New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-12-27

not desert him. What satisfaction does it give
him to know that the friends of the Govern
ment have their pockets full of money and
are buying stocks and selling gold, as hap
pened i'm 1872, while he must get along with
out funds or pay eighteen per cent discount
on his paperi 1t is the law OF panics that
they must speedily come to an end. Trade is
immortal 1t cannot be utterly and finally
destroyed. In the natural course OF things
trade and credit begin to recover from the
hour the panic begins to subslde' ms re-
covery of trade and credit it As absurd to
ascribe to any and every ridiculous act which
preceded or accompanied the natural reaction.
Time and space forbid that we should no.
tice all MIR. lMorton's errors OF contemporary
and historical fact. IL is a great mistake.
however, to say that the Bank of England
required from 1897 to 1891 to prepare for the
resumption of specie payments. Before the
close of tho eighteenth century tho managers
of tho Bank were ready and willing to re-
sumo the payment of their notes in
specie. Resumption. however, was pre-
vented by Mr. Pitt for reasons Of
State. The truth was, that having once
obtained possession of arbitrary power over
the money of Great Britain. he was, like the
present Administration, unwilling to surren-
der it, Again. in 1916 after the close OF the
career of Napoleon, the Bank had an oppor-
tunity to bring its notes to the value OF par
i'm gold, but failed to grasp It, 1t was an OPP
portunity much resembling that which we sac
rifced at the close of our own war, and that
other which we are sacrificing at this very
moment. We refer to a favorable turn in for
eign commerce. Look at tho facts. No sooner
was it ascertained last Summer that our ex-
ports had tendency to increase and our inn
ports to diminish than the whole force of the
National Treasury was employed to deprive
gold of part of its value, the necessary effect
of which operation is to encourage impofta-
ton, discourage expectation, and keep gold
from entering the country. Tho thing to do,
since we had had tho panic, and had suffered
its necessary accompaniment, shrlnkage In
general prices, was to contract the paper Cir
culation, prevent prices from rising, preserve
the balance of payments in our favor.
discourage speCulatons, and so retain
our gold in the country and secure the
ground we had gained. We assume that
lust and advantageous, and we maintain, more
over, that stable resumption cannot be con-
summated without a sacrifice. The man who
delays the payment Of his debts until he can
make his fortune by his dishonesty will be
Stunned by respectable merchants. The Oppo-
nents of imitation who are waiting until they
can increase at the same time the real value
of the paper dollar and tho nominal
value of their property arc either
fools or pretcndcrs. We are quite as
much alive to the evil consequences to
individuals, especially those loaded down with
debt, of the restoration of the specie standard
those evils with tho evils which are involved
in perpetual initiation, with its uncertainties
and neyer-ending injustice, we cannot heSi-
tate which to choose. Initiation is stream
which has no other side save universal bank
ruptcy The farther we advance into It's
dangerous eddies the nearer we approach to in
solvency if we keep on, and the greater dis
lance we have to retrace If we turn back.
There is no escape from one or the other Of
these alternatives
How very superficial is Mr.. Morton's ac-
uuaintance with the science of credit and
commerce may be seen from the view he takes
of panics. They are, in his opinion, simply
accidents" "the result of events that no.
"body can forcsee." AS much may not be
known about the course of trade and finance
as might be wished, yet enough certainly is
known about pancs to take them out of the
category of accidents. There is q differ
ence between stable, honest currency
like that of England and circula-
latiOn of promises to pay like our
own In the thirty years from 1914 to
1874, England had a currency almost as much
inferior to her present money as our own
legal tenders are. Those thirty years were
marked by at least half dozen great
distinctions of credit, by general misery
among the lower classes of the people, and
by itful advances in prosperity, resulting in
little real progress. In considering the progress
of England since 1874, we must not forget that
the credit system has obtained development
there without parallelin any other country on
the globe. Where there is no credi. given or
taken there can be no panic. Since the Bank
Act Of 1914 was passed, now nearly thirty
years ago, there have been but three English
panics, and the wealth, tho commerce, and the
manufactures of the island have obtained such
stupendous development as to become the
wonder of the world We are not here as
cribing this great advancement exclusively to
o currency which has never told a falsehoOd-
we speak of the times since 1844-but we do
mean to say that. were it not for the world
wide respect which all nations have for the
notes of the Bank of England, the foreign
commerce of all countries would not be ad-
justed, as it is now, by bills of exchange drawn
on London.
Mr.. Morton tells the sinner not to repent
and reform while he is smarting from some
accidental" miscarriage Of his schemes, be-