CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



195 



n is what wo need at present, let it bo 

 :u-d plainly und unreservedly, and let us 

 nee proceed to take such action as will 



1'iMii: about this result aa speedily as the na- 



:' the raso will admit of. 



" H tli.- way to contraction is blocked, then 

 thi-ro are but two paths open before us ro- 

 Miinption by direct operation of law, or expan- 

 llon. 



11 Without attempting to follow out the vari- 

 ous plans presented for returning to specie 

 1 u> ment, I select the memorial first alluded to 

 > best and perhaps clearest exponent of 

 this theory. It says (page 8) : ' We have 

 od the verge of success in bringing gold 

 and currency to a par with each other, and it 

 Apparently needs but an announcement by tho 

 tary of the Treasury that legal-tender 

 will be paid in gold at an early day, to 

 annul the present differences between the two ;' 

 and suggests that the redemption of legal-ten- 

 der notes be commenced the 4th of May next, 

 but that the power to issue be continued. 



" This is the money -holders' side of the ques- 

 tion, presented in plain and unequivocal lan- 

 guage, and is the theory of those who advocate 

 a return to a specie basis reduced to a nutshell. 



" Suppose, Mr. President, we pass a law re- 

 quiring the Secretary of the Treasury to com- 

 mence redeeming legal-tender notes on the 4th 

 of May next, or even the 1st of January, 1875: 

 how is this to bring relief? Will it increase 

 the volume of currency, or unlock any con- 

 siderable portion of that which is now hoarded 

 up ? For each dollar of gold put into circula- 

 tion a dollar of legal tender wjll be with- 

 drawn ; and there will be no increase in the 

 amount of currency in circulation, unless we 

 assume, as is done in this memorial, that all 

 legal tenders will at once come to par, and 

 thus increase the total value of the currency 

 by the amount of the present difference be- 

 tween these and the same nominal amount of 

 gold. Suppose it to be true that the promise 

 to redeem would, without the presentation of 

 a single dollar, bring the entire amount of the 

 legal-tender issue to a par with gold, would 

 this afford the relief demanded ? Would this 

 place more money in circulation than there is 

 at present? Sir, go further: suppose the ut- 

 most that the most sanguine advocate of the 

 theory can possibly claim that the reaction of 

 this policy upon the national-bank notes, by 

 transferring the required reserve for their re- 

 demption into gold or its equivalent, would 

 also bring them up to a par with gold would 

 even this meet our financial demands? Would 

 this supply the wants of the commerce and 

 business of our country? Would this start 

 our mills and manufactories again into full and 

 active operation ? Would it unlock the store- 

 houses of the West, and pour the grain, beef, 

 and pork, into the Eastern market ? Is there 

 some talismanic power in a dollar of gold that 

 will render it so much more effective in trade 

 than a sound and secure paper dollar? 



" Would this loosen the group of those who 

 now cling so firmly to thi-ir K re eu bucks and 

 hide away their uationul-bank notes if 

 sir; they would hold thorn tho firmer, os the 

 ten per cent, would be made to them by hold- * 

 ing on and not by letting them out. '1 

 would be no more dollars in circulation then 

 than now ; the volume of the currency would 

 be just the same then as now. But even this 

 supposition every one knows to be impractica- 

 ble, for to come to specie payment there must 

 be contraction; the amount of gold and paper 

 must be brought nearer together. 



" And right here we have revealed to ns the 

 two parties to this question, the opposing forces 

 in this contest ; those who hold the funds, and 

 those who need them ; those who live by in- 

 terest and percentage, and those who live by 

 labor and traffic. 



" The same contest arose in England about 

 twenty years ago, when the gold of California 

 and Australia began to flow into the European 

 markets. The money-lenders, annuitants, and 

 those having fixed incomes, sent forth pam- 

 phlets and treatises on currency containing 

 warnings of the danger threatened by this 

 extraordinary influx ; they plied Parliament, 

 with all the sophistry and arguments of which 

 they were masters, to enact such laws aa 

 should maintain their advantages over the pro- 

 ducing class and business men of the country. 



" In one of these pamphlets, which I have 

 here before me, I find this remarkable state- 

 ment: 



"I read from 'Financial Pamphlets,' vol. 

 xvi., page 28 : 



Those who are in debt, or those who think them- 

 selves likely to have to borrow money, see a manifest 

 advantage in a state of affairs which promises to 

 alleviate the burden of their present and future in- 

 cumbrances. The trading classes, in addition to 

 their share of these advantages, expect a great ex- 

 tension of trade all expect a reduction in taxation, 

 and exclaim against any interference with a natural 

 event which offers these advantages, for the sake of 

 a few capitalists. It seems hopeless to attempt to 

 meet such an array of opponents by arguments on 

 the abstract propnety of maintaining a steady cur- 

 rency, vet it is very much to be wished that they. 

 should be met on this ground. 



" This, sir, is a confession of the very princi- 

 ple for which we who advocate a moderate in- 

 crease of the currency are now contending. 

 And when the Chancellor of the Exchequer (as 

 you will find on page 80 of the same pamphlet), 

 wisely looking to the welfare of the great moss 

 of the people of England, announced in his 

 financial statement that 'the discovery of gold 

 hns established credit in this country in a man- 

 ner which no political economist conld ever have 

 imagined ; that it has increased and confirmed 

 credit, and immensely increased the employ- 

 ment of the people ' those who had I'd-n 

 striving to limit the standard of value to silver 

 alone felt all their sophistry scattered to the 

 winds by the announcement of these facts. 

 The straggle now, sir, is the same in principle 

 os then ; the result* which fiowed from the m- 



