Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1853-11-19


rienee of the present of unusual interest
affording the first complete illustration of the man
in which the Independent Treasury affects great
and generalspeculatiye movements in commerce. No
one could have observed the accommodating pro-
Eecs of expenditure, the multiplication of Banks, the
expansion of trade in its area and the still greater
expansion eof it in the amount of its exchanges
through long established channels during the last
two years. without being convinced that there were
working together most of the elements of prodi-
gious speculation, which threatened corresponding
revulsion. The food of excitement, which in 1886
made banks merchants, agriculturalists and idlers
all crazy with the idea of gathering fortunes out of
the bubbles of hope far less than the last tw
years. The real wealth to serve the basis of tho
imaginary, was far less then than The sources
of increase were far less abundant. There then
California pouring its annual seventy millions of
gold into the lap of our Atlantic trade. The stock of
the precious metals in the country small in COM
parison and the profits from successful Improvements
still smaller. Why is it. then, that speculative i'm
pulses, equally blind and urged on by more various
and vastly more powerful forces, have been nearly
harmless this year, while in 1887 they covered the
whole country with commercial wrecks, and ostra
ted entire banking system?
There is but one answer to be given In the form
er period the moneys in the United States Treasury
went into the banks and added much to the basis
of speculation in the latter these monies with
drawn, not from the paper circulation but from the
specie basis of the currency. And this action has
not been sudden and excentric, but it commenced
with the speculative movement, has followed its eV-
cry step, growing it grew and correcting with an
irresistible power the excuses to which 1t was I'M
PEELED 1t is the Independent Treasury which has
saved the country from revulsion perhaps greater
than any of former times and saved not by an ex
pedient of momentary alienation, but by national
and healthful cure. We can now understand what
the full meaning of the strong language In which
Mr.. Calhoun and other wise statesmen enforced the
necessity of the separation of the Treasury from
banking operations. In recent speech in New York,
Mr.. Dix late Sub Treasurer made the following stri
king remarks this subject
" In May last the specie under the key of the as
sstant treasurer of New York about six and
three-quarter million; on the 23d September it had
risen to ten millions and quarter; and the 9th
November it had subsidized to six and half millions.
The salutary influence of the subtreasury is thus
planned
"From May to September there was prevalent
bias to over-action in almost all business legitimate
and ilegtimate-in trade, banking stock jobbng
and land speculation--under the impulse given to
commercial enterprise. The treasury balance
up to more than ten millions. This rapid accumua-
ton of coin, and the enormous sum of ten millions
thus withdrawn from the reach of operators checked
lin very salutary manner the general tendency to
ovcr-action.
Spectators could not command the money they
required to carry and extend their transactions
Merchants compelled to limit their orders for
foreign goods. Debtor banks, pressed for balances,
obliged to contract their discounts; and as the
flood of specie poured into the sub-treasury, the
channels from which it drawn were nearly ex-
hausted, and some of the holder adventures were
left high and dry by the receding tide. This was
gradually drawing specie into its vaults the
banks extended their operations, and stimulated the
spirit of enterprise and speculation and checking the
tendency to excess by law certain those
which govern the material world.
The second good influence of the system" says
Mr.. Dix, twas salutary the first, and the
result of the infab!e law. This accumulation
of millions of coin in the sub treasury here made
money and valuable most stocks fell in price,
and the interest paid for the of money rap
idly and to enormous rates In all such cases hold
ers of stocks which maintain their prices tempt
ed to sell for the purpose ofreazng the higher prof
its of other investments. This the with the
stocks of the United States. The government had
offered high premium for them. The holders sur
rendered them, and took the surplus coin in the |
treasury in exchange. !
BY this operation then, three millions seven hun
dred thousand dollars drawn out of the sub |
treasury in six weeks, and thrown into Wall street
to relieve the pressure caused by preceding
in speculation and commercial adventure. 1t is, in
deed the only relief Wall street has had; the only
relief it possibly could have had-and it has saved
scarcely less severe than that of 1897"
Charleston Mercury.