New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-12-13

/ NJ
backs obtained by their sale, pay the bonus i""
standing The late issue Of United o'"''S OO"'o'
| interest payable in gold, and pIlhcipm suPPO
he is now selling at a small premium III GIeoi'"'
! and any large addition to the supply loi "'J 49,
- ,,,,ld M doubt have to be sold Mt par Oh lcS''
! "a that nothing would be gained by ,ho oA''''e
| Ru+ If new bonds were issued iOr Tue purpose -
having the public creditors in the manner P'opo',
'S,. mid find purchasers only at very low rates II
| ot all II would make precisely the case piesci'ou
L tho Illinois farmer who opposed Stare repuuatoh'
o,d advocated hiring $3CO0OOO TO give the creditors
| g., .boir sI5OOOOOO of bonds and then II the new
| aroditors nressed them hard repudlate on that
The question arises equally in both cases, who VIII
f,rrisb tle three or the three thousand millions 10
be repudated.
As n community we are still selling our bonds
abroad and the suggestion of these measures OF eva
sion. by impairing our credit enables foreigners 10
buy our securities at less rates than they would oth-
erwise pay, increasing onr eventual loss. we thus
suffer by threatening what we will never be mad
enough to attempt and in which We would most Cd
viously and ingOriously fail if we should.
The honest payment of the bonds. in conformity 10
the contract as understood ut the time by D0th
parties to it, is now denounced as policy making
the rich richer and the poor poorer" dishonest
national policy would make us all poor indeed. But
repudiation-partal or thorough-will not exciu-
sively affect the rich In the aggregate very large
amonnt of Government securities are directly held
in small sums by people of small means, and through
Banks Insurance, Trust Companies. ana institutions
for savings this same class indirectly holds large
proportion of the Government debt, ana any oepic,
citation in its value will fall moro heavily upon ana
he moro severely felt by them than by the rch'
where investments are generally more varied IL Is
asserted that the Government has the Hsht 10 MAKE
leather tin or paper legal tender AS appheu' 10
tender for preGxsting obligations. she word ilgn'
can here be used only in the sense OF aulhor'S VI
novver and is equivalent TO claim of right lpoweTl
to repudate its debt entirely. If the Government
can demand the surrender Of $1,000 bondior worth
less scrap Of tin or leather it well declare the
bond forfeited without such mockery OF payment
The Government might make leather, TIN, or paper
legal tender without committing the fraud of giving
IL the names of our cOn and making 1t apply to eX-
listing obligations. The word dollars Is already
written IN the bonds and cannot be altered, hence
Mr. Stevens ingeniOusy proposes to adopt the course
of Dermot McNIurroughs plan exclusively:
"And since we cannot alter names,
by Cd wen change the hingS Sir
In regard TO future contracts. no Government can
impart value to what in itself is yalneless. Iin'
leather, paper, on its own promises viii pass for
what they are deemed 10 be worth, and no more and
AT this day no Government would probably commit
the folly of attempting to counteract this law OF
trade
Those who live by specializing upon the fuctuating
values of property and those who are in debt, have
a special pecuniary interest in continuing huctuat-
ing and inflated currency Since the war large
debtor interest has grown up, and become the ally OF
the spectators who at that time stood elmost alone
in opposing an early return to specie payments The
specializing and debtor interests are always Ngiant
and active but it is by Credable to the IN
teligence of our country that they have succeeded
in obtaining a foothold for the idea that an inflated
irredeemal1e paper currency is not evil. This is
opposed to all the results of scientific investigation
and experience There is hardly State in this
Union ont of the gold regions which has not here
tofore tried and suffered by such experiments. They
are the resource sometimes perhapsthe necessaryre'
source of financial debility, but Ofener the mistakes
of ignorance and always ultimately injurious and eH-
pensive. No country can now better AFFORD the best
forms of currency than ours and to permit any other
would be attributable not TO poverty but 10 our
folly.
Tha evils Of an iTedeemable currency are numer-
| ous Among them may here note that the huctn-
aons in its value subject all business TO the risks OF
| gambling. This discOurages regular industry. and
induces large numbers TO devote themselves specu-
lation. leaving the burdens OF the community to be
borne by a reduced number of actual producers. In
the speculative period, Immediately preceding the
commercial disasters of 1884, imported wheat and
even hay. This year we imported flour, and but lor
the large supplies from the gold paying States, the
! ouantity imported from Europe would have been
much greater Still the West is discouraged because
the food which it produces is there so cheap. The
East cannot reduce the cost OF its fabrics because
there this same food is dear and the factories arc
suspending work. Labor cannot be employed, with
=. ~ oil or
clothing This may in part arise from higher
standard Of living having been generally adopted
during the rampant period of expansion than our
productive labor diminished by army. taken for
the fields Of battle and another now in the fields Of
speeulaton, can maintain The improved machinery
of production has, however largely compensated for
this diminution in labor, and must look for other
causes of the existing conditions. The cost of dis
trbutng generally bears large ratio TO the cost Of
producing Hence the machinery for the former is
little if any less important than that for the latter
object, and, currency being one of the main agents
for facilitating distribution, the Government might
as well ordain that our farmers should substitute the
old pointed stick for the improved plow that they
should use an irredeemable paper currency. The
high cost of the transit of grain which is the first
step in its distribution. is the bane of our West
ern farmers; but with gold at 40 capitalists will not
invest in vessels, canal boats, railroads, and rolling
stock, unless they can get large immediate returns,
for the extra cost of 40 per cent may all be lost by
change in the currency. The price which invites
competition must therefore be very high, and hence
with high prices at the seaboard the main business
of [the West is Improbable, and this reactng upon
the manufacturing sections in the East, a general
stagnation is produced The currency wabbes and
the whole machinery of distribution is deranged. 1t
may be doubted whether this cause is adequate to