering of prices Of land, lahor and pro-
ducts. When we consider the vast distress in
fcted 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 advantageo OF
adding 80 per cent to the purchasing power OF
our paper currency is met by a set off Of Losses
q hundred times greater than the vaunted gain
The two Secretaries think 1t fine sport 10 un-
derrate and ridcue the industrial distresses
and disasters which have etrewn with the
wrecks Of lives and fortunes the pathway 10
resumption. The fddling Nero was once de-
lighted at somewhat similar spectacle /
doubt IL their fun will be shared by tho 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 emp OF resumption and decentralization u
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. '.'' 'tt'
Mr. Sherman attempts to make me appear
ridiculous by asserting that attributed the
panic of 1873 to the Resumption act OF 1870.
That is not perversion of anything / ever
said, but merely pure invention. have al
ways attributed the panic of 1878 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 panir
But Mr. Sherman says the amount OF paper
money outstanding on the Goth of June, 1873,
was more than it was on the Both Of june 1863;
the amount on tho 30th Of June, 1873, was
S749, 400 and on the JOth of June, 1865,
was but $747, 233, 600" l answer this assertion
by quoting from his own report, issued from
the Treasury Department on the lat of July
last giving the total amount of currency out
standing" at various dates as follows: NJ
June ~, 1sG5 .Sgs3 3l6O00
June ", 1913. s.......-...,..'....... 1ooVoSOVo
-
Total contraction .................$2 23, $4,000
Showing a difference between MIR. Shermans
statement as Secretary on the 18th Of July and
his statements as stump-orator on the 10th OF
August Of over 3233, 100000.
But there are two kinds of contraction. both
equally effective in shrinking values; one is by
actual reduction of the currency; the other by
the growth of business, the currency remaining
stationary. The demand of business for cur
rency may be assumed to increase approx
mately in proportion to increase of population.
The actual currency in 1865, according to this
treasury statement of MIR. Sherman, WAS S2S
per capita, while the actual currency in 1878,
by thesame statement was but sl7 IS or CAPT
To, being q reduction OF over one-third.
Before the contraction Of our currency our
people and our cities and our counties were
very little in debt, as statistics and records and
experience attest With the contraction which
followed up to 1878 came the expansion OF
credits to maintain business. The enormous
grants by the Republican party of public lands
10 promote the premature construction OF rail-
ways combined with this expansion of credits
to bring on the collapse of 1878, from which
the country, as Mr.. Sherman stated in his
speech in the Senate in 1874, had in effect re-
covered, when the decentralization of silver and
forced resumption IN gold set in motion the in
1uences which have shrunk prices, paralyzed
industry and confscated the property of debt
ors and taxpayers.
Mr.. Sherman asserts that not only had we
more currency in 1878 than at the close of the
war, but that we now have more than we ever
had In this Treasury Department statement
OF the lat of July last he gives the total circu-
lation at s743, S0l GOO on the LIST of July, 1879,
which is about $l4.o7 per capita, as against
ST.. IS per capita on the same day in 1873, and
s2S OH the same day in 1865. This statement
OF the currency now outstanding includes s74,-
0O0, 600 greenbacks Withdrawn from circulation
and boarded in the treasury, and SIZE, 900
which the Comptroller of the Currency in his
speech to the national bankers at Saratoga last
month says are boarded by the national banks.
Mr. Sherman attempts to sustain his assertion
that the currency is greater now than ever by
adding to the volume now afoat all the coin in
the trea ury held for redemption. We might
just reasonably count the gold in the MOUNT
aims. The coin will stay in the treasury until
the greenpacks are surrendered to take its
place, and then the greenbacks will stay III I'M
til the coin comes back again. When one is
circulating the other is boarded, and both can't
be counted as part of the circulation.
Mr. Sherman now asserts that the panic OF
1873 was caused by all inflated and irredeema-
BILE currency But here is his speech in the
United States Senate, made on the 10Th of Jan
usry, 1874, i'll which he says: Mr.. President,
the condition of our currency has 10 relation
whatever 20 the panic that has passed over the
country. l never have charged the
panic upon the currency. Indeed, was the
first in the midst of the panic to declare that
the currency had no connection whit. Money
was secure. Men boarded it, These
panics are but the ebb and flow Of great enter
prises. No action Of ours can prevent them"
He now asserts that all the business dis
tresses and blighted industries of the past four
years were due to that panic, but in this same
speech he declares that the effect of the panic
was then past iquote his language; 4 Conf