Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-08-21

keenly at the South has diminished their Ca
pacity to pay, and they naturally clamor for
something for relief There is great force in
their appeals, but, in my humble opinion,
they are not pursuing the effective course to
overcome the difficulties which environ u.s.
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 reasonable and
proper, but those who claim this for silver,
forget or overlook, the changed condition in
the commercial world. In the ten years inter
vening between the years 1872 and 1862, the
annual average production of silver through
out the world was estimated to be only from
forty to forty.iive millions Of dollars, and very
little of this from American mines. Whereas
in 1875 the aggregate production throughout
the world is estimated to have been seventy.
FIVE millions of dollars. Silver has deprecia-
ted much more than degraded in value, owing
to the large additional supply produced by the
American mines in recent years. The entire
revenues of India are now collected in silver,
and 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 $15,OOO,000, because of her hav-
ing nothing but silver. Besides, Germany has
demonetized silver. The Latin Union has
suspended its coinage. England, the great
financial centre of the world, adopted 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, inter-conamu.
nication 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 memory. Suppose
this amount could be paid in silver at eighty.
FIVE 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 dollars.
So that we have not the same conditions as
when silver was the Dollar of our Daddies,'
and it is much easier to talk about restoring
it to its former relation to gold and to the bu.
siness world, than to accomplish it. For the
life of me, do not comprehend how any man
who has pound of cotton to sell, can desire
any other than a gold standard. The price
of cotton in this country is regulated by the
price, in gold, in Liverpool. Why then
should I be required to take for my cotton a
currency which is deprecated in England as
we'll as in America, when 1 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 manufactured cotton
exported by US for the ten months ending
April 30, 1879, was one hundred and fifty
million eight hundred and seventy mine thous.
and three hundred and forty-6ve dollars
(S15O,8 9,345.) Run fifteen cents in the dol.
lar through that sum, (and merely adopt
that to represent the depreciation ofsilver, by
way of illustration may be more or less,)
and the measure of loss to the cotton produ.
Ger may be approximated. This, Of course,
would not happen if we could control the
price of silver in England, France, Germany
and other countries with which we have com.
mercial transactions, but we cannot make
eighty-fve cents worth of silver worth one
hundred cents in England by placing the gov
ernment stamp on it as we can at home, for
when it gets to England it rates simply as bull
lion, and passes there only at its bullion
value"
"Do I understand you, then, to favor sim
gle standard of coin currency2"
"No, not absolutely. think that it was
wise and proper to remonetize silver and to
limit its coinage, as I believe, with proper
Limitations upon the coinage of silver, to be
regulated by circumstances, the two coins
might be made to supplement each other, and
operate harmoniously. Whereas the unlim-
tied 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 l have endeavored to il
lustrate by the losses on cotton alone"
"Recurring to your suggestions about the
National Banks, would not their abolition
tend to unsettle business and produce confu-
sion in monetary circles%
81 think not. The repeal Of the provision
of the National Bank act, which imposes
tax of 10 per cent. on State issues, would set.
tie the troubles, at least so far as we in the
South are concerned. The comparatively
small amount of capital invested in South
Carolina in National banks would be trans
ferred, no doubt, to institutions organized un-
der State authority as banks of issue, and be-
come much more satisfactory to investors in
bank stock. We should then have curren-
cy 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 green
backs would remain in circulation. [ 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 development Of our in
creased specie paying capacity. The reopen.
ing 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 Nation
al bank currency"
VARIETIES OF CANARIEs.-The common
canary is known throughout the civilized
world, and is so common as to be cheap IN all
bird stores but many of the varieties are
rare and very expensive These varieties are
ho,yoyor 1uhoro