Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1875 — Peter Cooper on Finances. [ARTICLE]

Peter Cooper on Finances.

The venerable Peter Cooper, of New York city, well known for his wealth, his success in business, his interest in the affairs of the industrial classes, his liberal opinions, and his unquestioned patriotism, has recently written a letter for the press upon the subject of public finances, in which he pronounces decidedly in favor of an increase of paper currency interchangeable for national securities bearing a low rate of interest, substantially the same as advocated by Phillips, Kelley, Buchanan of Indianapolis,

and other gentlemen of clear thought who have given this problem careful study. The honored source from which this letter emanates entitles it to respectful consideration, and we therefore give it plaoe in our columns for the benefit of the readers of Tun Union. Mr. Cooper’s letter is addressed “To the Editors and Legislators of My Native City and Country,” and is as follows: { An inextinguishable desire to de s What lean, in this the 85th year of fay age, impels me to call and fix the attention of the American peo-

! file on the appalling causes that have eo effectually paralyzed the j varied industries of our country, i This destructive cause has already shrunk the value of property in less than three years to a condition where real estate cannot be sold or mortgages obtained on it for more than one-half the amount it would have brought three .years ago. There is nothing thatcan be more important than to find out and remove a cause that is bringing bankruptcy and ruin on millions of the most industrious and enterprising men of the American people. The national policy that has brought the frightful calamity to our country should receive the most thorough investigation and the most decided action of our government. I piopose to show the true public policy that underlies this whole question, and to indicate what appears to me. as the principles and the just methods that ought to actuate the people in their exercise of power through the government, and the remedies which that government ought to devise. For it must ever be borne in mind that the government and its policy in this country is just what we, the people, make it. It is our duty, therefore,! at all times and in every way, to enlighten and exhort the people and to trust to such appeals rather than any immediate criticism or appeal to the government itself. The whole question of the currency and money arises from the necessity of trade or exchanges among men in the products of their industry, and the causes and methods that ntake these exchanges fair, just, and beneficial to all concerned, or a means of tyranny and injustice, and for the exercise of greed and selfishness. To fix upon an arbitrary and fluctuating standard, such as the worth or exchangeable value of a gold dollar, to indicate the exchangeable power of a paper dollar, is as uncertain as to take any other permanent product of human labor, such as a bushel of wheat or a pound of cotton. Nor can any standard be fixed for the valua of a currency, because the uses and demand of currency is a fluctuating want itself. Now, the exchangeable value of anything depends upon its convertibility into something else that has value at the opt ion of the individual. This rule applies to paper money as to anything else. We the government to make its currency, at all times, and at the option ot the individual, convertible. Bnt the currency must be convertible into something, over which the government has entire control, and to which it can give a definite as well as a permanent value. This is its own inter-est-bearing bonds. Instead of this, what do we find the government doing? Resolving that at a certain future time in 1879, the , currency shall be convertible into gold! Why did not our Congressmen proceed to resolve that by that time there should be gold enough in the country to absorb all the currency that foreigners might wish to be converted into gold? Even Ricado, the high priest ot bullionists, the father of the present British system, says; A regulated currency is so great an improvement in commerce that I should greatly regret if prejudice should induce us to return ton system of less utility. The introduction of the precious metals for the purposes of money may, with truth, be considered as one of the most important steps toward the improvement of commerce and the arts of civilized life. But it is no less true that, with the advancement of knowledge and science, we discover that it would be another improvement to banish them again from the employment towhich, during the less enlightened period, they had been so advantageously applied. I believe I have shown that the policy adopted by our government to hasten a return to specie payments has rendered the attainment of that object more distant and difficult than it was at the close of the war of the rebellion. I am now convinced that an opposite policy, one that would have legalized all the government money in circulation at tbe close of the war, making it convertible into in-terest-bearing bonds, and reeonvertible into currency at the will of the holder, would have established justice between the people and the government, and would have caused our currency to appreciate to the value of gold long before this. It would have left the money, the smews of war, the tools of trade, in the hands of the people, to enable them to meet the expenses incurred, and make the necessary provisions for the hundreds of thousands of disbanded soldiers thrown back on their homes to find employmeat or starve. In conclusion, I would say that we have every reason to hope for our country. But we must not trust in the amount ot our gold or other riches, but in the principles of our Constitution as free people, and in the free development of all onr magnificent resources. We qpust turn the tide of immigration which is now leaving our shores. We can do this, as in the past, by eontinning to offer a reward for labor, and cheaper land for settlement, by a faithful administration of our

laws in the interest of the people, and not of classes or monopolies, and by trusting in all questions of money and currency to the integrity and power of our government, and not placing ourselves at the mercy of foreign capitalists, nor submitting tamely to that war of commerce which every nation is willing to make upon us, if we do not take effectual means for our own sfelf-preservation.