The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-09-10

went from bank to bank in vain to find them.
merely equalization of paper and Coin; that
Is gold prices for their lands, labor ana pro-
d d. that is, 225 hundred for their pork,
to IL per day Tor their labor with which to pay
enormous and undiminishing taxes and debts,
were worth over so per cent. more than they
are to-day. 1t is true the money earned by a
day 9 labor will buy about as much as days
1t is true the money got for 100 pounds of
pork or a bushel of grain will buy about
much as 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 aud
more TO pay them now than four years age
The oeDts of the country, public, corpole .e
and private, running from fou years ago,
amount to not less, as have heretofore
peatedly shown, than ten billions of dollars.
This shrinkage of values results in compelling
the payment of debts with so per cent. more
of labor and property, and in effect adds five
billions of dollars to the weight of that vast
debt burden. our taxes, National and local.
amount, in the aggregate, to eight hundred
millions of dollars each year. This shrinkage
OF values increases the tax burden one half, or
four hundred millions year. That inc ease
amounts to interest at per cent on ten thou
sand millions of dollars, more than one third
of the present wealth of the country.
Messrs Sherman and Schurz adroitly and
deliberately attempt to convince the people
that there is vast gain In increasing the pur-
greenback of 1874 was precise as good for all
the purposes of business in the hands of the
producers ana eXCnaDSerS OF wealth as the
greenback of 1873. 1t is true the greenback
dollar now buys 50 per cent. more than it
bought then, but it takes so per cent. more of
then. There is no gain at all to the industrial
classes by this appreciation of the dol ar,
which means mercy the low ering of prices OF
land, labor and products. When we consider
the vast distress inflicted upon the industrial
classes in the process of forcing prices down to
the low gold level, and the vast addition to
debt and tax burdens which are necessary
consequences o; that reduction of values, the
pretended advantage of adding 50 per cent TO
the purchasing power of our paper currency is
met by a set OFF of losses LOO times greater than
the wanted gain.
derrate and ridicule the industrial q stresses
and disasters which have strewn with the
wrecks of lives and fortunes the pathway TO
resumption. The iddling 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 oiggers the furnace
men, the coal miners, the day laborers, and
mechanics and tradesmen, and mortgagers
found The cup of resumption and demonetiza-
ton cheering one. Distressful days and
clothes, lost homes and broken hearts have
been the price of resumption to them.
CONTRACTION AND THE PANIc-sHERMAN VS..
SHERMAN.
Mr.. Sherman attempts to make me appear
ridiculous by asserting that l attributed the
panic of 1873 to the resumption act of 1875. That
is not pervers1on of anything ever said, but
tributed 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 dimin iShing cur
rency, which credits collapsed in the panic
But Mr.. 81, rman says 1.-THE amount of paper
money outstanding on the 3Oth OF June, 1873,
was more than it was on the Both of June, 1855 I;
the amount on the Both of June, 1873, was $780,
10000, and on the 30th of June, 1865, was but
s747, 233 O0O." answer this assertion by quot
ing from his own report, issued from the treas
ury department. on the lst OF July last. giving
the "total amount of currency outstanding at
various dates, as follows:
June 81, S9S3, 3lS 900
June ~, 75O,062OO0
Total contraction. .256 90
Showing difference between Mr. Sherman's
statement as secretary on the 18th of July and
his statements as stump orator on the 10Th of
August of over s23S, 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 re-
manning stationary. The demand of business
proxlmately in proportion to increase of pop
ulation. The actual currency in 1865, accord
was SIS per capita, while the actual currency
In 1873, by the same statement, was but Sl7.S5
per capita, being a reduction of over one
people and our cities and our counties were
very little in debt, as statistics and records
which followed up to 1873 came the expansion
of credits to maintain business. The enoI-
nous grants by the Republican party of public
lands to promote the premature construction
of railways combined with this expansion of
credits to bring on the collapse of 1873, from
which the country, as Mr.. Sherman stated in
his speech In the Senate in 1874, mad in effect
recovered, when the demonstration of silver
and forced resum ption in gold set In motion
the influences which have shrunk prices, par
alyzed industry and cOnf1scated the property
of debtors and tax payers.
Mr.. Sherman asserts that not only had we
more currency in 1873 than at the close of the
war, but tnat we now nave more than we ever
of the LIST of last july he gives the total cfrcu a.
ton at S743 S0 600 on the LIST of July, 1879, which
Is n peT aY as ss So per
same Gay in S65. This statement of the cur
rency now outstanding includes S74,000,000 of
greenbacks Withdrawn fr m circulation and
boarded in the treasury, and SIPS, 900 900 which
the comp roller of the currency in his speech
to the National bankers at Saratoga last
Mr.. Sherman attem pts to sustain his assertion
that the currency is greater now than ever by
adding to the volume now afioat all the com
in the treasury held Tor redemption. He might
just as reasonably count the gold in the
ury until the greenbacks are su rre,' dered 70
take its place, and then the greenbacks will
stay in until the coin comes back again. When
both can't be counted as part of the circula-
ton.
Mr.. Sherman now asserts that the panic of
1873 was caused by an inflated and irredeema-
bic currency. But here is his speech in the
United States senate made on the 18th of Jan
uary, 1874, IN which he says: .Mr. President,
the condition of our currency has no relation
whatever to the panic That has passed over the
country. / never nave charged the
panic upon the currency. Indeed. was the
first in the midst of the panic to declare that
the currency had no connection with it
Money was secure. Men boarded it. . .
These panIcs are but the ebb and flow of great
enterprises. 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. L quote his language:
is advanced to the price that it was before the
panic !"
He now asserts that experience has shown
that the resumption act has not produced
any Distress but in his published examina-
ton before the finance committee of the Sem