Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-10-02


observed fact that when silver appa-
rently fell, everything else fell with
it, so that an ounce of silver had the
same purchasing value as before for
everything but gold, which had
risen in the market, and being arbi-
trarily assumed as a measure Of
value, its increase in price was made
to appear as a decrease in every
thing else. But now silver seems
to have sustained a real fall in
value, which threatens, as seen
above, to throw a large area off silver
mining country and capital out of
work. 1t is equally evident to US
that this fall win be rapidly fol-
lowed by a rise of vast dimensions.
Let US consider the grounds for this
opinion.
In the first place, the flow of
specie towards this country, which
has been so abundant for two years,
is evidently about to be arrested,
and to be followed by refux
towards Europe. The following
statement in a recent issue of the
New York Tribune indicates the
great probability of such result:
The imports last week were dangerously
large, amounting in value TO So, 797, 557. This
has been exceeded only once for seven
years; in the week ending March the value
was Sl3,S7S,O4B. In one other week, the one
ending April IL, the imports were ,7OS,
and in eight other weeks this year the value
4 has exceeded Sll 100000. Very large imports
at this time are particularly unfavorable
because the exports of breadstuffs have been
checked by the indisposition of producers to
| sell at present prices. From Sept. to IL, in
/ elusive, the exports of wheat were only
5Sl go bushels against TO- $50 52l bushels last
year, alt. ough the price at New York was
4 ga cents lower. AT Chicago and milwaukee,,
/ too, the receipts of wheat during the first
/ half of September were less than one-third
/ the quantity received during the same
/ weeks last year, and the price is three cents
1 higher. But the gain in that respect is COM
| paratively so small that the exports of do
| nestle products must fall materially below
| those of last year in value, until the free
| movement OF wheat begins again. Largely
/ increasing imports and decreasing exports
| threaten TO arrest the flow of gold to this
| country, and this, in the present condition
! of the banks and the money market, would
| quickly produce serious disturbance, at least
/ for time.
While we accept the above state
-ment as to the probability of reflux
in the flow of specie from instead of
towards this continent, we are far
from sharing in the alarm expressed
by our contemporary at the antici-
patton. We aOopld just as soon er-
port silUeg' to Europe as tOhedt. We
produce both in excess of all other
nations, and both are legitimate
staples of expectation. The antici-
pated demand for specie for expor-
tatiOn and as medium of exchange
will at last utilize the accumulation
of silver in the national treasury
which has been so absurdly COM
planned of by Mr.. Secretary Sher-
man. That which under his man
agenent has been dead capital there,
will now become an active circulat-
ing medium, first by being sent
west and south to pay for the wheat
and cotton which has furnished the
staple of our exports and then over
the Atlantic to pay for any imports
we may need.
The first item in this salutary
process is already being realized,
silver is already finding its way
from the treasury vaults to those
regions precisely from which the
exports have been derived which
have given US the balance of ex-
change. The following is an extract
from a Washington paper quoted
in Sundays Nashville American:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25.-For the week
ending to-day there has been 64O,992 standard
silver dollars distributed. against 297, 4S9 for
| the corresponding period of 1879. The
cashier of the treasury is shipping TO differ
I ent parts of the country, principally the
south and west, about $4,000 of fractional
| silver daily.
So then those dollars are gone to
the west and south; in other words,
to the very regions which produced
the wheat and cotton we have been
exporting. We welcome them
there and think they will do much
more good in the hands of western
farmers and southern planters than
in the treasury vaults, where they
caused the plethora which has been
so alarming Mr.. Sherman.
And now if the cessation of ex-
ports and increase of imports should
take place, which is so much feared
by the Tribune, how are the bal
ances of our European commerce to
besettled? Evidently by drawing on
our immense production of gold and
silver-what else is it good for?
But suppose this sudden demand
for an increased supply of silver
should take place when many of
the mining concerns have been
abandoned on account of the fall in
the price of the metal. What will |
any economist tell you is to be the
effect of diminished supply with
increased demand? Surely a rise |
in the price of the article.
But this is not all. Count Bis |
marck has again announced the |
impossibility of meeting with gold |
alone the enormous liabilities of the |
German empire. Remember it was
the characterization of silver by that |
empire that first caused the appa-
rent depreciation of silver. Bis
marck hates to retrace any step he
has taken and will resist the reVer=
sal of his policy as long as possible,
but financial necessity is stronger
than Bismarck; the sale of silver by
Germany has already ceased the
recoining it and use of it TO meet
public liabilities cannot long be de-
layed, and there will at once be
abolished the cause of its deprecia-
ton and established that Of its rapid
appreciation.
At present our practical inference
upon all this is that we have moth
ing to do but to let things take their
course, rejoicing that we have re-