The New York herald., 1870-03-01
The Financial Situation.


producers. We include in this class all who
add 10 the processes Of industry-those who
make up that array Of forces whose applica-
tion ends in production.
That we may accurately measure the vast
resources Of the American people we propose
to give sort Of photograph OF their great
industrial machinery. In little more than
quarter of a century we have seen fifteen or
twenty large commercial cities rise up, as 1t
were, out Of the wilderness OF our then laac-
cessbe possessions to the west and south OF
us. A little farther back we made treaties
with the Indian tribes, by which we assigned
to the forest men for permanent homes" all
that vast country ''to the west of the Missis-
sippi river" Nor was 1t great want Of fore
sight that we did so. There was then no intel
lectlal eye that could discern tho availability
of lands the produce of which could not be
made to enter into the general markets Of the
seaboard and the world. Tho processes Of
transportation did not extend to the ''perma-
nent homes" of the Indians to tbs west Of the
Mississippi. The policy and humanity of the
nation which forced the tribes from the sea-
board commanded us to provide them with
quarters where none of the exigencies of popu-
lation thereafter would disturb them; and so
the wisdom of the generation marshalled the
poor creatures within defined limits west of
the Mississippi.
These events have come and gone, and the
wonder is that they have come and gone with
out making any solid impression upon the
mind of the country touching the wonderful
agencies which have 80 mercilessly trodden
under foot the political oontrivances Of gen.
Grafton of men who foolishly imagine that the
end of progress had been reached. And if
steam, and railways, and telegraphs and an
! independent press, with its power Of dissent
nation, its power to bring the principal events
Of the whole world every morning to the
breakfast table, its power to record the doings
Of all the great governments, the acts Of every
| financial exchange-from which, indeed, no
secrets are hidden--if these things have proven
the worthlessness of the old system Of thought
| and made more worthless old estimates of
resources and credits, they have most clearly
not been sufficient to enlighten the minds of
legislators and statesmen so as to enable them
to take in the real situation.
The fifteen or twenty great cities to which
we have referred are expressions Of American
progress, and indicate not only vast sources OF
production, but testify, as no other events OF
history here or elsewhere can testify, to the
material wealth of the American people.
Forty thousand miles of railway bear of to
commercial centres the products of two mil
lions of square miles of country which was
worthless or fit only for permanent Indian
homes" without those agencies of transporta-
tion. Hundreds Of thousands Of miles of tele-
graph wires penetrate every town and village,
and these tongues of trade enable o dollar
to do what three or FIVE were required to do
before the power Of speech was impaired to
them. And to this array Of undoing and doing
of the past and present let us add that last
greatest of all modern agencies Of progress
the press-and then see if in the conduct OF
what we call politicians and statesmen, we do
not find that reason and power are on the
same side.
vague notion prevails that our national
credit is destined to advance, but politicians
| and statesmen do not seem at all to compre-
hend that in the resources Of the country, in
the very nature Of things, by the inherent
forces of the situation, we are certain to COM
mand within the next five years the foremost
rank in State credit.
The money of the world seeking investmen!
is the shrewdest calculator Of what is safest
| I'D Efoh1 ofo ind IF cxrvcsr
Taking advantage of our domestic wars, and
perhaps adding fuel to the fame, it is now
reaping the richest interest harvest ever
gathered on earth. Its profits have not been
six per cent, nor ten, nor fifteen, but more.
That came of our necessities, our isolation and
our waste. The first and second Of these are
out of our way; the third whatever it be,
adds nothing now to the advantages Of the
money power against us. We may waste, and
clearly we are more wasteful than honest. We
job away the means of the nation and refuse
to pay honest creditors. One year Of this sort
of waste would pay Of every honest claim
against the government.
We are no longer isolated. The telegraph
has consolidated into one exchange and into
one process Of thought touching all matters Of
finance--at London, Paris, Frankfort, Amster-
damA-all the debtor nations. Hereafter the
United States are to be measured, not by
the fact that we are three or four thousand
miles off, but by our resources and the power
of our resources in comparison with the wants,
power and resources of other nations. The
Atlantic is no longer an obstruction. New
York, London, Paris and Frankfort are but
one city in matters Of finance.
With thirty thousand millions Of property
and forty thousand miles of railway to move
products; with the oceans for commerce and
continent subdned to uses; with length and
breadth to guarantee to all mankind thai