The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-02-16
Te'ms-ss, 90 per gear In adranee.
lB Reading Matter on all Four Pages.


Terns-SS,0o per gear in adrance.
% Reading Matter on all Four Pages.
"How Specie Payments NAV be Resumed"
We have before us small pamphlet with
the above title, written by J. d. NJ Richard
son of Detroit, which, whether sound or un-
sound in its conclusions, contains good many
facts and suggestions of Importance to those
who would intelligently discuss the great prob
lens Of currency and finance. S
The writer insists that the Government can
not return to specie payments until it first
secures the gold to redeem some S23O,O0O,OCO
ofits legal tender promises. Ten cents per
pound export duty on cotton, payable in gold,
he argues, could produce this sum in three
years. The National Banks cannot redeem
their paper in gold so long as the Government
itself does not thus redeem. The writer in
sists the South should not object to such a
change of the constitution as win allow a tax
on cotton, because while it would amount to
S1O5,OO0,00 annually, the North is actually
paying sSoO,Ooo,OOO annually, and on more ar
ticles, such as whiskey, tobacco and petroleum
the tax more onerous than would be one on
cotton In answering the objection that if
cotton is to be taxed other agricultural pro-
ducts should be correspondingly taxed, the
writer says: ri 7a'iaaf0i s--. - toAictA12
SIN the first place, we have the monopoly in
effect, as the quality Ofour cotton is not equal
ed by. that of any other country. d In the sec
ond place, this tax ON cotton. will accomplish
| the desired object. In the third place, the
! contingencies of the war have plac I'd the cot
ton product in condition to bear taxation, by
creating an unprecedented demand at home
and abroad tor American cotton. Besides, the
margin that exists between the cost OF produc-
tion and the market price, warrants tax of
ten cents per pound, as viii be seen by the fol-
lowing illustration: ,. tt a.l....,-l.. IA s.,..I
A plantation OF $40 acres, of which 400 acres
shall be under cultivation and yielding an av-
erage crop ofi4O0 pounds to the acre, will prod
uce 100000 pounds, at a cost of 1-2 cents per
| pound. This estimate assumes an expendi-
ture of $10,400. Placing the market price at
30 cents per pound, it yields net profit of
S37, 900 over and above all expenses; an unpre-
cedented profit in an agricultural pursuit.
Should the price decline to 20 cents per pound
1t would even then bear the tax and pay bet
ter than any agricultural pursuit does at the
present time in the Northern States" = p
MIR Richardson insists that in the absence
of an export duty on cotton, by which to raise
gold, return to specie payments is impossible
without such contraction of the currency as
will produce financial revulsion and ruin. He
denies the very common assertion that we
have an excess Of currency, and insists that its
quality rather than its quantity is the source
of ourpresent financial endorsements.
In France with population Of &c, 900, 900, in
1854, therewas specie circulation of $500 :,
00O,oo0, or an average Of s36,o6 per CAPITA
i California including Oregon, Nevada, and the
Pacific Territories, with population Of 6O0-
600, has acirculating medium, mostly gold, Of
s25,OO0000, or $41 ,66 per capita. Placing orll
entire population at S2,0OoOOO, with trade in
the south fully established, it is contended
that circulating medium of not less thar
s960,000,O00 viii be demanded for the purpose.
oftrade and business. Moreover" continue.
orr writer, when we shall have returned to 8
4 "specie basis, and the grecnback and state
A "bank circulation shall have been retired, il
twill become necessary, in order to transact
4 "the business of the country on cash basis
q "that Congress shall authorize an additiona
Z Irrational bank circulation ofat least $500 600,
1000, which can easily be kept afoat with the
"specle then in our possession, If our exports
"other than gold, keep pace with our imports
I The writer. insists that the interests of la
Dor, the great leading interests Of the country
demand the earliest practicable return to
specie payments, and in enforcement of this
position he says: "a NJ. !.
1t is labor that enriches a country, and
more especially country like ours. Labor
increased our wealth from s., ,135, ,7sO, POS, in
1850, to 16,159,916,O6S, in 1860, and If we
can return to a specie basis in three wears
p without financial crash, keeping our Labor
fully employed at remunerative wages, om
4 wealth viii reach in 1870, in spite of the
wastes OF war, the round sum OF $50 000, 600,
600. In comparison with this our nationa
debt viii be as a feather in the hands of
child child, neither an embarrassment nor q terror
+ The following paragraph from MIR. Richard
sons pamphl ,tis forcible and worthy of con
y sideration: e,ii daaat lA 80 Qe .hgDoa, asiila
The legal tender circulation once retired, the
dangerous policy of Government becoming
grea. bank OF issue, with no ability to re-
deem, will be remedied, never, it is hoped, te
return again. Take from the Government
the power to expand or contract the circulat
ing medium of the country and the mere
meeting of a Congress, or Report OF the
Y Treasury Department, viii be powerless te
3 produce financial panic, or money strin
sency all over the country, as was the case ii
December, 1866, notwithstanding the vast vol
ume Of currency in circulation at the time
While we have entire confidence in the integ
rity and ability OF The Secretary Of the Treas
ury, and would not reflect IN the least upor
his management of the monetary affairs of the
nation, it is, nevertheless, unwarrantable te
entrust one man with the power to expand OF
contract, at will, the currency Of great com
mercial people. The power to regulate thai
which governs every other interest of the ma
ton, belongs to Congress, and it should lose
no time in placing the finances of the coun
try permanently beyond the control of sin
l III =