The Portland daily press., 1873-10-21
New YORK, Oct. 10, 1873.

tney say ana 90 things winch they would IN
their calmer moments confess to be absurd.
The prophets of evil who foretold the utter
prostration of the industries of the country
have already recovered their senses sufficiently to
be heartily ashamed of their dismal forebodings.
Most of them have regained enough of COM
posture to reflect that panics perform the same
office in finance that lightning and tempest do
in nature, Purifying the atmosphere making
the sky clearer and the air more refreshing
and healthful. In either case the storm would
be apt to be inconvenient and perhaps perious
to the few who happened, to be caught in it
without the chance of shelter or refuge, but the
laws of physical science cannot be suspended
for the benefit of individuals who imprudently
venture out without umbrellas and rubber
overcoats, any more than the canons of political
economy can be set aside to accommodate
creditors, who suffer from an excess of creduli-
ty, or debtors who produce suffering by ven-
turing too far into the sea of expansion.
Trade has not yet resumed its wonted activity.
so sudden a convalescence was not to be ex
pscted. But the business which supplies the
actual necessities of life is being pursued with
quite as much vigor as could be wished for in
view of the unsettled condition of affairs. The
golden grain of the West-the real bullion of
the country-is rapidly going abroad, and is
undsputed legal tender the world over. Cot
ton, no longer IMPLYING the spoliaton and rob-
berry of the black man, but the useful servitor
of its honest and patient growers, pays the
interest of the awful debt we incurred to get
rid of the chance of realizing that every bale
OF it was an emblem of national piracy and
cruelty. With these elements of real prosperity
combining to extrcate us from the baleful con-
sequences of decade of wild speculation, the
country at large can afford to laugh at prog
nostications of serious evil, resulting from the
destruction of paper fortunes or the collapse of
the numerous bubbles which have been floated
so long that people have stopped considering
how completely Elusive they We're.
Wall street has been subjected all the week
to those ftful spasms of citation and depression
which are. peculiar to the excitable pursuit of
fortune by gaming. The fancy stocks compris-
ing such as pay no dividends and.such as are
suspected of eking out dividends by inroads up
on the capital, or by loans, have been dancing
up and settling down. like jumping jacks in a
show. Real buyers and sellers are scarce, and
in their absence the Jews and Gen tiles scream
out their bids from the curb-stone with anus
ing energy of vociferation, making the old
fashioned mock auction of Chatham street
seem tame performance by comparison.
There are limited transactions in the shares of
well managed and unwatered corporations, and
it is especially noticeable that in this class of Sc
curities there has been but a slight decline.
Even Harlem Railroad stock-albet tainted
with the odium which attaches, just now to ev-
erything with which Vanderbilt's name is asso-
ciated-being guaranteed eight per cent Sc
curity sells at ten per cent. above par. That
solid, ably directed, and conservative concern,
the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, with
its capital of twenty millions, commands four
to five per cent. premium. The Bank shares in
general have declined very little. In fact par
ties seeking actual investments find it difficult
to buy any thing at a sufficiently reduced price
to Justify the belief that the bottom has been
reached. There is nothing whatever in the stu
alton to warrant the conclusion that money is
scarce There has been withdrawal of cur
rency from circulation, which has occasioned
much inconvenience, but the certified checks
which constitute the major part of the Medium
of domestic and local exchange must be abund-
ant when approved securities command such
high rates as at present.
Criticisms upon the course of the administra-
ton in reference to monetary affairs, continue
to be as general as they are divergent Infa
t'onists and expansionists alike seem tacitly to
assent to the proposition that it is a legitimate
function of government to interfere in the affairs
of its citizens Nothing is more common, even
among men of conceded intelligence than to
hear discussions as to what ought to have been
done, or left undcne by the Treasury Depart
ment. 1t seems to have occurred to a compare
lively small proportion of the community that
the Secretary of the Treasury has clearly de-
fined trust to discharge for the benefit of the
whole people, and that he is debarred alike by
statutes and by common sense, from interpos-
ing his aid for the relief of impecunous debtors
who have contracted liabilities beyond their
means of present payment
The Sub Treasury is the nations Savings
Bank, and its business is to collect and dis
burse the revenues of the country. The chief
financial officer of the Republic has no right to
divert dollar to any other purpose than the
payment OF the current expenses of the gov
eminent or the liquidation of the public debt
The present incumbent of that high office as well
as his distinguished predecessor has followed the
Straight line of duty with fidelity and precis-
ion which entities him to the respect and con-
fidence of the whole community. If he had
listened to the clamorous opportunities of ne
cessitous over-traders or reckless stock jobbers
and opened his Golfers to distribute his tax
gathered hoard for their assistance, he would
have laid the people under contribution to sup
port the tottering fabric of private fortune
which having no substantial base, must inevi-
tally crumble to pieces sooner or later, aud the
fall of which mustIbe more destructive the
higher it is permitted to ascend into the air.
The failures which have taken place among
the stocksoperators, have enabled the public to
catch an occasional glimpse at the methods by
which estimates of wealth We're formed. Sew
eral cases appeared where men not regularly
engaged in business, and seriously rated to be
worth from one to ten millions of dollars were
under such pyramid of debt that the preca-
rious difference between their assets and their
liabilities was in danger of being swept away
In single day. The stocks they held were
quoted at prices which could only be main
tanned by their refraining from any effort to
sen out. The very moment they attempted to
unload, an instant and rapid decline in
prices was inevitable. This of course was sure
W piecipltate general panic and bring 'about
tne very state OF things of which we have been
witnesses during the past thirty days Take the
vanderbilt Clique for an example. The yener
able commodore has been surrounded bv a 4
party of obsequious followers, who accepting
him as an infallible oracle have bolstered the