The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-13

The matter Is governed by an imperative law,
which can no more be suspended or violated
without injury to the violator than any other
law OF nature. We might as well get up at mid
night and expect The sun to rise TO relieve us
from the embarrassment in which we are IN
volved by the darkness OF night as expect to
find Ielief in the financial condition the war has
brought upon us by any untimey or sudden
effort. The return 70 specie payments should
be lett 20 the opesatlon Of natural laws. and the
least legislation possible there may be upon the
subject the better. History affords many exam.
Piles TO warn us against sudden disturbance of
established values and the relations of trade
however abnormal they may be- for the time
being. The brilliant theorists OF France during
the. revolutionary period, at the end of the last
and beginning OF the present century, and
of England during the long European
war, and after its close in 1916 up to
1880, brought indescribable sutIerings upon those
countries. In such cases it is not the CONNER
cial or wealthy classes that suffer most, but the
laboring people. Those who tell the farmers
and Others who live by the labor Of their hands
that il is for their benefit that we should return
Immediately or suddenly to specie payments
know not what they say-know not the teach
ings of history. To disturb untimely or violently
existing values, the relations of trade and the
obligations of debtors to their creditors, and
consequently to cause universal bankruptcy and
O paralysis of business, would be felt severely
by the mercantile and wealthy classes, but the
labo1ers would suffer far more. The mere stu
dent in political economy is aware OF this fact.
a sudden or an undue contraction of the cur
rency.
II, as these currency theorists maintain, the
Government can regulate the relative value of
paper and gold at will, independent OF the laws
OF nature and trade, why not bring them to par
at once by decreeing that the gold dollar Is
worth only seventy cents-that is to say. bring
gold down TO paper, instead of attempting to
force paper to the standard of gold? One is
about as easy to be done as the other and If this
can be done 1t would be very simple solution
OF the difficulty. We believe the British pound
sterling has been made worth more than specie.
Suppose our currency doctors be allowed to try
their bands at similar extraordinary operation;
they might make the greenback worth more
than gold, The only trouble in that case would
be that there would then be a demand for a con-
traction of the specie circulation to make it
correspond with paper.
Seriously, there is great deal of shallow non
sense in the clamors about returning impromptu
to specie payments. We shall rejoice as much
as any one when we can reach that desirable
period when the gold and paper dollar will be
eXchangeable at par as before the war; and we
do not think it will take many years in the natu-
raj course Of things TO bring this about. If the
politicians in Congress do not obstruct the resto-
ration OF harmony between the South and North,
and the country be permitted to go on in its
wonderful career of progress and prosperity. we
shall soon grow up to the present amount OF
currency, or TO an approximate amount.
We do not pretend to calculate exactly what
amount OF currency tue trade of the country
may demand one year, two years, five years, or
ten years hence; but we do know that the
demand will increase greatly, and that, as q
consequence, our paper currency will gradually
and healthtully approach the value of gold.
And should the Government be wise enough to
follow the advice we have offered heretofore to
break up the so.called national banks and iss lie
legal tenders only upon its own credit, as the
national currency, the period of specie payments
will not be far of, and that without disturbing
the trade, credits, or values of the country.