Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-10-26
Farming and Finance.

Farming and Finance.
Among the many useful lessons to be
drawn from the life OF our late president,
not the least is to be found in the zeal with |
which he sought for all possible informa- |
tion upon public questions. Most OF our |
politicians think the knowledge of how to
"set up" caucus, or convention, in their |
own interest, is the only knowledge of much !
Importance for them TO possess. Mr.. Gar
field left such matters as that to the people,
and concerned himself chiefly as to how he
should best qualify himself to discharge the
duties which devolved on him when the peo-
pie, of their own free will, had chosen him
as their representative. Said General Anson
G. McCook;
81 tell you that this country has not seen man
equipped for public business like James A. Gar
field In Its entire political history. The republican
party In congress very often sat like an infant
school under his guidance. When he took the
| management Of a bill or the lead in some import
ant line OF questions, finance the census or any
thing, we just sat still and let him go on assured
that he would bring us out all right, yet hardly
knowing how he was going to do it. According
| to my notion, Garfield came the closest of any
| American public man to those trained English
| legislators and ministers, like Gladstone and Peel.
Far back in his life, about the close of the war,
heard him say that the great question which was
| coming up in the next ten or fifteen years was
| national finance and that he thought he would
| begin and make a study Of the financial question,
| in which he was then an amateur. You can see
the capacity of his brain by the fact that when he
| had proceeded but little way in his financial
| study he found 1t could be very useful to him to
study French, in order to read the leading writers
on financial philosophy and science. At that
time there were few books in English on finance
| though they have been numerous since. Garfield
| then managed to get time out OF his wide and
diversified duties to study French so that he
could read 1t fiuently and speak 1t pretty well.
| don't know another man in Congress who could
while carrying on his work have studied Ian
| guage like that"
Now this is the kind Of representative for
the people to choose, and nothing better
demonstrates the average high character
aud intelligence of Mr.. Garfed's district
than the fact of their choosing and keeping
such man as their congressional repre-
sentative.
And now how may we hope that the peo-
pie Of any district can select and support
such men unless there is among the people
themselves an intelligent interest in all
great public questions. Mr.. Garfield foresaw
fifteen years ago that the financial question
was the great question Of the future and be-
gan its exhaustive study at once. How many
of Vermont's representatives did the same
How many people in this state, how many
of our politicians, and editors even know
really anything about financial principles,
or about the nature Of pressing financial
} questions?
For one we have tried to inform ourselves
upon this matter, but our conclusions have
not been in the line of popular feeling as
exemplified in our local press, which gener-
I ally has followed the lead and echoed the
opinions of parties interested in making
money for themselves, rather than in pro
noting the financial interests of tho people
in general. Take for instance, the question
of metallic currency, as to whether il
should all be of single metal of very linn
: tied supply, or whether both the metals used
continued as legal tender money among us
The startling innovation of an exclusive
D gold currency originated, like free trade
/; ideas, in England-selfsh England, and
among the doubly selfish moneyed class oi
that wealthy nature. That lead has been
followed by the rapidly increasing money ed
interest here, and the people and press have
0 accepted interested teachings from thai
3 source as though they needed no examina
tion. Now straws sometimes show which
way the wind blows, and we have lately
come upon significant straw, in the shap,
9 of paper read at the recent bankers con
g vention, by Mr. c. IL. Sorly, upon the Can
e adian banking system, from which we ex
+ tract the following;
"The progress OF banking In Canada In othe
| respects has been emiIently satisfactory. Tn,
Q bank note circulation has almost uninterrupted,
i | increased. append statement since 1868
A From 1868 to 1870 the circulation was interferet
. with by the presence OF large quantities OF Amer
lean silver, which had been driven out Of th,
= United States by the suspension of specie pay
II ments 1t is estimated that less than Sl2 900
. 900 Of that money were in circulation at one tim
u in Canada Notwithstanding this, the bank not
l. circulation increased from 50 7S0, 3i3 in 1868 t.
S11 253 929, in 1866 the year which witnessed tn
abrogation of our last reciprocity treaty with tn
) United States. In the following year the Cana
:, dian government commenced the issue Of lega
J. | tenuers ana tne Dank note CALCULATION fell u
n S9,07S,OOO. In 1870, however, the governmen
. took active measures to expe the American silver
% and were successful that In that year the baD
10 note circulation reached on the 3lst of Decembe
SIT S29 Ala, an increase Of one hundred per cen
. on the previous year. From this point 1t contin
10 ued to increase until the close Of 1874, when
!, stood at S25, ,4l2, 321.
Now we believe that plain farmer VIII
= =. has learned to put two and two together an,
| ha hat Ia har
m honestly confessed by Canadian bankin
n expert fact that no American banker ha
III ever been solicitous to have the people ur
a derstand. The presence Of silver money le
a sens, to The erient Of its circulation, The oppo,
"A tunay for the circulation Of bank notes. Is
N any wonder, then, that it has been difiicul
le to get out among the people the silver none
r which has been coined by our government
O. The banks have the control of that matte
- almost exclusively. Through them tn
nj whole silver coinage could have been easil
ID distributed among the people. With thei
It, opposition, and the indifference, to say tn
le least, of the treasury department, silver col
" has accumulated in the national vaults, i
)" order that the financial vacuum thus prt
IA duced might be filled by the paper none
L. of the banks, loaned to the people usuall
lis in Vermont at least, at usurious rates of il
NJ terest. Here is an interesting little puss
of in the meal, brother farmers
ct Four Points In Nursery Work.
~ ~ Many aged men. long enpaged in or