The Portland daily press., 1873-12-17
New YORK, Dec. Is, 1873.


started us alike by their suddenness and their
severity. Corporations, firms and individuals,
supposed to be extremely affluent, have been
swept into insolvency in great numbers and
their assets buried beyond resurrection in a
shapeless mass of debt. Admonitions to pru-
dence, warnings against overtradiDg, have been
borne upon every Passing breath in the sad sto-
ryof the panic. And yet strange to say, even
now, while the debris of the great wreck lies
all around us, while unfortunate creditors are
debating whether they shall settle with their in
solvent debtors by compromise or bankruptcy,
Wall street is getting drunk again, and the pre-
posterous rates paid for stocks indicate speedy
relapse into the delfrum tremens, which was
temporarily checked last September by Doctors
Grant and Richardson,
The situation is full of peril The national
revenues are inadequate to the maintenance
of the government. An imitation of the cur
rency equal to a million and half dollars per
week, has been going on for nearly three months
and is almost certain to continue, until the re-
serve is well nigh exhausted, unless Congress
instantly comes to the rescue by imposing ad-
dtional duties with view to revenue only, and
such domestic taxes as can be levied without
burdening, and thereby hindering the industries
of the country. The repeal of the salary bill
is very proper measure of reparaton and
atonement and ought to be summarily con-
summated. 1t was eminently fitting that it
should take precedence of all other business.
But next in order, as of paramount Importance
is the Strengthening of the exchequer, A little
ilo wi . 1o1f
of specie basis.
Gold has risen meantime considerably, and
unless we are to have speedy relief for the
Treasury, it is the surest speculation that can be
made at its present price. lhe proposition to
tax tea and coffee commends itself to the COM
mon sense of everybody. 1t is a tax which
will fall equitably, and inevitably produce in
come. 1t is free from every taint of favortism
and protection. And yet it is greatly to be
feared that this proper impost will be opposed
by the western members, out of regard to the
supposed wishes of their constituents, who are
large consumers of these staples. The west has
become a power of such magnitude in our
legislation that NO measure which it opposes
has much chance of success. And this is why
the conviction is gaining strength, that no eff
fectve scheme of taxation has much prospect
of going through, and why men prefer to buy
gold at ten per ceLt. premium, and incur the
loss of interest involved in the holding Of it,
rather than to tempt fortune anew among the
quicksands OF general speculation.
1t is impossible to await the solution of this
grave financial problem without profound So
llcitude. The question of de5auching the cur
rency by further issne of government notes
may now be considered obsolete. Other kim
dred schemes suggested by fright, and not sus-
ceptible of analytical defense, such for instance
as the convertible bond proposition, have "fret
ted their brief hour" upon the stage and passed
into forgetfulness. But now positive danger
confronts us. We must tax or borrow. 1t is
choice between the moral courage which
promptly meets present emergency, and the
cowardly weakness which bridges over diff
Guilty by an expedient which simply postpones
the consequences, and by doing so makes them
ten fold more appalling in the end.
This is a moment for the display of patriotic
craftsmanship, and while past experience has
not given ground for much encouragement
that the right course will be pursued it is new
ertheless the duty of everybody who has the
opportunity to exert any influence on public
opinion, be the same more or less, to arouse
the people to sense of the Importance of this
matter, and of the evils which must event.
uate from a departure from sound principles in
the treatment of it.
There are certain classes of people of course,
who will deprecate any increase of the burdens
Of taxation. Among these the stock jobbers
and gamesters will be the most persistent.
Their idea of paradise is place where every
body buys and nobody pays. For every new
purchase an additional I. o. U. To these folks
a gold ccin is repulsive because it suggests
certain amount of labor and perspiration in its.
procurement. Whereas a handsomely en-
graved note with pictures on it, promising to
pay another piece of paper of the same size,
with other pictures on it to the bearer on de
mand, is valuable as a specimen of art and
does not necessarily represent the vulgar toll
of some sweaty tiller of the ground The
disciples of this school of political economy
have had their way almost uninterruptedly for
a dozen years. Occasionally they have re-
ceived a check which has led to wide spread
disaster, engnlphing not only themselves but
thousands of innocent sufferers by their theo-
ries, in embarrassment and suspension But
instead of profting by the lessons of expe-
rience, they keep right on as before, buying,
hypothecatng, getting deeper and deeper in
debt, the volume of their liabilities becoming in
time measured only by the confidence or Gre
dnlty of their creditors.
The interruption to the artificial prosperity
of the country which came so swiftly and
forcefully in early autumn was undoubtedly
useful and necessary interposi;ion. Iniuriously
as the panic affected individuals, it was an
actual blessing to the people at large. 1t did
not come until we had fallen into such ways of
extravagauce, that the very necessaries of life
were getting beyond the means of the masses.
Monopoly was levying such gigantic contribu-
tions in all directions that the availability of
moderate incomes was growing smaller and
smaller day by day. We were fast creating an
aristocracy of money, the meanest that could
possibly be conceived of, and society was de-
generating into an exaltation of vulgar display
over intelligence and culture as passport to
its recognition. The day laborer was supposed
to be benefited by the unnatural stimulus
given to enterprise; but reckoning the enhanced
prices he was obliged to pay for rent, food and
clothing is doubtful whether he was apy
better off, il he was rs well. Every salaried
man or woman-the employed classes as con-
tradistinguished from the employers whom
they prodisously outnumber-derived advan-
tages from the revulsion which for time cur
tailed the inroads upon their modest purses.
The princes of the rail, and the waterers of
stocks enhanced their fortunes by making
bread dearer. While the rich were becoming
richer, the poor were growing poorer. The few
thrived, the many suffered. If it were not for
those healthy convulsions in the monetary sys-
tenn which purify the financial atmosphere,
and thwart the unholy combinations by which
selfish operators try to get gain by increasing
the cost to consumers of the products of the
soil, we should soon get into state of serfdom
to capital Tor crediD scarcely less irksome than
that which marks the distance between land
owner and lessee in countries abroad.
1 wish therefore to avow my faith in the use.
fulness of panics. They are not agreeable. 1t
is better far to avoid them by implicit obed-
ence to the laws of political economy. They