Year: 1878

sumption ACT. L assert here that there was
no provision whatever for contraction of the
currency by that act.


On the contrary the Resumption Act pro-
vided rather for an increase in the volume of
currency, for it provided for free banking.
a matter that had been contended for by the
South and West during the preceding session
OF Congress, clamorously, loudly, earnestly.
Free banking was conceded by the Resump>
ton Act, and the only contraction provided
for was in connection with free banking 1t
was provided that for every 100 per cent of
National Bank currency issued under the law,
eighty per cent. of greenbacks should be re-
tired, and by this process the volume of
greenbacks has been gradually reduced to
about 346 millions, where by law of the last
Congress it now remains fixed.


The point desire to make, however, is
that that aggregate volume of currency is as
great now, aye, is greater now in fact, than
it was in July, 1866, or at any subsequent
time. This proposition l shall come to in a
moment. Now, during all these years, from
1857 to 1873, when we had no more than 356
millions of greenbacks, never more than 354
millions of National bank notes, and about 40
millions of fractional currency, making in
round numbers about 750 million OF dollars,
with value as low as $40 millions, the business
OF the country, as our greenback friends tell
US, was prosperous. We did business upon
large scale, we were buying here and selling
yOnder, men were piiing up what they con-
ceived to be fortunes, and everything was go
ing along on the high tide of prosperity.


There was currency enough then to do tbe
business of the country, currency enough
then to engage in speculative enterprises Of
the most visionary character; there was no
lack of credit, no want of confidence, and
everything seemed to be prosperous. And
with this volume OF currency practically IN
changed all at once there came q crash that
resounded through the whole length and
breadth of the land; business was suspended,
men who had money lest confidence, men


who were engaged in building railroads, and


in other enterprises that gave employment to


labor stopped short, and for five years we


have been struggling with that condition Of
things. 1t was no stringency in the money
market, it was no want of currency with
which to do business that brought about the
trouble of the last five years. 1 believe with
the distinguished Senator from Ohio, the
leader of the Democratic party, that it was
overtrading, that it was indulgence and ex-
travagance and speculative enterprises that
brought these things about and not any want
of money. -.


The contraction of the currency, however,
is made the scapegOat by almost every man
who fails in business by every politician who
desires to make personal capital or capital for
his party, out of the distress Of the land.
have in my mind at this time an instance, and
I refer to it because it has been made public,
and because the chief actor in it has publish
ed history of his business transactions dur
ing the last twenty years, and charges his
failure, his bankruptcy, his own ruin and the
ruin he has brought upon others, to the policy
of the Republican party. A Mr. Peter Held
rick, of WilliamspOrt, in the State Of Penn
sylVania, ihas published statement in the
form of an address to the people Of that State
and of the country, in which he goes on to tell
that some twenty years ago he went into the
town of Williamsport, poor and with no
capital, and that by engaging in various en-
tesprises, such as numbering, merchandising,
building, and trading in every direction, he
had by 1878, in period Of twenty years,
amassed fortune of millions; that the panic,
Ioccasioned, as he charges, By a contraction OF
the currency, destroyed his business, broke
down his enterprises, bankrupted him and his
|neighbors, and brought general ruin into the
Ineighborhoed in which he lived. lh


90 400 FORTUNES ON PAPEB.


Now want to appeal to the laboring men
before me, whether it is possible thing for
a man without capital, in this country, in the
short period of twenty years, to baild up by
fair legitimate labor q fortune of millions.


This supposed fortune that Peter Heidrick
had built up, and that Peter Heidrick has
lost, was only the bubble of an inflated, ire
deemable paper currency that mas cursed this
country for sixteen long years. Fortunes are
accumulated in this country slowly Some
times by fortunate situation, men in new and


unsettled countries, by reason of the rise Cf


property, or by fortunate investments, make
f.alf in D,,t


things are the exception rather than the rule,


and while sympathize with men like Peter
Heidrick, yet L look upon the disaster that


has overtaken him as one Of the legitimate
consequences of Overtrading, Speculation, 60
ing in debt, of an extended credit, for it was
credit that made him and gave him his sup
posed millions, and finally it was the-wsnt OF
credit, the want of confidence on the part of
his creditors, that broke him DOWN This
state of things affected not only men in his
condition, but it reached through every rank
and position in life, it reached the laboring
man, it reached the tradesmen, it reached the
capitalist and all alike have suffered.I


But it is no fair way to treat this disease TO
give the country still more of the medicine
we were compelled to take in 1869, and
which finally brought this disaster Upon Us.
Money Is property just as houses, justas land,
just as merchandise are property, 1t has its
value One of the strange things in relation
to this craze is the effect that il has had upon
the laboring man, and the poor nlau.s There
is in this country, at this time, about twenty
one dellars per capita in money, and that is
all. But in merchandise, in houses, n lands,
in railroads, and IN all the various kinds OF
property, there is 81, 600 per capita at least
Now there Is no species OF property so equally
distributed among all classes OF men IS mon-
ey. There are hundreds of men who walk
the streets of this town daily who own no
houses, they own no land, they own no mer-
chandise, they own no property in the gener-
ally accepted meaning Of the time, but they
all have little money. They have their share
of the currency Of the money of the country,
and, as l said before, there is nothing so
equally and generally distributed smong all
classes of people as money: Why, sir, you
talk about the power Of money. Take the
currency of the country, greenbacks, Nation
sl Bank notes, and all that eirculates, as cur
reney among the people. We speak Of the
banks as controlling the money Of the coun-
try; they are only the means through which
the money and currency is distributed to the
people. and the money is in your hands You
90 down into the mine or into the mil anddo
n davis work, or weeks work, and you receive
your pay, not in merchandise, not IN Ahouses,
not in lands, but in money. And whilst you
have not foot of land, no house that Is your
own, to cover your head and shelter your
family, yet you have in your pocket few
dollars of mOney,sall you have on the lace OF
the earth. 1t is what you get for your abor,
it is what you earn in the sweat Of your face,
it is what you are paid in whether, by the
banker, the farmer, the railroad man OF the
bondholder- Money is your power, i Is your
possession. The currency Of the country, TO
a great extent is in your pockets. And II
there is any class Of men on earth who are
more especially interested in having money
good, whole, round, with full purchasing
power Of one hundred cents to the dollar, il is
the man who has but one dollar, or i've dol
lars, or ten dollars, and who has nothing elss.
You have no houses to build. You have no
land to sacrifice. you have no land 70 dePreci-
ate upon your hands, but you have httis
money with which to feed your family, and
to clothe them, and you will want = good
Won don't want 10 nav a discount upon the