The Portland daily press., 1868-02-24
'e,ms $500 pen. ana.xn,, S,e advance.

have ample exempliGcation. The gold that
as matter of curiosity, finds its way into the
pockets of the people in the first novelty of
restored specie payments, for safety and con-
venience will soon find its way back to the
vaults of the banks and the Treasury, be-
coming the guage and security of the cur
rency rather than the currency itself.
But should there be disposition to put to
the test the full power of the Treasury what
resources are TO meet it? The whole volume
OF treasury notes is S356,O0O,OOO. of this sum
s2o,OOO,O0O are in the Treasury, and it is
claimed that the Banks hold as reserves
SloOOOoOO0, every dollar of which they will
hold to maintain their own solvency. There
remains hut S1s1 100000 to be presented for
payment. Only the surplus OF this, such as is
not needed for present payments, will be re-
leased, and that will seek investment in bonds
rather than in coin if the effect of specie pay
ments be to enhance the price of bonds, as is
generally asserted.
But as there may some doubt whether tie
effect of specie payments may not be to de-
preciate the price of bonds then the Treasury
has S9S,000,000 of coin to start with and If the
call for coin should exhaust that, Congress
might well put upon the market fer what it
would bring gold loan with which to MAIN
tain its purpose of specie payment.
On the part of the government there is no
obstacle in the way of specie payments,
which a firm and energetic Finance Minister,
as bold and as fertile in resources for paying
as Secretary Chase was in resources for bor-
routing, could not by obstinate honesty and
good faith overcome.
A concern for the interest OF the people,
however, has ostensibly delayed specie pay
ments thus far. OF course the enhancement
of values occasioned by the depreciation OF
currency must be destroyed by bringing cur
rency to the value of gold. Other causes
have affected values. Gold itselfis perhaps
absolutely cheaper, than it was in 1860.
Some articles will be higher, some cheaper
than under the old order. on account of di-
minished demand or supply. But aside from
the operation OF secondary causes, specie pay
ments must tend to lower nominal values
from 10 to S3 per cent. Isnot this inevitable ?
If political economists or business men have
found out way TO carry gold down from
140 to 100 without affecting.th exchangable
value of commodities, by all means let us
have their method and wait the experiment.
Bus If that cannot be done the sooner we
race the inevitable difficulty the sooner we
surmount it.
Whoever has bought goods, ships, merchan-
disc or real estate, and has paid for them is
not affected by the nominal depreciation OF
values. He has the property at the same in
trinsic value and the same gold value. But
whoever has bought and has not paid must
pay in the equivalent of coin and SO paw
more. 1t is the debtor class, that have an in
terest to postpone specie payments. But the
debtor class have already been warned by
three years of contraction to prepare for this
very event, and it is evident tine debtor class
was never so incousiderable In this country
as now. More mortgages have been paid,
more membranes of long standing cleared
off in the last five years than ever before in
the same period, and those whose affairs are
~ uSopOlotC IHdt buO uiSu bIueS OI 1904 90
did not float them off the shore of debt, need
more summary remedies than the continued
suppression OF all legitimate and lucrative
business by the people at large.
The present is eminently favorable for the
resumption of specie payments. The South
is impoverished almost to beggary. At the
North business has been carried on without
profit, without any increase of capital. Busi-
ness is duller than it has been known to be
for 20 years. Values are almost reduced to
tho STANDARD of Svid In vottun and wooden
goods, and all commodities not enhanced by
actual scarcity, How easy to bridge the mar.
row chasm that separates US from coin values.
Why permit business to open in the spring
on any other than firm and permanent ba-
sis. Our commercial marine is fallen so low
that eur commerce scarcely maintains itself
on the seas. Why should it ever be rein
stated except at cost, which will yield fair
| profit to our merchants?@ Why build up the
devastated South upon anything brt the sol
id gold of real wealth as well as the solid gold
| of liberty and impartial suffrage? Why re-
establish those great industrial and manufac-
| turing enterprises, which the redistribution
| Cf the wealth now invested in the national
debt of The people is destined to stimulate,
at such cost as shall enable us to defy the
competition of the world? 7-Es
|