Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1873-12-05
The fellswing is a deferred article,
crowded out Hast week:
Practical Resumption.

A series of ablearticleso on financial ques-
ions, signed "Knickerboeker," which O.
originally appeared in the New Y ork Times,
have been collected in pamphlet form, and
will be distributed in all parts of the coun-
try in advance of the meeting of Congress.
These letters have attracted an unusual
share of attention, as well from the. ability
displayed by the writer as from the fair,
impartial manner in which all the topics
are presented and discussed. The core of
the whole discussion is to show that specie
payments are possible at this time, and
that the opportunity should be embraced
In such manner as to cause the least dis
arrangement to the business affairs of the
country. When gold and paper are SO
near on level in business circles the plan
proposed is to place coin for notes as fast
as the latter can be prudently Withdrawn,
thus reinforcing the paper currency by de.
grees with an equal amount of hard money.
This would put in circulation large a.
mount of specie, which would not again
be boarded, but remain in use among the
IpCOPIC VI Jl1C COuAGIys Ao "
contraction of the currency, which is 50
much dreaded by some fnanciers, the new
plan would avert the process when money
was dear, that is, most wanted, and as soon
as it tended again to cheapness resume the
process of substitution. In fact the real
basis of the plan is substitution, not con-
traction. When paper dollar is with
drawn from circulation, gold or silver
one takes its place and thus the full value
of the currency is kept up, and runious
shrinkage prevented. @
In the opinion of "Knickerbocker" we
have now taken two practical and impor-
tant steps in the direction of resumption
the debt has been funded and six hundred
millions of it liquidated. Now, therefore,
is the time to. continue the withdrawal of
the currency, only ceasing when there is
an urgent demand for money for business
purposes As paper goes out coin will
come in, and as to gold, it is centended
that the Secretary of the Treasury is ''alone
at present responsible for maintaining its
unnecessary premium, and by 80 doing he
plays into the hands of gold brokers in
this country and gold hoarders of Canada.
The former draw two or three millions per
week from the latter for the use of the i'm
porters, when the Secretary takes it and
uses it to keep up the premium; thus fur
nishing business for clique of gold gam
blers, and ignorantly, let US believe, keep
ing the people from the Immediate use of
a currency equally balanced between paper
and coin. The country demands for its
service the money that passes current in
the world if it had that to-day, this scare
ity of paper, the only currency we have,
would be instantly relieved by an inflow
of coin from abroad"
In few weeks Congress will meet, and
then hosts of PLANS of a financial character
will be launched upon that body. Expan-
sion will be the cry of the spectators, the
men who have brought the country to its
present condition. But we fully agree
with the Boston Post that 1.-THE country is
sick of financial quackery. 1t calls for
gradual resumption. That is to be the
overshadowing issue before Congress, and
party lines will fade out of sight on it.
Imitation is no longer mere delusion; it
will be a crime; it has no significance other
than that of being certain to take the peo7
Pile over the dangerous road they have just
travelled, and bring wider ruin upon them
in the end. The substitution of coin for
paper when they are at par is a perfectly
safe and practical mode of resumption, and
it has the merit. which is a controlling
one in many minds, of not being equiva-
lent to contraction. "--P philadelphia Age. i