The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-08

Chamber involved the single matter of degree.
None denied the necessity Of preparing for the
resumption Of specie payments; none essayed
a defense Of the doctrine of finconvertibilitv. or
of the propositions that have been propounded
in and out of Congress to remedy the disasters
of imitation by swelling its volume On the
contrary, the dangers and evils of the present
system were admitted on all hands, and if the
moderate view, taking into account the re-
quirements of trade, prevailed, it was against
the plan of precipitating resumption regard
less of its effect upon business and industrial
interests.
1t is not too much to say that the view thus
expressed by the Chamber is in harmony with
the view entertained by the mercantile and
manufacturing interests of the older States.
In the West the case may be different. The
lack OF capital, the fondness for high
pressure IN everything, the speculative
aspects which even trade assumes, and the
habit OF anticipating always "big chances" in
the future, predispose Western communities
to resist any diminution of the quantity of
circulating paper. There, nobody ever COM
plans OF over-issues of currency. All is
balloonlng, hte-hying, and a go-aheadism
Whlch 10 the more cautious people of the East
looks like gambling in the guise of trade. If
the hnancier demonstrates that the amount
OF currency afloat is in excess of legitimate
wants, and that the alternative is contraction
with all its inconvenience or continued infa-
tlon resulting in national bankruptcy, the
genuine Western man insists that time will
make all things right by bringing the volume
OF trade up to the volume of currency. The
Idea will not endure investigation, but it is
essentially a Western idea, and is at the
bottom of the movement adverse to contrac-
ton, which derives its chief strength from
that section.
The only support it receives in New York,
or Boston, or Philadelphia, is rendered by the
spectators, whose vocation is sadly marred by
every real effort to get back to the hard-pan of
specie payments. Spectators of every grade
in gold and stocks, in grain and pork, in
cotton and petroleum-are all against cOntrao-
ton. Every turn of the treasury screw elicits
from them protest against reducing the cur
rency. There is not one greenback too many
for their purposes. Multiply them hundred
fold-blow the bubble to any size not necessa-
rly entailing a crack-and they would be in
ecstacies. The process that embarasses indus
try, jeopardizes honest trade, and enhances
the price of every article worn or consumed to
degree that entails suffering upon thousands,
renders the speculator supremely happy. He
would have the days of 1864-5, when gold
was out of sight and keen operators waxed
rich between the rising and the setting of the
sun, prolonged to eternity. The atmosphere
of those days was a veritable elixir of life to
the whole race of gamblers and spectators.
The sharp, bright air of resumption, which
nerves the arm of industry and infuses health
into the body polite, is to them peculiarly
obnoxious. And the outcry they raise as regu-
larly as the gentle Whit comes from the Trea-
sury appears to mislead both the public and
the Secretary. Because speculation is at a
standstill, we are told that contraction, even
zff
operating disastrously. Because spectators
complain of stringency, we are asked to assume
that business interests generally are suffering
from the Secretary's adherence to the policy
of Congress. In both instances, the allegation
is fallacious. 1t is the very opposite of the
truth. Whatever stringency spectators eX-
perience it is undeniable that money enough,
and more than enough, is Obtainable for legi-
innate purposes. If, with all this currency
outstanding, Wall street witnesses almost
constant stagnation, it is because the bona tide
men of money have lost faith in stocks, which
are at the mercy of INSCRIPTIONS combina-
tions, and have no longer relish for games in
which outsiders are invariably the losers.
Meanwhile, they who have their eye fixed on
resumption as the goal of their hopes and the
aim of their labors, discern in the decline of
speculation merely necessary consequence of
the policy which alone can redeem the credit
of the country.
The voice of the Chamber of Commerce
should embolden the Secretary of the Trea-
sury to adhere steadfastly to the path leading
to resumption. His reported desire to listen
to the wall that goes up from the haunts of
spectators, looks sometimes like a fOrgetful-
ness of the higher obligation which the Gov
ernment owes to industry and trade. 1t is
meet, as the Chamber AYERS, that the calling
in of greenbacks should be pursued so judi
ciously that no sudden or superfiuous injury
shall happen to any class. But there ought
to be no looking back, no hesitancy, no mis-
placed anxiety for special interests to the
detriment of the community. The power
vested in the Secretary is, at best, narrow;
and the mischief produced by the refusal of
Congress to sanction bolder measures is aggra-
waited when the discretion vested in him is
exercised for the convenience of a few rather
than the benefit Of the many.
aud