Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-03-08
NATIONAL FINANCE.
Discussion of the Currency Question
and Imports and Exports.

ana imports Ann LApOAtS
To the Editor Of the Dispatch:
Two and a half ~millenniums ago there
lived a great teacher, to whom his schol-
ars gave the name Of Master" How
ever abstruse his doctrines, those schol-
ars gave no other answer to any doubt
ers who questioned his assertions thhn
this: 1.-The Master says it." Now, when
people will not be satisfied without rea-
sons and explanations, our President
names have changeG-says in a speech.
made in the city where culture sways the
academic sceptre, that there will be no
change in our financial policy Tor at least
two years, and gives, as the last of a hun
dred irrelevant reasons before offered by
the gOld-standard advocates I'm support OF
their cause, the most astounding reason
of all-that we cannOt auOrd the chanse
the positiOn-arbitrarily assumed-that We
are a gOld-standard country, because we
are becoming q creditor nation. Ana
what If We are? If we are becoming a
creditor nation, we are becoming 50 from
the sale Of agricultural products and mer-
chandise ~abroad-il the proportion or
about t~hree-fourths from agriculture ana
one-fourth trOm merchandise-say, or the
value of something over a billion OF dol
lars a year, and, yet, we are held 10 a
system which lessons in value these eA-
ports possibly one third.
Was there ever such folly? The case
can be Illustrated in this way, so That the
p~lainest man living can understand 1t: a
farmer, we will say, bought a farm TWEEN
ty years ago, paying one-half IN CASH
and engaging to pay the balance II yearly
instalments. lie tolls and S~avcs-ilsing
with the sun, but laying not down with
81. ..ftfrr fbapoof -un.Q d phfa fnIfrnin0
his land, and becoming every day more
prosperous, and finally pays the last in
stalment Of debt. All these tOilsOme years
he was "A debtor; this year what ne sells
will be his own. He VIII have a surplus,
and thai makes him a creditor farmer,
because ne will nave money to lend II he
so chooses to use his capital. We VIII
say-for it was sO-that during the time
the farmer was a debtor there was a
system Of finance which was called bi-
metallic. which gave fair prices for his
farm products, and enabled him 70 pay
off the sooner. and more easily, his debt.
But now. when he is about 10 become q
creditor, it is proposed that a change be
made in the financial law, which viii les
sen in value by |One-third the value Of the
products of his land. Can any n doubt
what that farmer would say to such a
proposition? He would answer, No. II
what [ am to receive for my farm prod
ucts IS to be hereafter accumulated capi-
tai, why should l be asked TO consent that
it be lessened in value by the manlpuld-
tors of finance? If my surplus each year
hereafter, under a bimetallic system,
would be $l.5C0, why should adopt a
course which would yield me only $1,000?
No, the creditor-natiOn argument will not
do. our exports for many years have
been greatly in excess Of our imports.
II may be safely assumed that 100000
O0 will be the difference IN our favor
hereafter. Then how supremely foolish
il would be for us to take a course which
will lessen in value what we sell?
Away from and outside Of the question
Of standard, our present financial system
reminds one Of what can be seen on our
James-river steamboats,. These boats, be-
ing wide side-wheelers, have a chest
heavily l~oaded-which is placed In
the centre of the craft. and, when,
from any cause, too much weight
on either side causes IL to careen,
this chest IL run TO the opposite
side. thus keeping the steamer from turn
ing over. out money is. hguratetiyely UhIs
to those who say our inanciering Is done
by drafts and checks and clearinghouse
settlements). in large chests, mainly kept
in New York, but much Of 1t In the East
ern States" When money Is needed in
the West 10 move wheat ana corn ana
bacon. our financial Colossuses send Slid
ing over TO the cereal section-Our coun-
try ~then-heavy chests; the equilibrium is
destroyed, and there is a cry OK scarce
money. even from New England, until
(even al the expense Of a grammatical sol
ecism 1 say IT'D the rocky coast tips up,
and there is danger OF a landslide up bOs-
ton way.
The wheat, corn, and bacon Of the West
having been marketed, there m a call
from the South for money. Cotton must
be moved, and again these ColOssi Qet US
honor then in Latin and I'm Englism, be-
striding the continent, send these chests
scudding southwark to the cotton-plant-
ers. and. having righted the careenins
boat again is the figure changed, oven
though it offend good taste), they a
their places in the vaults or New YORK
and Boston, and elsewhere, north or DIX
leland" and the owners thereof count
ing No their gains, find they AVE made a
peunv or two from the Hoosier or the
West and the planter Of the South for the
usa Of those chests, which will again ana
again. as in the past, be at the service OF
those who can pay for their use; and mus
our financial boat Ghe figure Is all rlgnt
now) sails on. first zone side up and the
other down" which may be the way In
London town. all because We VIII not
have such financial laws as VIII permit
every section of our country TO nave us
own funds, and money for It's " Dusi-
ness needs, which can De done by the
government taking Off the RESTRICTION
which prevents State banks from issuing
notes on good security, by which means
the people would have the benefit OF their
local credit, and could, as they have a
right to do, have banks wherever there
was need of them. facilitating loans there
by. and greatly enhancing the value or
country property, and preventing ne
alarms every now and then ~peryading the
country. because there would be no ne
cessity of this constant shifting CT money
from one section 10 the other.
u. C.. GODDIN.