The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-02

specie payments; for, with a redeemable cur
rtncy and a foreign balance against us n run
would be made upon the banks, draining them
ot inc gold to send abroad and forcing them into
suspension. Therestoraton of specie payments
though first in the order of importance and the
st which should have occupied the attention of
the Government, can never be accomDlished
except as the result of great preparatory mons
ures. IL required to be kept steadily in Wow
not as thing to be speedily achieved hut rs the
chief end towards which the financial uolicv of
the Government should be directed The pyime
condition Of its atanment-the Fundamental
prclimiuary-was a revival Of the export indus
try of the country, to prevent heavy bal
ances against US in our foreign trade Our
great staple export is cotton, the demand for
which, unlike the foreign demand for otbor nro-
ducts of our agriculture, does not depend upon
the iluctuating harvcsts of Europe If we could
monopoli2e the market, as we did before the
war; if we coid export hundred million dol
lars worth of cotton per annum, as we did
before the war, our financial condition would be
comparatively secure. With this main reliance
to give steadncss to our exports we couId stand
the variations in the foreign demand for grain
the deficiencies OF some years being compen-
sated by the extra demand of others and the
oscillations being no greater than the ordinary
gold reserves in our banks would suffice TO meet
without derangng the currency.
The shipping interest," if it could be revived,
would be the most important steady auxiliary to
the cotton crops as q means of turning the
balance of foreign trade in our favor. If our
cotton and grain were exported i'm American
ships the credit side of our foreign account
would be increased by the value of all the out
ward freights: and if American ships brought
back our Imports the debit side would be dimin-
ished by the amount of all the inward freiphts
This, like cotton, would be a steady yresource and
it would constantly expand with the growth Of
our foreign trade.
Our Government, instead of attempting to
rebuild these shattered pillars of our prosperity
has done all it could to keep them broken and
A eay,N,. . IL
all its energies to crush the foreign competition
to our cotton crop and recover for it its old
supremacy it burdened it with q heavy excise
duty, and it has kept the South for four whole
years, in so unsettled and uncertain a condition
as to shut out the capital which that exhausted
section needed for the revival of its industry.
Our PROSTATE shipping interest has been treated
in a manner almost equally absurd BY eXorbi-
tant taxes on everything that enters into the
construction of vessels, we have enabled
foreigners to keep and extend the advantages
they gained over us during the war in this great
branch of the national industry as they have
kept and extended the advantages they gain in
| the cultivation of cotton. One consequence is,
| that, instead of approaching specie payments,
we have been rendering a return to them con-
stantly more difficult ever since the close OF the
war.
| The only reason why we have cone on so long
| without a great financial crash is, that the ex-
| portatiOn of Government bonds, to be sold in
! foreign markets at ruinouS discount, has en-
abled us to incur heavy debts and postpone the
! evil day. When there are no more bonds to be
! exported in such prodigal abundance the con-
! vulsiOn will inevitably come, unless we can
meanwhile re-establish our great exporting in
dusries; and the severity of the storm will be in
proportion to the length of the postponement.
| Every hundred million of bonds that we export
creates a necessity of annually sending abroad
six millions of gold to pay the interest on them;
and, sooner or later, we must send money abroad
to pay the principal. When we stop exporting
nnE W. GhD moi q a a
balance of trade to meet, but the postponed obli-
! cations which result from the policy we have so
long pursued of paying our current debts by in
curing permanent ones. Unless American
cotton RECEIVERS its old supremacy, and Ameri-
can shipping its former prosperity, the wisest
among us can see no way out out of the financial
embaTassments which are beginning to press
! close upon us.