Delaware State journal and statesman., 1866-03-27
ATE JOURNAL AND

amount equal to the issues of the National
Currency Bureau-have within the past ten
months gone South for the transaction o.
business in that section of the country,
And, finally, the Secretary has managed
within the past six months TO retire about
$50, 100000 of the legal-tender notes out
standing. Thus, without any new leeisla-
ton, contraction is going on at fair rate.
/ Even if Congress should, on reconsidera-
ton, refuse to accede to the demands of Mr..
Mccullough, his present powers will enable
him 10 continue TO contract the currency at
quite an active rate. 1t is now clear that by
midsummer Five Twenty bonds will be
selling at IS, if not at So in London. AT
these prices the outstanding currency can be
exchanged for bonds, and Seven Thirty
notes can be converted into bonds quite as
fast as the interests OF the country require
and the safety OF commerce will Justify.
tits not at all desirable that the Secretary
should be misled by tho present plethoric
condition of the Treasury into premature at
tempts to resume specie payments Over
twelve hundred millions of short-date Sc.
culities are TO be funded or paid of within
two years A policy which should precipi-
tate commercial crisis would deprive the
Government of the means of paying off
these securities and of the credit essential
for funding them But no one connected
with the Government has thus far developed
precipitate views on this subject, and the
partisans of continued initiation exhibit a
disregard of the facts when they charge the
Secretary with desiring to rush forward to
specie payments in disregard of the perma-
nent interests of the country. Mr.. McCul-
loeh's views have thus far been eminently
conseryatiye-as the continuance of the tenn
porary loan at and per cent sufficiently
proves
The great lesson which the public OF pro.
| ducers, consumers, manufacturers, middle
men, merchants, farmers etc, ought to en-
grave upon their memory at this time is that
we are on the high road 10 contraction, TO
lower prices, to specie payments. They
should beware of being misled by the defeat
of this or that bill, by the temporary success
OF this or that advocate of continued inan-
cial disgrace. Let them lay it TO their hearts
that the American people are bent on re.
habilitating their national currency and
making it as good as the currency of other
nations; and that whatever delays may oc.
cur, and however temporarily the paper.
money men may seem to triumph the res.
toration of a hard money currency within q
given number of years, if not months, i.
mathematieally certain. Let them rely upon
1t that from this time to the day on which
the banks resume specie payments price.
Will be steadily on the decline, with suel
reactions as are usual in speculative markets
From quarter-day to gu rter-day everything
produced or consumed in this country will
show diminution in market value. Mel
who hold goods, merchandise, and othe
1 property will grow steadily poorer, Just a
the like class grew steadily richer in thu
days when the currency was being expanded
Labor will fall steadily in value, until wage
decline to point never before reached il
our history. We expect to see common In
borers working for half dollar day by tn,
time that gold fallsto or near par This vii
{ - +taNN ~ "f1iabN ltliN III OItat bIllulIl
Let the public beware, too, of believing
that ''the bottom" has been reached befor
specie payments have been restored In tn
downward course there will be many reac
tions. 1t will often appear that prices ar
bent upward, and that general recovery i
about to take place. Such symptoms wi
prove deceptive. There can be no real ri
coyery in prices until the national currenc
is made worth 100 per cent. in gold. Whe
that point is reached, it will be safe to bu
anything, for prices will naturally reat
sharply from the antecedent depression. BIT
till then, seeming reactions will prove pi
falls of destruction.
Already the signs of the times point to tn
end. month ago an active speculation i
Z real estate was in full blast It seems TO hay
been short-lved. Recent sales at auctio
show general decline in prices, and hanC
! some country seats are for sale at rates ver
much lower than were current in 1861
Long-headed men have already read the fl
ture. In 1856, and again in 1867, tn
class of men refused to buy anything, an
c were set down as simpletons by young,
+ class of operators who claimed to understau
E the times, and bought right and left wha
ever was offered at "the going prices"
the course of a few months the young oper
tors were ruined, and their more prude
: seniors stepped in and secured their proper
d at almost nominal rates. 1t will be so agai
II The men who keep their money, and bt
nothing in 1866 and 1867, will probably pu
IS chase in 1868 or 1869 all descriptions of pr
: perty at prices as far below as the rates
e 1864 were above their real value