The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1880-01-21
The Financial Issue-The Greenback
Currencys

4
Currency.
The chief element in the financial
question is, shall the $346, 900, 900 of
greenbacks Treasury notes. be kept in
and retain their present
quality? It is understood
that at an early day the Senate Finance
Committee will submit report, which
will bring the subject directly before
that body. Ii is the real financial issue
before the country. Most Of the men
who would deprive Treasury notes OF
their legal-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
which realize large profit
from the issue. This is 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 1916, 900, 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 a 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 a year for the
change?
Furthermore, the country needs and
will continue to need all the good, sound
money, including legal tender Green
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 viii again fall, III
dustry grow languid production decline,
and the present revival of prosperity
end in disappointment and disaster.
There is no superabundance Of money
in the country, and no good reason why
we should get rid of any Of it. We are
finding good employment for all the
Greenbacks we have, and could find
good employment for all the silver We
are coming, if the Secretary of the
Treasury would pay it out. 1t Is
positively preposterous to say there Is,
or can be, too much good money in a
country whose trade and commerce are
growing as rapidla as ours.
In a word, we want all the Greenback
notes we have, still kept in circulation,
We want them with their iul unim-
paired legal tender functions. Ne are
opposed to contraction We want
sound money, and plenty of it to give
activity and life to the industries
of the country.