Year: 1877

The grea. trouble under which the busi-
ness Of the country is suffering is the want of
conference.-the want Of faith that property
purchased to-day will be worth us much to-
morrow. There is no assurance that proper
ty, in the form of lands, city lots, warehouses,
factories, mills, furnaces, railroads, vessels,
bonds, stocks, or merchandise, Will not con-
tinue to fall in value as it has been doing.
No man will invest his money unless he can
have some indication that within reasona-
BILE time he can get as much for the property
as he gave for it. There is constant rise in
the value Of money measured in other forms
Of property, and hence it is that no money is
now invested or will be invested until there
is certainty that property measured by
money shall cease to fall. For this reason
there is no sale for real estate; for this reason
men will not put money in buildings, ma
chinery, and material the goods they make
have no sale; labor is unemployed; thewages
funds are no longer distributed; the means
Of living are reduced, and the money value of
all things keeps on shrinking away. What
is needed is something to arrest this decline,
something to give some permanence or f1ity
to the value Of property, and not continu-
ance of that policy which holds out as the
grand climax m humiliation of all value, and
the seizure of the accumu1ations of men un-
der the forecloscd mortgage.


It is curious to notice the means by which
the present condition of affairs has been
brought about. The struggle to control the
currency, and to make all changes lead to
e1travagant gains by the lending class.
began Us far back Us 1865. A deprcciateu
paper currency was wretched evil, and
that depreciation was greatly and unneces-
sariy protracted. It served for many years
as stake for the gamblers, and its values
were run up and down at the pleasure of the
operators. The Government, under the con-
troll of the same mysterious agency, exacted
the most enormous taxes annually to pur-
chase the national bonds and to give them an
increased value, leaving the 1egal-tender
notes to take care Of themselves. Ten years
after the close Of the War, the country was
confronted by the urgent demand of a
formidable party that return to specie
values should be forever abandoned; that
all bank pnper should be prohibited that
the United States should issue paper, not
promises to pay, but paper that WINS Of itself
final payment and never to be redeemed:
that this paper was to he legal tender and
to be issued without limit rs to quantity.
Against this there was union of Ill per-
Sons in favor Of an eventual return to specie
values. who were anxious to get rid of the
violent fluctuations Of paper money, and who
saw nothing but interminable confusion in the
wild scheme Of irredeemable and unlimited
paper money. The result was, the adoption
OF national policy having for its purpose
return to specie payments5 as opposed to j
permanent and irredeemable paper currency.
Congress passed law decla1atory of the
purpose to make the paper money equivalent
to coin, and on that issue the large majority
OF the people of the Eastern and Western
States united and defeated the great paper
money party. No measure was adopted for
carrying out this scheme. Especial care was
taken to avoid committing the country tn
any particular measure beyond the senti-
mental declaration that in the future. md M
soon as the condition Of the country would
warrant it, the national notes, so long de-
preciated, should be rendered of equal value |
with coin. At the succeeding sessions Of
Congress no less than half hundred bills