The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-22

How 10 restore our currency, without bank
ruptipg the people, Is the question:. Aud to
do this we must appreciate the currency
without appreoiating the debts. To raise the
paper dollar, which is now worth IS or 70
cents In coin, to the value Of 100 cents in coin,
and still leave all the indebtedness that was
created upon the paper basis subject to pay
ment at the rate Of So or 40 cents in coin, is a
desideratum. We state 1t in exceedingly mild
phrase when We say desideratumj for it is
indispensable to restoration of our money to
the coin standard without general bankruptcy.
So essential is 1t that we do not believe that
measures will ever be taken to raise our cur
rency to par unless they at the same time pro-
vide that existing debts shall be settled upon
the basis OF the present value of the currency.
And II they should be taken, they would not
stand against the outcry which their oppres-
sion would raise when the operation OF in
oreasipg the price OF the dollar to pay debts
began to be felt.
All monetary schemes which do not pro.
vide for settling the indebtedness that was
created upon the basis OF from sixty TO
seventy cents for a dollar upon the same
basis, merely show that the sohemers are
wholly ignorant of the vital parts of the none
tary problem. A plan which shall provide
that while the paper money imitation is re-
duced the indebtedness shall not be increased,
and that an equivalent in real money to the
previous average value of the paper dollar
shall pay dollar of the previous indebted
ness, would remove all the hardship of the
restoration of the currrncy. II would solve
the financial problem. Such a plan is pro-
posed Mr.. by V. b. Denslow, and has been laid
before number of members of Congress. We
need not state it in detail, save to say that its
details are carefully prepared to meet every
part of this complicated problem, and to make
the restoration Of the currency work smoothly
to people, Government and banks, while
leaving the existing indebtedness, OF all sorts,
subject to settlement in coin or par money
upon the basis of the previous average value
of the currency.
To provide an "elastio" paper currency as
the legal-tenders 60 out, Mr. Denslow proposes
to remove the limitations to the amount of
national bank currency, and to furnish notes
to all who will deposit security with the pro-
viso of specie payment. Specie is the true
regulator for that issue. There is no reason
in restriction.
Mr.. Denslow's plan has these distinctions
from all those that have been proposed by our
public fnanciers or legislators, namely, that
it recognizes and meets the main feature of the
monetary problem, which is the increase Of
near so per cent. that would take place in the
10000 millions of private and corporate debts
by raising the value Of the currency of pay
ment to par; that it takes care of the debtors,
who by such plans as those of McCullooh,
Sherman, Morton, and thousand others, .are
to be slaughtered; that it makes the restora-
tion of the currency practicable without gene
| raj bankruptcy and ruin, that it makes way
for rapid restoration without disturbance to
trade, and by which the legal-tender clause
| may be abolished without affecting existing
| contracts.
Whether it is perfect in all its details we do
not mean to say, but if not it can be made so.
1t is our firm belief that no plan for restoring
| our currency will ever be carried out-even if
! adopted-which does not provide such way
| for settling existing private and corporate in
| debtedness upon the basis of the specie value
of the currency in which they were created.
| Not till currency plans make this provision do
they rise above blind empiricism. Plans
which do not provide for this are simply bills
to put the American people into bankruptcy,
and to crush all the public resources.