Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1876 — Heroic Treatment Heeded. [ARTICLE]

Heroic Treatment Heeded.

The' country is laboring under an accumulation of woes. Business languishes; merchants close their doors, aud their effects are administered upon by the sheriff and the register in baukiuptcy ; manufacturers discharge their “hands,” and stop their water-wheels and steam-engines ; and laborers go about begging bread for their starving families. Meantime, eonngress is flooded with bills for ilic resumption of specie payments 1 It is a cruel farce; played in the presence of ruined merchants, in the presence of other merchants standing on the verge of ruin, ia tlib presence of poverty and want, in the presence of idlers who have nothing to do but watch the shifting scenes, and witness at each change, the presentation of a new resumption bill 1 What member of congress dares bring in a bill for tlie resumption of business throughout the country 7 Who is the man who will bring in a bill lo revive trade, stimulate tbe leaden pulse of commerce, to open the doors of the silent factory, to restore to tho shop the “lost art” ot activity, to give employment to the idle mechanic, artisan, laborer? Tho standing committees of congress are burdened with bills contriving how to get rid of the greenback, calculated to load it with odium, intended to sink it in the estimation est tbe people. Every one of these bills ought to be consigned to oblivion to give place to a measure for the restoration of the greenback to the position of honor assigned to it by the grand obi commoner Thad tjteveus ! lie would have made it absolute money. It was provivided with a redeemer in tbe shape of convertability into United States bonds, but congress repealed this provision. Tho true road to specie payments lies through making greenbacks bitter, not worse. To have specie payments, wu must attract aud accumulate specie. The broader the gulf between tho value of specie und paper, the more specie must- be attracted and retained., (Jne year ago congress tired a day for resumption; but, although the volume of puper lias been contracted $35,000,000, no specie has been accumulated, and the gulf between specie and paper bus keen broadened, not narrowed. Clearly, fixing ft day for resumption, and proceedini* ♦* ; :tti-«liw a* ■” -•* the way to resume. France, finding her economic conditions similar to ours, stagnant, inert, pursued u course diametrically opposite to that pursued by the United Status government with diametrically opposite results. She issued more paper money and made it absolute money—full legal tender for all moneutary purposes Her industries immediately revived, as if at the touch of the magician’s wand. Factories wore opened, looms started, and mechanics, artisans, and laborers found full employment. Her fabrics found their way to the uttermost parts of the earth, and gold flowed in to pay for them. France, conquered and humiliated by the arms ot Germany, and impoverished by the demand for an idemnity of one thousand million of dollars, was lifted to an incredible height of prosperity by an enlightened administration of its currency system —by paper money, not partially discredited paper money, but paper money made a full legal tender for all monetary transactions. ***** i . > It is too lato to avert the serious misfortuuc already resting upon the country like a pall, but not too late to save the remnant of prosperity still remaining to us. The treatment, must, however, be heroic. 1. The specie-resumption act of 1875 must be repealed. 2. Geenbacks must be made receivable for custom dues, thus making them absolute money. 8. They must bave reconferred upon them the qua.ity of redeeniabilily, by being made interconvertible with government bonds bearings low rate of interest.— lnterOcean.