The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1880-01-15
The Financial Issue-The Greenback
Currency.

question is, shall the $346, OO0, 900 Of
greenbacks Treasury notes. be kept in
circulation, and retain their present
legal-tender quality? 1t is understood
that at an early day the Senate Finance
Committee will submit report, which
will bring the subject directly before
that body. 1t is the real financial issue
before the country. Most Of the men
who would deprive Treasury notes Of
their Iegal-tender quality. wish to get
rid Of them altogether and they hope
to accomplish this result by first strip
ping them Of their legal-tender proper
ty, and then driving them out Of the
way as deprecated paper Down at
the bottom the question is whether the
Government, which coins silver and
gold for money at its mints, shall
also directly furnish the people
with the necessary volume Of pa
per currency representing money,
or whether it shall provide this
currency indirectly through banking
corporations, which realize a large profit
from the issue. This il aquestion of poll
cy, pure and simple. LISA question on
which the voice Of the American people
ought to be distinctly heard. And in
considering the question it should be
borne in mind that the S346, 600, 900
of Treasury notes now in circulation
draw no interest. Their circulation as
currency saves the Government nearly
fourteen millions year interest. Were
this currency funded in four per cent.
| bonds, with interest payable quarterly,
it would impose tax of over fourteen
million dollars on the people, and for
the benefit of the national banks. Is
the national bank currency so much
preferable to that furnished by the
Treasury that the people should pay
over fourteen millions year for the
CHANGE
Furthermore, the country needs and
will continue to need all the good, sound
money, including legal tender G reen-
backs and silver, it can get; be-
cause the present extraordinary com
mercial and industrial activity may not,
and probably will not last. 1t has
raised prices so high as already to
have nearly dissipated the large bal
ance of trade in our favor that
we lately boosted of. We are buying
largely Of foreign goods and paying
high prices for them, and if this state of
things continues, gold may soon begin to
drift away from us to pay for our pur-
chases. When that time comes, we
shall need all our Greenbacks and silver
for home use. If we lose our stock of
gold, stop coming silver and withdraw
Greenbacks, we shall find ourselves
plunged into serious embarrassments.
The scarcity Of money will bring on an
other collapse, prices will again fall, in
tustry grow languid, production decline,
and the present revival of prosperity |
end in disappointment and disaster.
There is no superabundance of money |
N the country, and no good reason why
We should get rid of any of it, We are
hiding good employment for all the
ireenbacks we have, and could find
rood employment for all the silver we
re coming, if the Secretary of the
'reasury would pay it out 1t isl
ositively preposterous to say there is,
r can be, too much good money in a
ountry whose trade and commerce are
rowing as rapidla as ours. /
In word, we want all the Greenback s
otes we have, still kept in circulation.
We want them with their full unim- Q
aired legal tender functions. We are /
pposed to contraction. We want
ound money, and plenty of tito give
ctivity and life to the industries {
f the country. +
Hon. A. NJ. Vests Resolutions.