The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-13
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF FHB LEADING JOURNALS
UroN ouRRBNT r0Prcs--ooMPMKD RvBRI
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
The New Secretary of the Treasury and
His Financial Views,

The New Secretary of the Treasury and
His Financial Views,
From Me NJ Y. Times
As the organizer Of the internal revenue
system and its first administrator, Mr.. Boat
wells capacity for one branch OF duty con-
neoted with his new Office has been to some
extent proved With more recent discussions
on financial topics he has not been promi-
nently identified. He spoke at some length,
however, In opposition to Mr.. Gsrfeld's Loan
bill, In March, 1866, and in January of last
year introduced resolution relating to inte-
rest ON bonds; and from these appearances it
is not difficult to deduce his opinions on ma
tsrial points connected with our financial
policy.
On the subject Of contraction he holds de-
cided opinions. He opposed 1t in 1866, as q
measure pregnant with disaster to trade and
industry, and wholly unwsrranted as a means
towards resumption. He resisted the pro-
posal to invest in the Secretary power to push
forward contraction beyond the point reached
in 1866. "If," he said, ''the Secretary of the
Treasury should reduce the non-bearing, in
terest circulation to the amount Of a hundred
millionF, three-fourths of the mining and
manufacturing establishments in the northern
portions of the country would be suspended"
With this conviction, he deprecated the con-
ferfing of large discretionary authority upon
the Treasury, maintaining that 1t would
operate as constant menace to business,
the interests of which must necessarily
suffer. The duty of Congress to define and
limit the financial policy of the admins ra-
ton he urged as clear and urgent; and he
contended, that in the adoption o.. that course
more reliance should be placed upon the
gradual effect of time and renewed prosperity
than upon the arb bitrary measures Of the Sec-
, rotary. What the business of the country
could bear was the test by which he would
try. the merits Of a policy, and he strenu-
ously opposed whatever might operate ad-
versely. He then preferred practical results
to theories-defned to unlimited powers; and
there is no reason to apprehend change in
his opinions.
81 The bill introduced by Mr.. Hooper March
19, 1869 received Mr.. Boutwell's emphatic
endorsement, one OF its provisions being "that
the public debt shall not hereafter be increased
by authority Of this or any previous acts of
Congress" A similar provision is embodied
in Mr.. HO0per's measure of last session, which
the hostility Of Senator Sherman for the time
killed. We conclude, then, that the whole
some prohibition OF any increase of the gold
bearing debt, which is hoped for as means Of
strengthening the public credit, will receive
the support OF the new Secretary.
The nearest approach to any actual plan on
the part of Mr.. Boutwell, is the resolution he
offered (Jsnuary q, 1869 instructing the
Committee of Ways and Means to Inquire
into the expediency of providing by law as
follows:-
when the United states coin in the Treasury
exceeds twenty millions. that he will antioi-
bonds-such pay ment to be subject to rebate
9finterest at the rate ale soec 500 Il ed In the bonds.
the principal and Interest payabie lei in coin; the
Loan TO be conhned to citizsns OF the United
na nS be o ss to
and local taxation the bonds TO be payable,
ty millions n saob on the Iss Sf January and @
For new loan. $4,000 600 600, of four ana o half
ssd Se M PAYABLE m
Frannf;or;t ;,; OF Lond6n the bonds to be payable;
any State or municipality; that the share
holders Of bonds %
GLASSES, and that the Secretary of the Treasury
be prohibited from making sales of gold"
"2hat the Secret1ry of the Treasury be pro-
hibited from making sales of gold' is proposi-
tion as pertinent at this moment as 1t was
year ago. The resolution, however, shows
his reliance upon some funding process as a
method of lessening the public burdens; his
condemnation of contraction being q guaran-
tee against the embarrassment and ruin
which would attend the enactment of the
Sherman scheme.
On all these points Mr.. Boutwell's recorded
views harmonic with the ideas suggested in
the Presidents inaugural. In the division
upon Mr.. Schepck's bill (Feb. 24), as fur
nished to the newspapers, his name does not
appear. But the whole tenor of his speeches
indicates scrupulous regard for the main
tenance untarnished of the national faith, and
his resolution of January, 1868, is more than
a presumptive recognition of tie principle
affirmed by the late Congress. So far as it is
proper to infer policy from Mr.. Boutwell's
past course, we may assume that he will
preserve inviolate the rights of the public
creditor, without forgetting the and con
sideration which are due to the interests of the
country.