SEVEN FINANCIAL CONSPIRACIES

CHAPTER VIII.
RESUMPTION.

WOULD to God that the record of atrocities against this nation might end here !  But no, with the people crushed and staggering beneath the burdens imposed upon them through the preceding robberies, we next find these vampires in Congress inflicting a seventh scourge upon the people by means of the resumption act.

This act, passed January 14, 1875, authorized the secretary of the treasury to destroy the fractional currency, and issue silver coin in like denominations to take its place.  The people had found the fractional currency convenient, not only as a medium of exchange at home, but especially cheap and convenient for small remittances in trade.  The destruction of this money was a serious injury to the business men of the country.  For without fractional currency, even small remittances incurred the expense of a draft or money order.  But Congress appeared to be looking after the interest of the money-monger and not to the prosperity of the country.

It next became necessary to issue bonds with which to purchase the silver bullion authorized for coinage.  Let it be remembered that these were untaxed, interest-bearing bonds, and of such large denominations that only capitalists were able to carry them, while to the debt-ridden people was added the interest of these very bonds, which could only exist by the destruction of the greenbacks and fractional currency upon which the people paid no interest.

The restoration of silver as a medium of exchange was a great triumph to the unthinking masses and greatly increased their confidence in the governmental policy, but to those who studied the situation the jingle of silver was another death-knell to the prosperity of the country.  Is it not clear that by destroying a non-interest bearing currency, as the greenback, and substituting an interest bearing bond, that a burden has been added to the people ?  Not to the tax-payer only, but to every consumer of food and clothing.  But farther, not only has the resumption of specie added to the burdens of the people, but the whole system is a miserable farce.  The people have been told, and the masses believe, that their paper currency is redeemable in specie.  But first, the smallest amount redeemable is fifty dollars, and secondly, the only place of redemption is the sub-treasury in the city of New York.  Is not this clearly another scheme to advance the interests of Shylock ?  The expense of getting to the sub-treasury, together with the large amount required, at once shuts off the masses from any advantage there might be in resumption.  The people are told that the national bank currency is redeemable in greenbacks, and the greenbacks in specie ;  but the fact is carefully concealed that there is not specie enough behind the paper currency to redeem one-half of it ;  and should a crisis arise which gave any advantage to the holders of coin, Shylock would be first at the sub-treasury, while the masses with less than fifty dollars at their command would be compelled to lose any advantage there might be in resumption.  Will some “hard money” philosopher rise and explain wherein the people have been benefited by resumption ?  But it does not require a philosopher to show wherein their burdens have been increased through this infamous scheme.

John Sherman who was once honest and then opposed this measure, predicted the results in a speech made in 1869, as follows :

It is not possible to take this voyage without the sorest distress.  To every person except a capitalist out of debt, or a salaried officer, or annuitant, it is a period of loss, danger, lassitude of trade, fall of wages, suspension of enterprise, bankruptcy, and disaster. * * It means the ruin of all dealers whose debts are twice their business capital, though one-third less than their actual property.  It means the fall of all agricultural productions without any great reduction of taxes.  When that day comes, every man, as the sailor says, will be close reefed, all enterprise will be suspended, every bank will have contracted its currency to the lowest limit ;  and the debtor, compelled to meet in coin a debt contracted in currency, will find the coin hoarded in the treasury, no representative of coin in circulation, his property shrunk not only to the extent of the appreciation of the currency, but still more by the artificial scarcity made by the holders of gold.  To attempt this task by a surprise upon our people by arresting them in the midst of their lawful business and applying a new standard of value to their property, without any reduction of their debts, or giving them an opportunity to compound with their creditors, or to distribute the losses, would be an act of folly without an example in evil in modern times.

These were the evils that would follow resumption, as prophesied by John Sherman before the clutch of the money power had dwarfed and blackened his soul.  Quick to perceive the right with an intuitive love of justice, John Sherman was the natural friend of the people, but avarice perverting his nature, we find him the ready tool of the money power, bartering away his instinctive love of justice and relentlessly antagonizing the interests of the people.  His prophecies remain, however, and their fulfillment is undying witness against his degenerate soul.

Beasey says :

Slavery is the inevitable result of poverty ;  poverty is the inevitable result of low wages ;  low wages are the inevitable result of scarcity of currency and an improper system of taxation ;  and scarcity of currency and an improper system of taxation are the logical results of an unjust administration of the government.

Besides the testimony of Senator Sherman and Beasey against the infamous measure, I will also add the opinion of Senator Ferry, of Michigan, who, too honest to retract and take issue against the great industrial masses, paid the penalty perscribed by President Grant, and is no longer “ entrusted in public place.”  Here are the words of Senator Ferry in regard to resumption and contraction :

It is easy to see why moneyed men want contraction ;  the shrinkage then which others must suffer would find compensation in their expanded purses.  It would be robbing Peter (the people) to pay Paul (the millionaire).

Never were truer words uttered ;  the shrinkage which followed contraction ruined thousands, while the moneyed class, without an effort, actually doubled their wealth.  Again Senator Ferry says :

The universal distres and unparalled failures which have followed these past years of trial, must sadly record the severity of the process, which has brought the country so near resumption and so close to financial ruin.

Through the process of contraction, all the truths stated by Senator Ferry have been verified, and all the evils predicted by Senator Sherman have befallen this people.  Nor is this the end, for the train of evils brought upon us through this infernal legislation is sapping the energies of the nation and rapidly undermining the bulwarks of our Republic.  But it is not necessary to quote the opinions of statesmen, politicians, or political economists to prove that the contraction of our currency has been disastrous to our national prosperity.  The experience of the American people for the last twenty years has demonstrated most terribly and conclusively that any system of contraction of the currency is fatal to the industry, morality and general prosperity of a nation.

According to treasury reports for the last fiscal year there is, all told, in the United States $1,394,781,000 cash.  On January, 1876, Treasurer Jordan reported in the United States treasury $601,102,318.10 (page 45), since that date the hoard has increased at least $100,000,000.  He also reported in banks $369,475,385.  Total locked up, $1,070,577,703, leaving among the people in circulation $324,103,297.  This, divided among 60,000,000 of people, gives us the per capita of each the sum of $5.40.  At the close of the war we had in circulation about $2,000,000,000, including the three per cent treasury certificates, compound interest notes, and 7-30 bonds, which entered into the circulating medium ;  and a population of about 40,000,000, this sum divided up gave a per capita to each of about $50.  Nearly ten times as much per capita as we have at present.  With these figures before us who can doubt the real cause of business stagnation, and the rapid increase of pauperism and crime ?

Every farmer knows how much more wheat, hay, pork, corn, or wool it takes to buy a dollar now than it did at the close of the war, and many of them know by bitter experience how a mortgage of a few hundred or thousand dollars has swallowed up twice that amount invested in houses, lands or any other property except bonded securities.  While property in the form of bonds, mortgages, and stocks, has rapidly appreciated in value, every other form of property has depreciated in the same ratio.  Only the wealthy classes are able to hold bond, mortgage and stock securities, and for twenty-five years the great struggles in Congress have been to appreciate the value of these investments, which could only be done by depreciating the property of the masses.  Consequently we have found the rich amassing colossal fortunes while the laboring classes are sinking to lower and lower depths of degradation.  Since a man’s social, intellectual and moral status depends largely upon his material prosperity, is not that legislation to be denounced which impoverishes the masses, thus degrading them in all the relations of life ?