The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-04


ior better price in gold than they will bring
by being shipped here, they,will be sold in
EUROPE The price in gold that bonis will
pfing IN this market depends upon their cur
reney price here and upon the premium on
gold. war in Europe does not In itself pre-
sent any contingencies likely to affect the cur
renoy price of our bonds, and we may there
lore, safely say that the price which our bonds
sent here from Europe will bring in gold de-
pends exclusively upon the currency premium
IN gold. The present premium upon gold is
based entirely upon the stock of gold now in
the country. Any diminution or prospect of
diminution in this stock would Immediately
advance the price in proporton--and so we'll
Is this understood by all Wall street, that the
price is now, and has been for ten days past
regulated entirely by the London price of our
bonds, and has been held at a point at which
bonds cannot be imported from Europe at a
profit, or, in other words, at q point at which
there is no probability of the stock being re-
duced by heavy shipments.
Last year the pressure OF public and private
opinion upon the Secretary of the Treasure
forced him, against his own better Judgment
it is believed, to sell large amounts Of goId
and thus depress the price. Il Is notoPions
that during the whole of last years panic I'm
Europe it was, in consequence of the low
price of gold, highly profitable operation to
bring bonds here for sale and ship the coin
against them. To such a point was this car
ried that we actually sent more gold over than
Europe required, so that large part of il was
sent back in September aud October. in nav
ment of the very bonds returned in Nav and
June The utter folly of this course is too
well understood now to permit its repetition to
be for one moment thought of Nothing is.
therefore, likely to be done by the Govern.
ment this time to make it a safe and profitable
operation for foreign nations to drain us of our
coin and defer again for an unlimited period
our return to specie payments. 1t seems
then; not unreasonable to assume that in case
of actual war or of continued fear of war, the
price of gold here will continue to rule at or
near point at which our bonds cannot be i'm
ported from Europe at profit.
But, apart from any security thus afforded
us against the return of our bonds by the ad-
vance in gold, we believe that after the first
panic our bonds will not only not suffer very
material or permanent decline, but that, on
the contrary, the fact of our being compare
lively uninfuenced by the war itself will
cause our securities to be sought after in pre-
ference to those of any European Government.
We Furthermore believe that in case of a
war between two such powerful nations as
France and Germany, which would, fnan-
cally and commercially involve almost every
nation of Europe, we should see a repetition
of our experience of war in its influence on
one financial movement. During the first year
of our war the people of the United States
withdrew from banks and boarded over eighty
millions of gold, in addition to the sums
already in circulation before the war began.
If this experience should repeat itself among
the less well-informed peoples of Europe, no
bank in Europe would be able to stand the
drain.
We might then see the banks of England
and France undergo the same fate as our
banks in 1861, and, after a period of financial
disturbance, see their specie come here for
safe-keeping, as ours went to Europe in 1862
and 1863. We might then see ourselves reap
ing the same harvest on sea and land that the
European peoples reaped during our war, and
praying that their wars might never end.
But remembering the great law of the solida-
rity of nations, let us rather hope that, by the
wisdom of rulers and the patience of the
people, peace may yet be preserved, as we
have no doubt it will be, in spite of the threat
ening aspect of things and that many years
may pass before that great messenger of peace,
the Atlantic Telegraph Cable, be again per-
verted to purposes of strife and suffering.