Year: 1879

THE greenback agitation has OF
late sunk to very feeble proportions
with resumption an established
fact. In the last International Mr..
! Walker has very able article upon
the banks and the currency of the
United States, in which he assumes
positions remarkably at variance
with the ideas of those who have
clamored for practically unlimited
issues Of paper money. He under
takes to prove that this country is
to-day suffering from redundancy
OF circulation to the extent of three
or four hundred millions and he
sustains his position by some inter-
estlng statistics concerning the cir
culation of Great Britain. Not
withstanding the immense COM
merce of the British empire, her
total currency, including gold and
silver and notes of every kind, is
only 1851, 900, 900, while ours is
larger by upwards of four hundred
millions. What is needed in this
country is such restoration of
public confidence as will stimulate
business enterprise. The degree to
which capital is Withdrawing itself
from commercial ventures is SIM
ply appalling, and could not be
better Indicated than by the fact
that, inside of the past two months
Of the current year, the subscrip-
tions to the new four per cent. loan
OF the government have am ounted
to one hundred and seventy mil.
lions Of dollars. We have always
been able to see the strong points
In the arraignment of our financial
system made by men many of
whom are now greenbackers.
The policy of Mr.. Chase and
his successors was UNANIMOUSLY
partial to the moneyed class.
The necessities of the civil war were
used by these men as the justifica-
tion of their acts. How much OF
sophistry thero was in this plea it
Is hard to say. There was not only
the act of creating great national
debt, but the desire to create it
present in the minds of successive
Republican Secretaries of the
Treasury. But the mischief which
has been accomplished is beyond
recall and is growing, in fact, to be
an old story. The retrospect is
now only useful on account of the
lessons which may be derived from
1t. One of them is that the people
. can never again venture to deluge
the country with floods of paper
money, to result in feverlsh infa-
tion for a little while, to be follow
Ell In turn by terrible reaction,
s1ch as has made the period be.
tween 1878 and the day of resump-
tion memorable for all time. 1t is
because the country is beneftiDg
30 largely by the fact that resump-
tion has been happily effected
that is, happily in the sense that
the disasters anticipated as its Incl
dent have not occurred-that we
should be very sorry to see every.
thing again jeopardized either by
the more currency theories of the
greenbackers or the curtailed cur
reDcy proposed by Mr.. Walker.
What the country really needs is q
period of quiescence, in which the
man who has means will feel en-
couraged to devote it to the work
Of development. In California we
are in a period of great excitement,
in which capital regards itself as
threatened and is taking measures
for self-protection. That means
suspended enterprises and indus.
tries-the putting off of the build
ing of houses and manufactures
till things look better. In the
country at large there will soon be
the designations and worries of an
other Presidential election which
will, very likely, be the bitterest in
the history of the United States.
That we shall emerge from all these
disgusting influences in condition
to conquer some of our old prosper
ity during the coming decade is a
contamination most devoutly to be
wished.


GEN. VoLNEY E. HOWARD hal


l.. l. ID.