New-York tribune., 1870-08-06

TxpanSion When we resumed specie pay
ment in the Spring of 1888, after year OF sis-
pension, which The Herald, and kindred au-
thorites, pronounced internlnaDle' we diu ho'
find Contraction either necessary or eApe-
dent. Expansion, not Contraction, sets Sheeis
to turning, and men TO work, and thus cou-
duces TO the maintenance OF specie payments.
Had the mower been in our hands, we should
have commenced the fulillment OF the ma
tional nromises termed Greenbacks, speedily
oftor Tho close of our civil war. We should
have dome tbis. not on the assumption that IL
VOC or was not oxpedient, but simply on the
ground that honesty and good falth requileu
i Each Greenback was Government
nromise IN nav dollar or dollars no
t;mo boinp indicated for the fulhliineht
&c this promise, they were presunp-
t;roly novoble on demand. The under
standing was that they should be redeemed al
the earliest practicable moment ana ,he way
TO decide between those VINO insisted ''i"' 'n,y
could and those who cOntended tilat 'he! oou''
NOT he paid was to try. Had the treasury .o
sumed specie payment the first day on WHICH
its coin exceeded One Hundred Millions Vi
Dollars we believe it need never Thereafter
have suspended-that, before 1T had palted
With. Fifty Millions. coin would have become
druo in the market, while Greenbacks would
have been better than gold in Colorado, Utah,
and the vast Pacific region, wherein they nave
thus far been known as merchandise only.
But Mr.. Baird asks us whether, if Resump-
tion had thus been effected, we should not now
be in the midst of "frst-class commercial
"crisis.r Why7 He says" our monetary affairs
"are based upon an irredeemable therefore an
"upexportable, currency" But our paper cur
rency alrdw was unexportabe." When any
one who possessed it wished to use money
abroad, he always began by converting 1t INTO
letters of credit, bills Of exchange, or com; and
he does exactly that with our present cur
rency.
Whether a b" "first-class commercial crisi'"
is or is not an unmixcd evil, we will not de-
eide. Our impression, however, is that. If 1t
were to result from sustained Resumption,
whereby ten OF twenty thousand frequenters
of the Gold-ROOm. curbstOne-brokers,' and
other such, should be driven out OF our city,
and constrained to grind corn in Iowa, or herd
cattle in Kansas, for a living, it would much
resemble the thunder-shower which frightens
IL
world of good directly afterward.
1t is of course more convenient for the time
not to pay debts than to pay them; for
calamity" implies loud call to pay up; but
we never run in debt as people during "a
first class commercial crisis" on the con-
trary, we reduce our debts and retrench our
expenses The Great Apostle says: NO
chastening is for the present JOYOUS but
grieyous; but afterward it yieldeth the
"peacable fruits of righteousness" We trust
Mr.. Baird does not consider this "an unmixed
"evil."
Mr.. Baird asserts that we accept without
question "the doctrine of David Hume in re-
gard to money" He has no warrant for this
assertion. The only doctrine" which we insist
on in the premises is this: that no Govern
ment should issue and circulate as money that
which AYERS not the truth, but lie. We hope
to convert to this doctrine even so eminent
and ardent champion of Z" the blessings of an
"irredeemable currency" as Mr.. Henry Carey
| Baird,