Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-01-03
4 celebration at Chicago;
SDerial TELEGRAM 10 the Eloha


CHICAGO Jan. 2.-Hou. James 4, Garfield
or Ohio, delivered speech here to- night
a Publication of the Honest Money I,eaeu
over the accomplishment of resumption
The attendance was not large. but the speec
was listened to closely and frequently ap
plauded. In opening he declared that the
bad met to celebrate the close of the war
Sattles are never the end Of war; for tn
dead must be buried and the cost of tn
conflict must be paid. If the resumption
now declared by law be maintained agains
all assaults then, indeed SO far as ou1
finances are concerned, the war for the
bnloh IS ended the victory is complete.
viii our great sovereign, the people of al
these States, make the decree irreyersible
VIII resumption be Uaintainedp
He then proceeded to argue that the pub
lie faith is the basis OF prosperity and thai
the greenback represented the public faith
The unredeemed greenback, he said, pro-
duced evils far greater than those which re-
suited from the ordinary refusal to pay
debt. Besides being a debt, it was a legal
tender currency, and its excessive volume
expelled real money from all the channels
Of internal trade. destroyed the old measure
of value. and substituted il its place stand
ard whose value huctuated every day and
every hour during the seventeen years of sls-
pension. On account of its two-fold char
acter as debt and currency, the value of the
greepback was changed by every military
and political event which affected the for
tunes of the war.
The greatest mistake that had been made,
he said, was IN 1865, when the act forbidding
JtSn ~, L..
passed. BY that act pay day was pushed
oat OF sight, The present possession of
this vast inflow of borrowed capital led its
holders to geek everywhere for investment.
The surplus revenues of the national treas.
my We're applied to extensive and extrava-
CANT public works. National, State, munich
pal and private credit was devoted to the
building Of railroads and to magnificent en-
teEprlacS which fired the imagination of our
people, and filed them with crazy en-
thusiasm.
Then followed tho era of commercial gam
bling, business that never added farthing
to the national wealth, but in which every
thing gained by one was lost by another.
It was simply betting on what the difference
between coin and paper would be, and then
employing every device to win the bet by in
creasing the fluctuation. As speculation in
creased and credits expanded; the cry was
raised that there was not currency enough,
that the small measure of contraction, eff
fected by Secretary Mccullough, had des-
troycd the peoples money and crippled their
business. 1t was the drunkard's cry for
more rum to steady his nerves, already shat
tered by drink.
Then cane the crash Of 1873, tho horrors
of which we're depicted eloauently. The
rief1raCSinD that Fol nuyo6 I,,,rr
and brought ruin to thousands of homes
Four years ago Congress saw another op-
portunity to place the business of the coun-
try again on a stable foundation. The law of
1874 Tx, d the date WHEN the promise Of the
war should be redeemed It was great act
of national faith, too long delayed, but made
doubly necessary by the sufferings Of our
people. The effort to keep this promise
has been fercoly resisted at every STAGE
Orators, i'll Congress and out of Congress,
have demonstrated, to their own satisfaction
that resumption was impossible and the
demonstration has been repeated even as
late as two months ago.
Against determined opposition and re-
peated prophecies of evil, resumption has
come; and it has come to stay. AS said in
the outset, it will stay, because it ought to
stay, and because we are able to maintain it,
In anticipation of its coming, the business
OF the country has gradually adjusted itself
to the coin standard. Every legitimate en-
terprise will be benefited by resumption, and
ail classes Of the community viii rejoice in
it, except the gold gamblers and their asso-
ciates, whose craft it has destroyed; and OK
cept, also, those political prophets, whose
occupation is gone, by the explosion of
their theories and the failure OF their pre-
dictions.
That resumption can now be maintained,
intelligent men no longer doubt.
Mr.. Garfield then proceeded to discuss the
means by which resumption could be defeat
ed. The most dangerous, indirect assault
upon resumption, he declared, is the at
tempt to abolish the national banks and sub
btltute additional greenbacks in place of
bank notes. This effort will call to Its sup
port the sentiment which, to some extent
prevails against moneyed corporations.
Should the attempt succeed, it will inevi-
tably result IN suspension of specie pay
me1lts. While the treasury, aided Ey the
banks, can now easily maintain at par the
outstanding volume of greenbacks, resump-
ton would unquestionab;y break down, if
the volume were increased three hundred and
twenty millions We must debate the bank
question with our eyes open to the certainty
cisve against the measure.
Successful resumption. he said, will greatly
aid i'll bringing into the murky sky of oul
politics. what the signal service people call
"clearlng weather. 1t puts an end to score
OF controversies which have long vexed the
public mind. and wrought mischief to bust
ness. 1t ends the angry contention over the
difference between the money Of the bond
holder and the money of the plow-holder II
relieves enterprising congressman of the ne
cesslty of introducing twenty five or thirt,
bills session to furnish the people
with cheap money, to prevent golt
gambling, and to make custom dutie
payable in greenbacks. 1t will dismiss t.
the limbo of things forgotten, such Utopial
schemes as currency based upon the magi
circle of interconyertability of two ditferen
forms of irredeemable paper, and the scheme
of currency chased on the public faith,
and secured by "all the resources of tn
nation in general, but upon no particua
part Of them. We shall still hear echoes c
the old conflict, such as ''the barbarisr
virtues Of s'fiat money" but the theoris
which gave them birth will linger among
like belated ghosts, and soon find rest in til
political graves of dead issues.
Congress relieved of the arduous task
regulating and managing all the business
people, will address itself to the humbl.
but more important work of preserving Il
public peace. and managing wisely the rev
nues and expenditures of the governmer
Industry will no longer wait for the legisl