The Portland daily press., 1869-04-27
Ths Cein i'm she Treasury.

Much is said respecting the ignorance of the
public on financial questions. But if we mis-
take not the real difficulty is a reluctance to
apply financial principles when they cut into
scme pet scheme, rather than an ignorance of
the principles. themselves An instance of
this reluctance is to be found in the comments
of some OF the public Journals upon the policy
Of keeping gold reserve in the treasury. A
great outcry is made because, as is asserted, SO
much coin is Withdrawn from commerce, Gre
ting scarcity in the market while it is LETT TO
lie idle. 1t is necessary 10 repeat what mas ~
often been shown before that the COIN IN INC
Treasury is not lying idle any more than tne
specie accumulated by suspended bank with
view to resumption Is lying idle simply be-
cause no definite time has been fixed to COM
mence. It is not lying idle because it is pro-
ducing an effect by giving currency to our
notes. 1t is pledge to the world of our abil-
ity and of our intention to resume SO soon as
we can agree upon plan. Let the govern
ment part with the gold now in the Treasury
and it would be considered equivalent to an
indefinite postponement of all attempts to re-
sumo. The plan Of borrowing coin with
which to commence resumption has met with
so little favor that the selling of the gold now
in possession of the government would place
us farther from the day of resumption by at
least the time necessary to re-accumulate
from our ordinary surplus revenue, as much
coin as we now have. The chances are, now
ever, that the postponement would be
much longer. If the clamors now raised
against the accumulation of coin cause this
fund to be diverted to any other purpose than
the redemption OF our demand notes. there is
no reason to hope they will not have similar
effect ia the future. The consequence will be.
that when another presidential campaign
comes around, our credit will be depressed
by fresh recruits to the army Of Pendletons'
and Buffers trying to persuade the peoplethat
dishonesty is the best policy. To suppose that
the public credit bill will keep them quiet is
to suppose that knavery has lost its ingenu-
ity.
As to the objection that the accumulation
makes gold scarce in the market, there is a
tendency to exaggerate the effect produced by
the withdrawal of quantity of specie from
circulation. To state the objection as strong
ly as possible, we will suppose what is not the
fact, that the gold accumulated in the treas
ury is lost to the world. Suppose the guam
tity in actual use for commercial purposes
throughout the world to be $4,000, 600, 900 and
$500, 900 of it to be locked up in the treas
ury. Now If this $500, 900 900 had never exist
cd, there would be $5,7 900 900 in use and
this amount would be distributed in the same
proportions as the larger amount now in circu-
lation. In other words every nation would
have to use ten per cont less gold than at
present, and prices would be. adjusted accor-
dinghy If the government should accumu-
late coin reserve this is precisely the state of
things that would exist when the accumula-
tion was completed. There could be at most
but q temporary scarcity, and the less the gov.
ernment accumulated the shorter would be its
duration. The fallacy of those who object to
the accumulation of coin, consists in suppos-
ing the reserve to be drawn from our own
markets merely, and not from the markets of
the world If the government gives to COM
merce currency of $4OO, 100000 while with
drawing but one, two, or three hundred mil
lion it cannot be accused of making currency
scarce.