Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1879-08-21
WALMALLA, SOUTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY, AUGUST 2l 1870

any man VINO has pound OF cotton to soil
can desire any other than gold standard
Tho prico Of cotton in this country Is regu--
lated by the price, in gold, in Liverpool.
Why then should be required to take for
my cotton a currency which is deprootated
in England as we'll as America, when /
ought to get tho best price in tho best
currency2 Let US see how it affects tho
chief market crop of tho South. Tho value
of unn,anuyactured cotton exported by us
for tho ten months ending April 80, 1870,
was ono hundred and fifty million eight
hundred and seventy nine thousand three
and forty Gvo dollars, (sl50, ,S79 9,345). Run
fifteen cents in tho dollar through that eum,
land merely adopt that to represent tho
depreciation Of silver, by way of illustration
lit may be moro or lcss) and tho measure
of loss to tho cotton producer may be ap.
proxiu,atcd. This, of course would uot
happen if VIC could control tho price of
silver in England, Franco, Germany aud
other countries with which wo have oom-
mcrcial transactions, but We cannot make
eighty five cents worth of silver worth QUO
hundred cents in England by placing tho
government stamp on it as We can at homo,
tor when it gets to England it rates simply
as bullion, and passes there only ut its bull
lion value"
"Do understand you, then, to favor
single standard of coin currency2"
ono, not absolutely: l think that it
was wise and proper to remonctiao silver
and to limit its coinage, as l believe, with
proper limitations upon tho coinage of silver
to DO regulated by circumstances, the two
CONS might bo made to supplement- each
other, nnd operate tremendously. Whereas
the unlimited free coinage of silver, as
matters now stand, would have tho effect of
driving gold out Of tho country and entail.
lug great losses upon our people, as rhave
endcavorcd to illustrate by tho losses on
cotton alonc."
"Rccurrlng to yoar suggestion about the
National Banks, would not their abolition
tend to unsettlc business and produce confu
sion in monetary circlcsY'
81 think not The repeal of tho provi-
sion of tho National Bank ACT, which i'm
poses tax of 10 per cent. on State issues,
would settle the troubles, at least SO far as
wo in tho South are concerned. The com
pamtivcly small amount of capital invested
in South Carolina in National banks would
be transferred, no doubt, to institutions
oiS"utHSN uuoCl Dtdlc authority uS UhUkS
OF issue, aud become much more satisfactory
to investors in bank stock. We should
then have currency answering all the
purposes of our people in their business
operations under State banks before the
war, and would be all the better by being
kept ut homo if such should be its fate.
Our merchants and business men would
have no difficulty in arranging their cx-
changes with New York, Baltimore, Or
oven with Europe, as they had mono before
tho 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 u
larger amount, in the progress of the de-
veopment of our increased specie paying
capacity. Tho rcopcuing of State banks
would aid resumption and supply the de-
mand for moro currency, because it would
be moro generally and cquitably distributed
than is tho case with the National bank
currency"