The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1867-12-02
Congress on the National Finance. and Cur

IL W pe sboruy TIE absorbing subj oct before
the country. Members see that the press and
mems minds everywhere are occupied with
questions relating to our national finances, The
rrency and the national bank system. THIS
is shown by the numerous measures submitted
and the discussions that commenced imme-
diately on the reassembliny Of that body. II
is equally clear that our representatives have
exhibited thus far narrow views upon these
questions. They have been nibbling at them
all round, and do not seem to have the capac ty
to take them in and digest them. No one has
presented general, comprehensive and states
manlike measure, adapted to our situation and
the wants OF the country. We are like a ship
at sea tossed about without any one at the
helm. Never was there such want of great
statesman to manage the financial affairs of
nation, and never such an opportunity for one
to become famous.
Our public men are in this like ignorant doc
tors, who break down the health or kill their
patients by overdosing-by dosing too much
The country needs no. 80 many nostrums. tits
fall of latent vitality and will recover itself if
left alone. As to the currency and returning to
specie payments, nothing should be done. The
laws Of trade, which arc as immutable as the
laws Of the Modes and Persians, will regulate
all that. Let the currency remain as it is, ex-
cept to make it uniform by Withdrawing the
national bank circulation AMI substituting legal
tenders in its place, and we shall grow up to
specie payments within q few years, and as
soon as it would be prudent to come to that
Indeed, looking at the wonderful progress of
the country, there is reason to conclude that
the present volume of currency will be INSULT
cient in the course of few years. The popu-
lation increases millions every year, and our In
ternal trade is growing constantly in a surpris-
ing manner. Our trade will be doubled, prob
ably, in ten years, and fifteen millions or more
will be added to the population. Will there
not be required q corresponding amount of cur
rency? And If we are all the time growing
thus, with an increasing necessity for more cur
rency, is it not evident that we shall gradually
and BEAUTIFULLY come up to specie payments,
should the present circulation be left undis-
turbed?
Everything is established upon our present
currency basis-all debts, all obligations of
whatever kind, all property and all the trans
actions OF business and life are established
upon it. If legislation or the action of the
government in any way torcibly disturbs this
state of things, and it be not allowed to regu-
late itself by the ordinary course of events,
would not that violently change all values and
obligations? Rich men and creditors, and
especially the bondholders, would be benefited;
but debtors and the poor must suffer. The
means of the Industrious classes would be
reduced, the burden Of taxation would become
insupportable, and the revenue Of the govern
ment would become insufficient It is said by
the contraction theorists that forcing specie
payments would benefit the laboring poor,
because prices would decline. But would not
wages decline In the same proportion! Wages
would fall probably more than prices, while
the demand for labor would necessarily be less
on account of the less amount Of money to
employ It If the laborer and farmer pay
more for what they have to buy they get more
for their labor and produce. There is no class
of the community that would be benefited,
and hardly any that would not suffer, by
forcing specie payments. except the rich and
the bondholders.
England tried this forcing process in ODE
dience to the clamors of the rich and the
bondholders after the exhaustlng wars with
the First Napoleon, and the consequence was
seen in continued revulsions, financial dis
tress and general pauperism. The masses of the
people had no voice in the government, and the
great capitalists, the Jews, the landholders and
the bondholders, had 1t all their own way. The
history Of England from 1917, when the efforts
to force specie payments commenced, to abou.
1925, when this was reached, Is history Of
commercial disasters and distress. The re-
sumptionists found the difficulties so great that
the government had to extend the time OF
resumption, though bent upon forcing it. Long
after that, indeed, there required the most
terrible periods Of suffering from the same
cause. More than once England, with all her
stability, was brought to tho verge Of revolu-
ton. The history Of that country should teach
us to avoid the evils she suffered.
But suppose we should never have metal
lie currency, what harm would be dones Who
would suffer- II the currency be paper or
gold iron or brass, it Is the same for one as for
another-the same for all. Whatever the
government makes legal tender Is the money
Of the country, and oil values are based upon
it One material Is as good as another for the
purposes Of internal trade, and paper is fully
as convenient, or perhaps moro convenient
than gold and silver. Indeed, II we had
metallic currency tomorrow, by far the
greater part Of transactions In trade would DO
done with paper-with paper checks, notes, or
bank circulation. II has always been so, and
all the specie that we ever had in the country
would not be sufficient for the purposes for
which paper is used in one form or another