Year: 1875

FRIDAY, SEPIEMDER 5, 1910.


THE CURRENCY QUESTION.


Tt would be difficult, indeed, it would
be well nigh impossible to over est1-
mate the Importance to the South of
right adjustment of the currency ques-
tion.


The issue before the country inst
row is between special or hard mon
ev and soft or paper Or rag NJ oney,
as it is termed, according to the va
rious tastes of men. The hard mo ney
people desire to have d specie curren-
cy and such paper money only as may
be instantly conyertibIe into specie
of its face value. To bring about this
convert biIity If is proposed to reduce
the volume of the paper curr ency IN
til the quantity IN circulation shall be
SO small shat it viii readily bring its
lace value IN gold wherever it is Of
fered. As IL class, the men who ad-
vocate this policy are creditors who
hold the obligations of their fellow
mon entered into when paper money
was much less than gold, and will
hyae prices reduced SO that they can
get five pec15 Of corn for a debt
which, when contracted, could have
been paid with four pecks.


This is the theory and will be
the practical effect OF the specie poi
oy, How unjustly it will operate be-
tween different sections of the country
will be seen at a glance when it is re-
m embered that the South is now and
has been overwhelmingly in debt
to the North.


But to hear these hard money peO-
ide talk one would think that with an
immediate return to specie payments
with its inevitable 'shrinkage" in
values the millennium would begin
at once, and peace and plenty and
prosperity and good seasons and good
crops and happiness and long life and
good viii among men every where,
would fill The land with Joy and glad
ness. Unfortunately the facts do not
bear out this idea 1t happens there
is land within this broad Federal
domain, that hos never received but
bi es sings from 1.-THE est government
the world ever saw that has never
looked upon tho old flag save as the
symbol of power and protection, and
that is now ard ever has been a land
of pure specie delight, and whose peo
pie know neither soft money, nor pa
per money, nor rag money, and yet
they are not happy. To them, the
crisp rattle Of the new bank note and
the greasy smell Of the old one are
equniIy unknown while the chink of coin
is familiar sound. Ii there was ever
\ community favorable to tho specie
or hard money theory, California is
Tho land.


And yet with all it's millions upon
millions Of gold and silver coined and
11ncoir cd, the business community of
that Statois sc-day shaken from centre
to circumference with fear and panic
The great bNnk of that State, the great
hank of the Pacific Coast, the Bank Of
( talifOrnia, a specie bank, has within
the past week smut it's doors, Just
like any ordinary rng-money con-
corll would have done, a catastrophe
t. 1t the New York Herald says, shakes
eud colvulses every commercial and
mining interest west of the Rocky
Mountains.


its liabilities arc S14 100000 and its
a cts are $1,000, ,00O, and liable to
"4brinkage' at that, III spite of its he-
Ing a specie company and a specie
bank


Nor is this aIl. The National Gold
Bank and Trust Company has closed its
doors, and SO has the Merchants Ex-
change Bank-both of them specie
banks


What does al this teach us? That
slHcie, or hard money currency, is
Injurious to d country, and unable to
All oTd facilities for the transaction
OF business? Not at all. 1t does
tcaca, however, that specie, or hard
IL ney, alone, viii not make a coun-
t'y prosperous. nor prevent fraud,
nor stop overtrnding. Nor is soft
money any more responsible for
tn troubles upon the Atlantic coast,
than is specie responsible for the
trouble upon the Pacific.