Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1856-01-24
From the Cincinnati Knaulrerl
serstary of the Treasury's Report.--The
Trade and Commerce OF tle Country.

81 Vhe OF the best reports that have cmanated
POM the Treasury Department siuce the days
Robert j. Walker is the recent one of Sec
Htary Guthrie. It is most admirably writ
IN and the facts and figures it contains
rdicate strlkinsly and effectually the Dc
Mocratlc financial and commercial policy of
country, and shows the gigantic strides it
aking in the career OF national prosperity
~ greatness
- The exports within the last year amour
80 TO the enormous sum OF over two hun
Hied aud seventy-fye million dollars, and the
Rnports'' to two hundred aud sixty-one
lion dollars showing balance of trade in
% favor, exclusive of the profits of the car
ing trade of some fourteen million dollars.
ke foreign trade of the country, as indicated
"exports and imports" has nearly doubled
ice 1917, period of only eight years At
former period Of our history did we ever
~ A-sapid progress, The carfses ofait
are the annexation of Te=as, that Demo
cratic measure, aud the other events which
hayc followed in its train. such as the Mexi-
can War, the acquisition of California, the
discovery Of gold there, aud the building up
OF -an American empire npon tha Pacific
coast.
The fact that there should be balance of
trade Of fourteen million Of dollars in our
favor under the Revenue Tariff Of 1916 ex-
plodes the fallacy Of the High Tariff. Whig
assertion that the former measure would
drain the country of specie, and proves that
trade may be safely allowed to regulate itself
and conform to natural laws.
The revenue derived from customs during
the past year is ilty million dollars--a
diminution since last year of eleven million
dollars, but still mo:e than is adequate to the
defrayng of the expenses of an economical
general government.
The reduction of the national debt is 60
ing or steadily, and it has now reached the
very moderate sum of forty million dollars.
Ia short time, if the finances of the general
government continue to be as well admins
tered Rs they have been since the 4th of
March, 1853. we shall be entirely tree from
any aional debt whatever.
The aggregate tunnage of the country now
amounts to considerably over five million
tuns, placing us, in all probability, ahead Of
any nation in the world il the amount of
our mertautile marine. The increase in tun-
mage during the past year is over four hun
dred thousand tuns. The amount of our
tunnage Is four times as great as 1t wss IN
1920, and two and half times as much as
it was even in 1840. In respect to the cur
rency of Of the nation the Secretary tells us:
"The table upon the currency justiies the
belief that there is not less than $3.50, 900, :
coo of gold and silver in the country, while
? there is no reason to doubt the continued
yield of the mines of California, and that the
demand for our exports will enable Us to ex-
change as largely for the productions of other
countries as in former years, without parting
with our gold and silver in larger quantities
than we produce it."
With this great amount of bullion in the
country is there any good reason why we
should not have sound currency If the peo-
pie desire it? Is there any reason why the
laboring man and small trader should be
obliged to take deprecated bank-notes of a
low denomination to the exclusion of specie,
the proper basis for such transactions. The
Secretary, in his remarks on this head, says:
"Ths-netes OF banks chartered by the
States continue to circulate in some sections
of the country, to the exclusion of gold and
silver. except in Government transactions,
and more particularly where the banks circu.
late notes under the denomination of $5.-
These small notes are mostly circulated by
banks of doubtful solvency, at a distance
from the place of redemption. They consti-
tuts deprecated currency which no one is
willing to hold, and this leads to hasty ex-
penditures in order that the loss may fall on
others. The evils of a deprecated currency
are attested by the experience Of all countries
where such a currency has been tried, and in
none more certainly than in the States of the
Confederation. The Legislature of the sew
eral States and the Congress of the Confede-
ration all issued bills of credit during the
Revolutionary War, and all felt and acknowl-
edged the evil and the ruinous consequent
ces.
"The Constitution of the United States
was framed by the men whe had felt all the
evils thereof; and when provisions were in.
serted in that instrument that no State should
emit bills of credit, nor make anything but
gold and silver tender in payment of debts
and the coming of money was given to the
General Government, they believed they had
provided for hard-money currency, and
against the evils of deprecated one but
these provisions were nullified when the
courts held that the States had power 10
charter banks, with authority to issue and
Circulate notes as money. IL is now too late
for the courts to retrace their steps, aud give
broader construction to the prohibitions Of
the Federal Constitution, while it is hopeless
To expect the States to refrain from granting
bank charters, with authority to issue these
small notes; or that the States will concur il
charging the constitutional prohibition in
respect to bills of credit so as to prohibit thi;
power to banks.
1.-THE same local and individual nteres
that induced the granting of bank charter!
with this privilege, would induce the Legis
latures of the States to refuse to Congress
the power Of prohibiting the use and circula
ton of bank notes. The thirteen hundred
banks now In existence under State charters
and the circulation Of over $500, CO., 900 o
bank notes, as money, in constant competi
ton with the constitutional currency, attes
the magnitude of the evil, and justify thu
worst apprehensions for the future. Th
gradual increase of banks, banking capital
and bank note circulation, calls for repressiv'
action under appropriate State legislation
When these thirteen hundred banks shall b.
increased to some two, three, four, or fv'
thousand, il may be feared their aggre gated
power will not be easily overcome until a sus
pension Of specie payments and uniyer5a
bankruptcy shall call for a suppression OF tn
evil and restoration of the constitutions
currency Ii the States shall continue tn
charter and multiplication of banks, with an
thority 10 issue and circulate notes as money
and fail to apply any adequate remedy to tn
increasing evil, and also fail to invest Con
/ gress with the necessary power to prohibi
the same, Congress may he justified in tn
exercise of the power to levy an excise upol
/ them. and thus render tho authority to issn
and circulate them valueless."
/ Mr.. Guthrie again recommends the reno
/ deling OF the tariff and the reduction of III
revenue from customs. In making the pro
posed change he very properly suggests
Congress that such raw materials as are use
by our manufacturers should be allowed I
come in free Of duty. Clon this point h
says:
"Under laws Of great wisdom and forecas
all manufacturing countries, except the Unite
States, now admit tho raw material used
tLeir productions free of duty, thereby gi'
ing constant and profitable employment
capital and labor, aud enabling their factori,
~ furnish a eheanar article and hatter con