The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-21
PrelimInaries to Resumption.

From the ". 7. World.
Senator Morton's speech oOnvinces us that
resumption is yet a long way in the future.
Though worthless and prepOsterous as an
argument, his speech is nevertheless of cOnsi-
derable value as an indication of the existing
state of public opinion. He proposed his bill
with wish to have it pass; and as we must
suppose him to understand the temper of Con-
gress and the West We infer, from the idea
which he eXpends all his strength in combat
ting, that Congress and the West will not
consent to any scheme of resumption which
seems to them to involve a contraction of
the currency as its accompaniment 1t ap-
pears to have been almost the sole aim of
Mr.. Morton's speech to disarm this fear; he
felt that, unless he could succeed in doing so,
his bill would not, to use slang phrase, have
''a ghost of a chance" Hence his labo-
rious and futile attempt to prove that the
depreciation of the currency does not result
from redundance but from discredit. Hence
his vehement assault upon the positions of
Secretary McCulloch, whose former policy of
contraction (Which he still believes the true
one) was so strongly reprobated by the West,
and so emphatically condemned and repu-
dated by Congress. This fresh evidence,
which Mr.. Morton's speech affords, that CON
traction will not be tolerated in the present
state of public feeling, seems to set the ques-
tion of early resumption practically at rest;
since nothing is more demOnstrably certain
than that resumption is impossible without
the dreaded accompaniment OF contraction. II
resumption is still distant, it is important
that the country should understand it, as every
element of uncertainty operates injunously on
business calculations.
But while the currency will not soon be con-
tracted, it seems almost equally certain that it
will not be further expanded. The ground OF
this opinion is the felt inconvenience OF the
present state of things, and the growing con-
victOn that esdmptiOn is greatly desirable, as
evidenced in the deep interest which Mr.. Nor
toms bill and the schOres Of similar schemes
excite in the public mind. With tOlerable
certainty that there will be no contraction nor
any further initiation for two or three years to
come, the business community must do the
best il can. Business of course caunot stop;
and, within certain limits, it can calculate the
immediate future. All engagements not ex
tending beyond two or three years will be met
in currency of about tue same value as that
in which they are contracted. This being the
case, the passage OF bill authorizing gold
contracts is not matter of any great import
ance, for comparatively few would avail them
selves of such an authorization; but the mea-
sure is so upobiectionable in itself, nay, so
Just and right, that it ought to be passed, in
order that all who choose may avail them
selves of that liberty.
The only practical question that seems to
be really OPP II, Is, what can now De uone 10
smooth the way to resumption when the
times are more propitiousY capital diff
Guilty in the way of resumption, even il the
country would brook the necessary contrac-
tion, is our heavy foreign indebtedness and
the constant danger which thence results Of an
unfavorable state of the exchanges. The
Secretary of the Treasury estimates that
American securities held abroad amount to the
enormous sum of eight hundred and fifty mil
Of 30 1t1 Of uf
and railroad bonds, but the greater part of it Of
Government securities. IL is by the expOrta-
tion of fve-twenty bonds that we have been,
for the last five years, paying for our impOrta-
tions of foreign goods These have been the
! substitute for our former vast expectations OF