New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-11-25
Comments by The Tribune.

| terms, IL may DO Uuci OUT III any pid'u'"i
effective sense, it is not true. The ~ J. Herald
for instance, has steadily dsparaged Resump-
! ton rs n blunder and n calamity, to DO post
noned to some indefinite future. we know
bankers who dom see how matters could be
mich better (for them than they now are,
and who talk of growing up to Resumption
| through the steady increase OF our crops, the
nev,uent of our debts, &c. So far as we can
Judge, they think we may be able TO resume
easily and naturally some ten or fifteen years
hence. "The desire to get back to hard cash
Z" basis all" do not feel" and that is the
main obstacle to Resumption.
ii. "Divested of surplusage," the case stands
substantially thus: 1. Most people are in debt
.. They are unable or unwilling to pay. ..
When they do pay, they want to make little
property go a great way in satisfying their
creditors demands. L. They understand that
Resumption will by no means conduce to tins
end. .. They apprehend that it Will cause
their creditors TO press for payment, while
banks must contract thoir discounts Hence,
whatever they may sag, the debtor class makes
itself felt against Resumption, even while it
may seem to talk vaguely the other way.
III. The difficulty with the contraction pol
"icyr was Just this: II inteyJered cih the gains
ofbankers, and the ease Of debtors. The former
could not lend so freely, the latter could not
increase or renew their lOans so easily. as they
can under the egis of Suspension. So they
combined to arrest Contraction, just when 1t
began to draw the country irresistibly toward
Resumption; and they will do that very same
whenever they feel the shoe pinch again. 20
we choose to approach the goal from another
direction.
". We shall resume whenever the People
earnestly will il, "a we might have resumed
three years ago, with even less hardship than
now. And the People will demand Resumption
whenever the Press shall have done its duty
TO this end. it should make plain 10 the million
that there is no real benefit. but much peril
and harm, to Productive Labor IN having
slippery instead of reliable doar-in calling
sixty cents to-day. seventy tomorrow. and
sxty-fivc next day, the dollar which II plainly
is not, and thus Initiating universally but un-
evenly the nominal prices of Labor Land, Food.
Clothing. &c, &c The Press should say Ia
the Working Man "lOur wages will be
"nominally lower after Resumption than now
"but all that your wages buy will also be lower,
&" so that you will lose nothing. but probably
"gain, by going back to hard pan
1t should say to the capitalist, " Your
property will be worth fewer thou
sands of dollars after Resumption and your in
"come will shrink correspondngly; but $4,000
"then will, TO all intcnts and purposes he the
"same rs 100000 now and your $1,000 year
twill buy you ms large a share of the comforts of
life as your $1,000 now do II should say TO
the patriot, "Our country is steadily increasing
cts foreign indebtedness through the impOrta-
"tion of too many goods and the expectation
"of Government bonds to pay for them. We
"must stop this before we are bankrupt aud
"the only way to do it lies through Rcsump-
"tionn Were the Press but sound and earnest,
we should soon have public sentiment that
sternly demanded Resumption; and the will
would find or make the way
V. In order TO resume with moral certainty
of maintaining Specie Payments We do not
need more gold in nor ont Of the Treasury-we
have q superabundance already We need only
that tho National Credit shall be so appreciated
that an American COnsOl, untaxable and bear
ing q low rate Of interest, shall command a
premium. To float such Consol, we need,
first, to remove all doubt as to the payment
of our National Debt in coin; secondly, to
diminish, 80 far as possible, the amount OF
aggregate Of our Bonds pressing on the market.
To this end, the Secretary Of the Treasury
should use his surplus coin IN buying up bonds
to the extent of Fifty to Seventy Millions in.
stead of selling it for Greenbacks; and the
Revenue should be more faithfully collected,
so as to create u decided surplus of current in
come over current expenditure. Having thus
made bonds scarce and the Treasury strong. n
new COnsol should be offered, untaxable, paya-
BILE principal and interest in gold, and having
twenty to fifty years to run. This Consol
should and would command n small premium
negotiated mt premium, our past-due
Five-Twenties should be called in and paid off
with the proceeds thereof Thus, issuing new
bonds no faster than old ones are called in,
Cancelled and destroyed, the bond market would
be kept buoyant and eager, and the new Con-
sol at premium in gold. Now let the Treas
ury resume Specie Payment paying out and
receiving Greenbacks and Gold indfferently
but empowered and prepared to borrow tenn
pOrarily at q higher rate of interest in ease of
a run on it for gold. We doubt whether
any serious run would be made il il were it
could easily be met by borrowing on short
time at six to eight per cent. rs should be
found necessary Ten Millions in coin will pro-
tect the Treasury against runs for gold so
long as it is prepared to buy gold i'll the open
market by selling n security worth more
than gold. Such u u ready way " Resgwp-