New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-01-08

have gone beyoFa their means, which r. "tsee y
their general So dness, 'aHn"t amount 10 Hu''n;
AID if they had not existed at o theIr places WOMB
have teen supplied By some other agency. AUG
If the corporate form had been forbidden the ce,
mands Of trade or speculation would have 20 reed
into existence some Inferior form OF resP0Is'ol,y'
Irpless 81 commerc7 between lndlvdu can ne
prevented and all trsde and enierpn.e and sPecu-
iation can be suppressed, i - hopeless 10 tniuh
that the currency q q commercial country! cobsN-
tut;Ig the great mass lis peeunary obngatons'
can be saved from Occa onal imitation, win al III
attendant mischief simply by declaring war arainft
one Of lie er,aents, ard that element ~ once Inc
smallest and .ie best. Ia Wit, bank notes.
Along with the paper circulation oil me 'dhh7 me
President puts bank cr.dts, the two forming, I'd
his Indictment the sole cause Of or existing EN-
bsrrassrncntf. Now the indebtedness 20 the banks
is the very sOundest portion OF the Indebtedness OF
the country. II is VIGOROUSLY the best secured
and the best paid, and The losses and embairass'
ments entaed BY il smaller than any other spe'
cies Of debt save only the bills of the banks lhere
are exceptional cases, the Bank OF Pennsylvania Tor
eyemple, which perhaps Mr.. Buchanan had IN his
eve. but they are but the one in the hundred. The
imitation from which individuals suffer and the
country sufiers, that initiation which s everywhere
carving ruin in its train i tie general suecumblng
Of Ss trading classes the specializing Snd business
doing portions Of the community, who have gone
beyond their means, and given notes and incurred
debts which they cannot pay. These are the deot7,
these are the credit this ID The imitation that works
the mischief which the President Imputes 10 oank
bills and bank credits. II is the gigantic aggregate
Of individual debt outside of the banks all over the
country, that has borne down the financial world
ard checked The general prosperity. And this debt,
taken in all lis relations is TO the bank debt as a
mountain to molehll, and which, If the banks bad
never existed would have nevertheless resulted IN
the same catastrophe which mas befallen the coun
try, without, perhaps, some OF liz mitigating err
cumstances. Yet We cannot sgree with Mr. SIM
mons when he says these institutions are wholly
gltless of imitation. For though Their clrculstl0n Is
not excessive neither has il been rapidly ncrcafed
vet IL constant march has been upward since the
discovery Of California gold, and the loans have
risen since that period from less than 500 mlllions
10 over 200 millions
But this is aside from the main point OF our M
qury which s in regard to tie cause Of the present
initiation, which is working such hayoc all over the
world. j. it the banks, is il paper money, a. ~
alleged BY the Administration Orisit the want OF
tariff or National Bank. - argued by another
side in the controversy Or sit, indeed something
more potent than either, and lying far back OF oil
such partial and secondary causes For every great
imitation has a cause, and uniformly specific and
distinct cause, which sooner or later j. fully M
folded. Such was the case in that signal epoch in
England al the beginning of this century, and
which resulted in the explosions of 1919 and lo23
known of oil men az the final result OF an unre-
stricted issue Of bank notes, permitted by the BIlt
ish Government during the war to relieve lie own
necessities Such, too, was the ease IN thlo c0ul-
try during the last war with England, when the
necessities of our own Government drew large
os .Lo HANKS into tho fatol f:"''i's
rredeemabe notes. through which lnfla'lon ana rum
followed. So again in 1897. The cause of the in
fhtion Of the currency sr that time, ending as 1t
DID in such general prosratiOn, lies upon the sur
face as distinctly marked az the rum which fol.
lowed Ii was the undue effort of the states 10
supply the vacuum in the currency caUsed by the
destruction of the National Bank by The hero Of
New Orleans and hard money.
While This is So nobody seems Ia have thought
il worth while in the present crisis TO look beyond
the naked fact Of imitation, or speculation, or ex-
panson of credit, though t.eSe are papably sec
ondary causes TO find the true source OF The nus
chiefs and dstresses of the day. This infldtIon
this speculation, this expansion has cause ana a
cause living deep and widespread as We see by ITS
effects. This financial storm Is not c"nincd TO any
one commercial community, TO no one nation, az
the previous great commissions To when We nave
alluded 10 a considerable extent We're, but IS Of
unirersal erfcnt. The cause of il, therefore, ID
commensurate with that extent. That cause Is 10
be found in The sudden enlargement Of the sPcrie
basis Of the attire commercial cofd bg he add'fIor
lcthia Str6a yfGrs, Of not less than trcmg:fee per
cen to the aggregate Stock Of The pScio"s met0iS an
circulation, from the gold mines Of California and
Australia.
Let MS trace the effect of this enormous addition
of cold to the channels of universal commerce.
Never before in history but once, have similar phe-
nomena been witnessed. Three hundred years ago,
the discovery OF America poured spon Europe M
immense amount of the precious metals. II is esll-
mated that within twenty-five years trsm the pc
rod of the discovery of the mineral resources of the
New World, the quantity of gold and silver IN cir
culation in Europe was increased fyctold. As an
inevitable consequence, the price OF commodities
rose in the same proportion. Inns circumstance
naturally OccasiOnCd astOmshment and cOnsterna-
top. especially among all classes living upon fixed
incomes. Essays were written, meetings held, pub
lie demonstrations made, TO declare against this rl-
inous state of things; and it was imputed by the
Solomons Of that day 10 the devices of an out
rapeous eXtOrtOn, which every man was IN duty
boupd 10 resist But the efforts TO stop the ad.
vance of prices and the attendant results oil
proved fruitess, nevertheless, and the generation
died ignorantly believing themselves-that ls, the
consuming portion-t0 be the victims OF grinding
Impression. The imitation u! prices caused by the
increase Of the hard money VI that day bore far
more heavily upon the solemn wiseacres of that pc
Rod than any paper imitation has erer borne upon
buIlionists since. The pursuits of commerce We're
then in embryo. Had they been developed as now
the word would probably have witnessed nGder
that prodgious stimulus speculative operations and
results such as would hay, ,warfed everything Of
the Kind in the worlds history.
The present condition of things is only 10 be com.
pared With that in Kind, not in degree. The dis
covsres Of that day, as We have sdid, added five
fold 10 the stock Of the precious metals in twenty
G. fIbnsp sHm A.
length of time, il the supply continues undated
about double the stock. This g a vast and revolu
top1r, Accession, and while i,s effect on prices viii
not be- so marked in lis influence as at the preced-