Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1875 — DISCOUNT. [ARTICLE]

DISCOUNT.

The attack of the Rensselaer Union last week on the Chicago & South Atlantic Railroad was wholly un«alled for, and uu warranted by facts. The article was harmless, not for lack of venom, hurt because the people have long since learned the character of the individuals who control that paper. We have the best of assurances that the proj>osed road will be beiiU. notwithstanding the efforts ,of THU Union editors to defeat It.— MonUaeHu Herald. It « very much to be hoped that "ft he puny efforts of the editors of Ibis obscure, and characterless sheet to blast the prospects, and defeat the building, of that grand commercial project may be frustrated. ft would indeed be a great national calamity should those disreputable eootindreta succeed in thetT base endeavors—an aq£ that ought to be followed by swift and terrible retribution, such, for in*stancc, as immersion in a bath of boiling oil; or, more horrible still, 'be sentenced to solitary confine.nieiK during life and compelled to read the editorial articles of the Herald daily, and nothing else. Everybody in thia region will be glad to learn the statement of The ~Union that work oßfthe grade in Jasper “enwsJY^|lelfwad," notwithcaptractors and hands Waive dAStfed, leaving board and ' turner Jpn*’ unsettled. There is a elaas of people here and hereabouts, consisting of merchants, boarding-house keepers, fanners who supplied feed for teams, contractors and laborers, who will be very much consoled—at least several thousand dollars’ worth—to learn the statement that the Chicago <fc.South Atlantic company had exhausted their credit was also “unwarranted by fact.” Indeed there are only two contingencies connected with the subject that would cause them greater joy, to-wit: The completion of the road, and the early liquidation of their several claims.

In discussing the subject of currency fluctuations, the Lowell ■Star, usually pretty clear on what it undertakes to handle, falls into an error in regard io the manner of computing discount, that is fatal to its argument It says: Whatever is added to the price of gold must really be considered subtrack'd from the value of greenbacks. When gold is 110, greenbacks are 90. When gold sells at 125, greenbacks are worth 75. When gold sells at 150, the greenback has fallen to 50. When gold sells at 200, the greenback has no value whatever. And if gold sells at 2SO, then the greenback is worth 80 cents less than nothing. If the Star will take its arithmetic and turn to the rule for computing discount, it will find that when gold is 110, greenbacks are worth 90 10llths; when gold sells at 125, greenbacks ere SO; when gold is quoted at 150, greenbacks are 66f; when gold is 200,greenbacks are 50; and if goid sells at 280, the greenback dollar is worth 35 5-7ths cents •constitutional money of the United -States. At one time during the war greenbacks were down to that low ebb of value. If at any time gobi should be quoted at 10,000 -still greenbacks would have a commercial value, and that value would be one cent for the promise to pay one dollar. At the tune when gold quotations were so high manufactured fabrics of every description, coffee, tea, sugar and all the necessaries of life, as well as luxuries, advanced a certain relative proportion as the valued greenbacks .depreciated when measured by the gold standard of civilized commerce. BuVwhile the purchasing power of greenbacks was impaired, that of gotd suffered little oruo fluctuation. "That is to say, when dealers charged consumers tiOO in greenbacks for a bill of goods they would have sold the same bill for $35.71 3-7 Jn gold. It in ,18710, or at any other future period, business in this country should fiud oschor on a goid bottom, markets and "labor would be subject only to the fluctuations produced by the laws that govern supply aikd deeaand for those commodities instead of being affected also by the additional disturbances constantly oc* earring to a mixed currency of unequal values. But at the same time, while the country is advancing to that position, individuals, espexiialiy the debtor class, and business

generally, must suffer greatly from the shrinkage of values necessarily attendant upon tho transition stage. Consequently the question which now agitates people’s minds and demands tho serious . thought ot statesmen and legislators*, is, whether there is not a plan by which the vessel may be landed against a firm dock without badly shivering her timbers, and pitching a large uumber of her passengers overboard into a sea of wild financial disaster. Says Rowell’s American Newspaper Reporter: It is noteworthy that of late the democratic newspapers starting throughout tlie United States outnumber very much the new- papers of republican tendencies. This is only one of many circumstances now transpiring which seem to indicate there will be a change in national politics next Presidential campaign. There is no doubt that a large number of the better class of republicans haye become so thoroughly disgusted with the corruption and extravagance of many of those now in high ofljcial position, and seeing how utterly hopeless it is to expect any change for the better through their party organization while these men control it, are ready to unite with the democracy to accomplish the overthrow of those who have repeatedly violated their pledges to be honest and economical. At present there seems to be a general tendency among the people to ignore partyism, and to think and act for themselves independently of “leaders” and “organs.** There is a limb of the law over in Benton county who thinks a local paper (the Fowler Democrat) has injured his reputation 110,000 worth, and brought a libel suit to recover that amount of damages. Tom Mo # ore must have been thinking of kind of a chap when he wrote Of all speculations lh>’innrket holds forth* The best that I kuow, for a lover of pelf* Is to buy up—-—.at the price he is worth, And then selfhim st that which he seta an himself. Never wore two human faces alike. —,£&c/uins«;. - Who has seen them all to know that? Where is the fellow that looks /like ’me? Whatjias bee onia of those twins whose mother could distinguish them only by the strawberry mark on the off one’s west leg?