New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-04-07

The worlds history furnishes no parallel for
the absolute power of one man and the AFFECT
humiliation of whole people as exhibited
to-day in this country. One man sitting in
Washington is endowed with larger powers
than was ever any other in any country since
| the world began. He holds the key to the
industrial, commercial agricultural, mechan-
ical banking-in short, all the interests of
the country that have any relations with
money or currency. On his breath hang, i'll
greater or less degree, the welfare and pros
perity of forty millions of people. The power
to make money scarce or plentiful; to
expand or contract the currency of the
| country to increase the value of the
miserable rag that undertakes to represent
dollar in the pocket of the citizen, or dilute it
| to a smaller measure still, rests all in his
caprice. Speculation rides rampant on the
chances of his tickle will. Values rise and
| fall. Men are rich to-day and poor tomorrow
as he may dictate. The country lies at his
feet. Could the people sit down for one single
! thoughtful moment i'll front of the great shame
of this situation and consider the amazing pos
! sibilities of power in the hands of this man,
with their own utter helplessness before him,
there would surely be a revolution. No such
power over all the monetary interests Of so
many millions was ever in any age intrusted
to a single individual. 1t is not in the posi-
bilties of human wisdom to administer such a
trust wisely. No man who ever lived could
administer it honestly. There is not virtue
enough in human nature to withstand all the
innumerable subtleties of temptation that must
assai the holder Of such enormous power.
The privilege of debasing the coin which has
sometimes been exercised by sOveregns and
parliaments was always guarded with the
greatest jealousy and the instances in which
it has been done are reckOned landmarks OF
national folly and set up az the warnings OF
history. But here III this nineteenth century,
in the midst of what we boast as the highest
civilization, we clOthe one man, or rather allow
him to clothe himself, with power to debase
the currency or appreciate it at his own sweet
will and we hardly so much as put up pro-
test against it, while trade and commerce and
about everything except the actual drawing
of our breath are at his mercy Talk about
the tyrannies and despotisms of the Old
World of the suppression of free thought and
free speech, of the absolute control exercised
by despots over the persons and liberties OF
their subjects! They are hardly to be compared
with the tremendous power Of the Finance
Minister who holds between his thumb and
finger the business interests of a whole con-
tinent.
1t was urged az an objection to the old
United States Bank that it could make money
cheap or dear at will, by contraction OF ex-
pansion of paper money, and this, it was said,
gave it an immense political power that was
dangerous in the extreme If this power was
dangerous then, when the country was small,
! nopulation sparse, and business limited, what
shall be said of the present condition, when
one man, instead Of corporation, controls
more absolutely the vastly extended business
interests of the country, and commerce and
trade depend entirely upon the fiat OF his VIII
| Compared with the present Secretary OF the
Treasury and his power, the influence OF the
old United States Bank was rs that of pulling
infant to full-grown Hercules.
| Is any demonstration needed Of the terrible
dangers to which we are momentarily exposed
by this wild bestowal of authority Witness
the effect of this mans action during the
Presidential canvass, when, with no authority
| except what he himself assumed-and for that
matter, may ut any time assume again-he di-
luted the currency by expansion to the extent
of millions for political and partisan purposes,
and by that means contributed largely to the
perpetuation in power Of the Administra-
ton of which he was part. Witness, too,
the fluctuations in our money markets
for weeks past, the uncertainty OF all legiti-
mate trade and commerce, and the consequent
damage to the industrial and business inter
ests of the country, with the increase of fever
ish and unhealthy speculation, all tending to
degrade honest labor and destroy public CON
fdence The mischief of it is too plain to
need any demonstration. There is no excuse
for it. If our present currency is the out
growth of the war, it is not necessary to con-
tnue it or make it perpetual. Its origi-
majors had no idea that it was any
thing more than a temporary expedent.
But the present Administration seems to
have accepted it as a settled financial policy,
and instead of ameliOratinG it. to have sot