Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-10-14
SPECIE PAYMENTS.
President Grant Talking Of Resump-
Special to the New York World.

Il0U.
Special to the New York World.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10.-The general dis
cussion of the question of the resumption of
specie payments, accompanied as it is by
steady decliue in the premium on gold has
attracted its due share of attention here in
official quarters. The Secretary of the
Treasury has expressed the opinion that
while return to a coin standard as re-
suit of the late financial revulsion would be
qGite unexpected it was by no means i'm
possible nor improbable. 1t is true it is adj
mitted thattwice before the premium on
gold has been down to 81 per cent, but not
under circumstances it Is maintained quiet
so favorable to resumption. The President
hss become interested in the question, and
in conversation to-day informed several gen.
tlemen who discussed it with him that he
should earnestly commend The subjec. to
Congress in his annual message. He was of
the opinion that If resumption was not
reached in the next three months that ear
IL and proper legislation would bring it
about. Just what kind of leg
islAtion he would suggest he did
not indicate, but 1t was clear from his views
that Congress should first of all restrict the
issue of the legal tender notes by defining
the status of The so-called reserve of $44,-
100000, and preventing tie interference of
the Secretary OF the Treasury in Wall
Street, By contracting or expanding the
currency as the necessities of the hour
seemed to demand. In his last report the
Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Boutwell)
favored resumption Of specie payment, by
contracting the existing volume of paper
currency, and, while the President had no
special planet his own, in the annual mes
sage that accompanied the report he virtu-
ally indorsed Secretary Boutwell's views.
Whether that is the Presidents policy now
or not did not positively appear, as he did
not, of course, propose to detail just what
be should suggest in his forthcoming mes
sage, and yet it was evident that
he believed that resumption could be
secured on the existing volume ofcirculatioI,
and for the reason that the increase
in the business of tie country has adjusted
itself, if gold and our exports are an indica-
ticn to the present volume. The President,
however, was stronger in the faith that the
combination Of circumstances which had
resulted from the recent crisis was most
important and opportune. The large
shrinkage in values had nearly reached
coin basis, while the extraordinary export
trade in the Legitimate products of the
Countrywide largest in its history made
the present time for resumption especially
propitious. If this situation continued he
expected to see silver gradually come into
circulation, the existing premium on legal
tenders gradually disappear, and the whole
followed by the appearance as currency of
the gold coin. .
Another member of the Cabinet, not the
Secretary of tire Treasury, who also agrees
with the President, says that resumption at
no distant day is not improbable. The
recent panic, be argues, was quite
unlike any former one, from the fact
that instead of presenting bank notes
for redemption TO suspended banks,
the people offered coin and bonds 10
purchase them for immediate use, and while
that the premium on coin declined
the legal tenders actually commanded q pre-
MUM. To this strength Of the currency he
declares that the country is indebted for the
salvation of its commercial life even at a
period Of its greatest prosperity. II it can
stand the shrinkage of values of the recent
troubles without general financial ruin, he
believes that it can gravitate itself to a spe-
Gle standard without ripple on its business
surface. The President, In conjunction
with the Secretary of the Treasury ard the
Comptroller of the Currency, will also rec
ommend to Congress legislation looking to
stringent restrictions on the national banks,
by which the legal-tender reserve can be
intact. The President is giving
the subject of the national finances the clos
est attention, and evidently means to make |
it great issue in the immediate future of |
bis administration.
LATER-PUoPosED LEGISLATION.