The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-02-23


nanic. beginning IN Wall street, can Affect
the whole country. -.
Now. as the Chronicle. In the same arti-
Gle points out, the necessity for all this cx-
pansion OF the currency Is not apparent.
rbe volume af currency is now about four.
teen hundred millions, fully twice Us great
as II was previous to 1913.
In 1879 and 1880, a time OF great activity
and prosperity, Il was only nine hundred
md flfty millions. Money IL Mt present so
/. easy y IN all our financial centres as to go
bcrping for a purchaser, and yet the Gov
ernment mills continue TO grind out cheap
money nj the rate OF g., 100000 month.
One OF the offices OF the press Is TO warn
its PATRONS OF the approach OF danger-the
rural subscribers and the "middle-men !"
advertisers, even II the warning applies
equally TO the wicked capitalist. You may
dcpcnd on Il, Mr.. Editor, such warning
will not benefit that individual, rs he has
already had his eyes opened to the danger.
But, seriously, isn't the Dispatch support
ing the interests OF q few spectators IN
silyer-mines, as opposed 20 the interests OF
every other industry In the country!
Our correspondent never knew or has for
gotten the contest we carried on IN 1873
with the Grecnbackers. We beg. him TO
read the following article which we wrote
and published in the Dispatch in August,
1878, and then let us know whether we
need 90 to New York to study the laws OF
finance. with the silver question we
clam TO be thoroughly familiar.
From the Richmond Dsiiy Dispatch August 22'
We hold ourselves ready TO answer to
the satisfaction OF anybody who is not 4
greenback lunatic anv and all questions on
finance that can be asked It's.
The case OF the tTade-dollar fully meets
all the arguments OF the greenback luna
ties. II il q piece Of money coined by The
Government, and yet 10 passes for only its
value by weight. The fact that 1t can be
weighed and valued shows that ii is real
money, aud can be used the world over. III
nm irredecmable greenback were issued by
the Government and placed under the same
conditions-that Is, declared not legal
tender for any purpose-such q greenback
would not be worth cent. Nobody would
have it. What better illustration could be
demanded OF the folly Of talking about
issuing irredcemable paper! But the sill
yer passes for what 412s grains OF that
metal, nlne tenths fine, will sell for in the
markets Of the whole world, and 1t Is self
evident that if it had one tenth more OF
grains OF such silver it would be as good
as gold dollar in any market on the globe,
although it is not legal tender for any
purpose-thus proving to demonstration
that real money does not need any action
on the part OF the Government TO give it
DIT lao 20 al
into a dollar, and it will buy dollars
worth in Europe, Asia, or America, whilst
the greenback that is not legal tender,
and not redeemable in coin, is worthless at
home and abroad.
The dollar Of 4l2i grains passes at par
with gold because il is received as OF equal
value with gold by our Government, and
because The supply Of such dollars IS Inn
tied. III the supply OF them were equal to
the demand for coin to pay the customs
duties, they would drop down below the
price Of gold, because they have not gold
dollars worth of silver in them. The case
Of the trade-dollar proves this fact also. The
Monetary Conference in Europe is trying
to agree upon a ratio between gold and sill
yer coins that will make both of equal
value. Until that is done the silver-dollars
must be measured by gold, and will be re-
ceiyed nowhere in the world outside OF the
United States for more than their actual
value in gold; and will pass for more
here only until the sum needed for paying
customs.dutics is coined. The silver bill
limits the issue of silver-dollars TO few
millions per month. All that are issued are
at present redeemable in customs-duties,
and as these are all payable in gold or silver,
hot 60 ~ ha 4trr oil Of
par with each other. But this can continue
only until the supply of silver-dollars shall
become equal to the demand for coin to pay
duties with. When this point is reached,
the silver legal-tender dollar will drop be-
low the gold dollar in value exactly as the
tradc-dollar has done. IL will be weighed
and valued according to the number OF
grains in it.
In a word, the 4l25-grak sIlver-dollar
is now to a certain extent redeemable in
gold. This fact adds value to ito per
ccnt.-that il will not have when the silver
dollars become abundant enough to be used
altogether in paying customs-duties.
Our correspondent will see that we said
five years ago just what the Financial
Chronicle says now. We have, therefore,
ti't louh hbi tN"Nh-
ings. We knew then, however, what the
Financial Chronicle has not yet learned,
and we said then, that until the amount OF
silver dollars in circulation equalled the
amount OF customs-duties collected au-
nually by the Government, these coins
would not drop down to their real value.
Our prediction has held good for five years.
We doubt not that it will continue to
hold good 90 the end. Therefore, we
try to keep the people in good spirits
and to teach them that the CAsSANDRAs OF
New York are financial WIGGINsEs and
VENS0Rs, whose predictions OF panic will
probably come to naught. Panics are cause.
less frights. We try to do our part in pre-.
venting causeless frights. We don't try tC
tell all VIC know on given subject every
time we touch 1t.
| Better call convention and get rid o
| what Ton Hill called the - pobtQil Judges =