The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-12-12
THE PR SS,
Saturday Morning, December IL, 1883.


Tho Resumption of specie Payments.
The remark that financial questions are dis.
cussed by the newspapers with more zeal than
wisdom finds an apt illustration in the remark.
able vacillations OF prominent metropolitan
Journal on the resumption of specie payments.
Last March Mr.. Lynch of this Congressional
district introduced in the House OF Repre-
sentatiyes two bills, one "to prevent the uu-
due expansions and cont:actlons of the cur
rency and one for "the gradual resumption
OF specie payments" These bills attracted
much attention at the time and have grown
steadily in public favor ever since On the
10th day of April, of the present year, the
New York Tribune discussed them in the fol-
lowing eulosistic terms:
MR.. LYNcH's GRADUAL RESUMPTION PLAN.
Mr.. Lynch of Maine has pending in the
House Of Representatives a plan for the grad
ual resumption of specie payments. Briefly
stated, 1t consists in issuing from the Treas
nry coupon bonds to the amount of S3O0,OOV,-
0oO, of denominations of 800 and upwards
bearing interest at the rate OF per cent pay
able quarterly in lawful money, and makIng
these and greenbacks recprocally co nF tIu
into each other at the pleasure o. tn9 H Sto4a.
Alter the first Of May next al oni i E.a.es
legal tender notes received by t1e = uiIeu
States saw $3.50 mn oo0 per year, or $4,000, 900
nSr month arc 10 he ycfired and des royed and
- in their stead notes payaDiS III ome year from
date in coin, are to peg 70 ail creators OF
beretof,re been paid. By thu first day of Nav
1859 $3.50 100000 in coin notes would have
taken the place OF the present greenbacks;
having been paid out for salaries Goyernu emf
contracts. currency interest. and all expenses
Of the Government These notes will come
due at the rate OF half million per day during
the year 1859, and would be redeemed in gold
by repeating the same operation for 1869
aud 1870, the whole issue of greenbacks now
outstanding would have been converted into
demand notes, and would be redeemabIe in
gold by May /, 1871. Mr.. Lynch saws he
firmly believes that the preservation and re-
dempJiyn of the first S15000O00 of these notes
would so establish pubic confidence as to re-
duee the premium on gold 90 nominal fir
ure.
Tho difference between the plans, and that
oi immaculate resumption, is that it limits the
amount OF notes which eau be presented for
redemption to halt million dollars per day
- alter one year from fhe LIST day of Nav next
As our gold receipts for customs amount to
about one third OF a million dollars per day, il
Is thought that so gradual run upon the
treasury for its god could be successfully
met until public confidence had so far i'm
proved as to reduce the premium on gold to
'minal fSure, when specie payments would
b, resumed by the banks aud the people vol
uEarily. M Lyitcks Plan is one of the
M st thoughtful. of the gradual plans Of re-
su nptfon pet Gdc0nced.
AT the beginning OF the present session Of
Congress, Mr.. Lynchs scheme again attracted
public attention and the Tribune awaited itself
of this opportunity TO afford most CHARMING
spectacle of self-torgetfuness aud self.contro.
dctron. 1t has made curious discoveries in
the course OF eight months. After restate-
ment of the provisions of the two hills If now
fst1Js fbaf nF.ar a. e-Hl
l. Would not the p yinent Of the members
81 congress, oh1cers contractors, cIerks sol
dlers, sailors, and other beneficiaries of the
government, in notfS due in coin in one year
wniie the producers and taxpayers are still
using the old National Bank note aud green
back currency amount 10 an immediate addi-
ton OF aoout twenty per cent to the nav ot all
Federal officers? and would not tbe new notes
TO be i'sued under this act bear p-emi1m of
about twenty per cent. over the REMAINING
currency OF the country?
IL. SO long as they should bear premium,
wonld they not, like gold, bel boarded for pay
ment in gold? and would not so great a re-
duction in the volume of the currency as the
abstraction Of S1SOOo0,00O year by the Gov
trumeht, without any outflow of currency
Eavlng the same value as the National Bank
notes. tho old legal tenders and the general
m ney OF account" in use in business. occa.
SION such stringency of the money maket as
"9qIa compel the abandonment of this plan?
W ouiu tHo people submit to, be
Dehehtted by, a plan which adds twenty per
cent gold value to the expense of the govern
ment, and the salaries of its officers. while II
tightens the money market with tremendous
business community?
~. Would hot the new notes be a fancy
s.ock for politicians instead of currency ior J
the people? "
V. Would itbe feasible to require the Ma
tional Banks or the people to redeem their
debts in these new notes, when thera is No
provision by which they NAV get them, unless
they are employed by the government?
VI Gan specie payments be resumed by
any measures which do not enable the Deope
and the banks to resume?
There may be points in M. Lynnh's plan
which, in combination with others of which it
makes no mention, would do well enough
Bot it IS very incomplete, ond by itself Would
not work well.
Though these objections are difusely stated
they amount to precisely this: The notes is
sued in lieu of greenbacks which are reedma.
Die in one year in coin will have greater VAL
ue than the other paper currency of the coun.
try and will be boarded at the rate of S1SoOoO-
200 year, thus producing stringency in the
money market and giving the lucky individu-
ais to whom they are paid by the government
IN the ordinary course of business an undue
advantage over other creditors II il can be
proved that no weight attaches to this obiec-
ton all the other q1alms of the Tribune will
be relieved
And here fortunately We can enable ibe
Tribune to answer itself. Ia its article of
ADrl 10th it says that "Mr. Lynch firmly he
ileVes that the presentation and payment of
the first Sl5,00o03O OF these notes ,cou,d so e.
toossse pubic confidence as to reduce The pye0ai.
N IN
mentary terms in which the Tribune spoke of
the scheme in its first article constituted an
emphatic endorsement of all that VI as said in
i,s favor, this expression OF confidence on the
part OF MIR. Lynch among the rest. Now
wouldn't it be little stupid for people who
happened to get these notes, say in June. 1869
assuming that the law should go into effect
next May TO hoard them for pay nent in gold
at a nominal premium at the end of one near?
Ihe ktrlngency of the money market, then. at
worst, would be only that produced By the
withdrawal of the first SIS 600 900 of currency.
Inc strong point of the plan is that tbs new
notes draw the whole paper currency of the
country with them, with only nominal DIFF.
ference OF value between them, up to par with
gold. As TO the effect on national hank notes
Mr.. Lynch in his speech of March 7th. 1868.
made the following statement:
While The p ocess of conversion went on. and
perhaps IN IL the maturity of all the coin notes
they would probably be preferred TO the ma
tonai bank notes; but this preference wouId
only tend to retire the former temporarily from
circulation and to impart an increased activity
10 the circulation Of the latter. The national |
bank notes would still be | gal tender for the |
same purposes as now, and although the Unit. |
ed states notes might appreciate the fastest. |
me bank notes must be drawn mp with them
9ntl All reached the high level Of specie re- |
The last two queries of the Tribune are |
made up of gratuitous assumptions. Mr.. |
Lynch's scheme is for the gradual resumption |
Ct specie payments, and does not contemplate |
immediate gold payment by banks and the
people. 1t looks to the initiation by the gov
eminent of goId payments, to be followed cas-
lily and naturally By q general resumption by |
the bridging over of the gulf between paper |
currency and coin The Tribuna's plan is well |
known to be instantaneous resumption nv
means of an inscription over the door of the |
Ireasury-essay, perhaps, but as miraculous
as instantaneous conversion"
THE BRUNSWICK BANK TROUBLES.
Brunswick Telegraph gives what it claims as a
Sf1 Inn, . Al