The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-08-30


for dues from the Government and we had
SIS, coo, eco But inasmuch as the population
OF the States lately in rebellion had not come
then TO use TO any appreciate extent this cur
rency, the population actually sharing il could
not have been more than % 600 600 or 26 600 =
o0o, which gives about $40 per capita. But by
1913, under the policy of contraction,
the total volume had been reduced TO
S150,oOo, COL give official figures while the
population that were using II at that time
was from Al ,0000 to 4, 100000 That gave
only SIS or Sl9 per capita, reduction of $40
to each person in eight years. Is it any wonder
that crash camey The mystery though diff
cult to explain, has been why it did not come
sooner. In the first place, while business is
going on briskly, everything would naturally
brace against a fall But the main causes were
these:
First the enormous sales OF bonds of all
kipds-Goyernment, municipal and railroad--to
foreign countries, which brought us capital in
various forms, the use of whiah helped to keep
business going aud to keep mp prices, and sec.
ond, and chiefly, the enormous expansion of
credit that took place during this period
Bank loans increased in ten years from S6iS
00o,000 10 81 So, GOO 600; bank deposits, which
are made up very largely of credits. arising
from discounts. increased in the same period
from s3sS, o00O to SS9l, 600 600, while the
money which the national banks held went
down s2OS, 900, 900 TO sl34, 100000
Credit in other forms increased IN proportion.
The debts Of all kinds ia the United States in
1873 have been estimated varously at from 25
10 40 per cent of the entire value of the prop
erty of the country while the money did not
exceed 3 per cent OF the property valuation A
credit expansion, therefore, of even 10 per
cent is quite sufficient to account for the main
tenance of prices while the reduction of $685.
100000 in the currency volume was being
made
But the panic came, and the credit bubble
bursted, and general tumble in prices fol-
lowed. In a country like France, where more
money and less credit is used such thing
could not well have happened. What, then,
was done? Good political economy, certainly,
and sound statesmansbip, too, one would think,
would have dictated, just at that time, an in
crease, il anything in the currency volume, 20
help sustain sound credit and prevent things
being made worse than they noed be; but in
stead of that, we went on reducing the volume
of real money until when the level OF gold was
reached we had but Sl4 of currency per
capita
Nov, what do you suppose the cost of max
ing greonbacks equal to gold has beeny Can II
be counted or measured or weighedy There is
much that can never be iold-the misery, the
suffering, the wretchedness and the injustice
wrought by it. But there are some things we
can compute:
/. II has added directly withinithe last three
years $50, 00O, 900 10 the interest bearing debt
of the country.
q The loss TO national wealth from non pro
duction through the dleness of labor ana dis
use of productive capital has amounted to hun
dreds if not to thousands of millions of dollars
annually.
Debts, public and private, that have ex-
tended over this space have been increased just
in the proportion that commodities and labor
have fallen. Or To state ii as it should be
stated, the measure, the money scale by which
property, labor and debts are measured, has
been changed, and the Government thereby has
been made the agency of the wrongful taking
of property from those who had earned IT and
saved it, and giving 1T to those who were in no
way equtably entitled to it. This measure was
changed as stated, between 1865 and the date
of resumption, from about $40 per capita to
Ella The fairest test of this, and the best
way to illustrate il, is to take labor itself In
1865 about 400 days labor, or the value OF the
produce of so many days, would buy q 81 COO
Government bond but it takes now Joe
or 200 days labor to pay for one
To pay $0000U,000 of interest on the national
debt 10 1865 it took the product Of but about
10000 coo of days labor; now it takes 10000
O0D In 1873, before silver decentralization aud
the resumption policy went into effect about
60, 00O, 900 Of days labor was the equivalent OF
$50 coo 0O0 of interest (the interest last year on
the public debt; now it takes 1to,000m0 OF
days labor to equal this interest If the limits
of speech permitted me to extend these com
PARSONS to commodities and property generally
like results could be shown.
Now, my fellow citizens who would not have
supposed that, having effected this change in
the paper CHI culation of the country, attended
as it has been, necessarily, with all the evils
the country has been made 10 suffer, and, hav
ing reached the old level of the precious
metals, that there they would be content to
stop; that surely they would not remove the
ancient landmark which the fathers had set up
which they had established in the funda-
mental law of the land?
Gold and silver, without limit and without
restriction, from the very dawn of civilization,
from the beginnings Of commerce, have been
the standard and measure of value over the
whole globe But 80 audacious has avarice
grown that neither constitution. nor right nor
religion has been sufficient to restrain it. And
by an act that probably will ever stand as an
unexplained fraud, the metallic measure itself
changed Silver was thrown ont, and for all
practical PURPOSES remains 30 STILL and instead
of gold and silver, both without limit as before,
for the measure and for the means of payment,
the money material was reduced to gold alone;
so tnat instead of both the metals to do the work
of money, gold alone is left We were at the
bi-me.allic level Of prices in 1875, when the
balance of trade turned in our favor, and all
reductions since then have been due to changes
in metallic money Gold itself under this legis-
lation becomes q different measure. To an
ounce of gold. or gold dollar, is given differ
ent value. Already since 1876 gold has in
decentralization law and similar laws in Europe
by at least SO per cent, and must, under these
laws continue to increase. That is the
same as if to all coin debts one-tbird had
been added; the same as if one-third had
been added to our whole bonded debt; the same
in respect to the debt as if three and one-third
hours had been added to every days labor; for
it is by labor its products that in the end all
debts must be paid There is no other foun-
tain to draw from. Is it not significant that
this change in the money scale is sought to be
made at \ time when national debts are not less
than S25, 000, 000, 900? To change the value of
money is the same in effect as to change all
weights and measures. Suppose, instead OF
being payable in dollars, obligations were made
dIschargeable in quantities SO many days
labor, or so many pounds, or 80 many bushels,
and that debts amounting to half our whole
wealth were to be discharged in this way, and
then that the Government should increase,
whether by imperceptibIe increments or sud
denly-it would not MATERIAL weights and
measures until two days labor were required
to discharge an obligation where good
faith only required one, or double quantities
were required to make the same number of
pounds or bushels, what would you say to
that? A. foot-rule might be called foot still,
and be divided into twelve inches, though the
inches be double the length of the present
inch. But would you say that wasIthe way to
make an honest measure?
Well, that is exactly the way the kind of
ahonest" dollars we hear so much about now
a-days are made. Everybody knows that
dollar, by legislation, has been made twice as
large and more than twice as large (thatis, has
twice the value) as it was in 1865, or even in
1878. The gold dollar even, since 1876, as a
consequence of silver decentralization and the
boarding of gold in public treasures, has been
made practically 125-cent dollar. And let us
not forget that q silver dollar Of 41215 grains,
in consequence of the withdrawal Of paper