Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-06-13
GRANTS FINANCIAL IDEAS.
In Theory Defeisibie, but In Practice
Destruction.
New York Evening Post.

Destruction.
New York Evening Post
The President for more than five
years has been taking, to say the least,
a very round about way to bring our
demand obligations up to par value
in gold: but having finally got rid of
the last exponent of the mistaken thee.
~ that the government could best pay
its demand obligations in gold by using
its surplus gold. available for this pur-
pose, in order to buy up debts not due
for from ten to twenty years, it is fair
to suppose that he now sees the alb
surdity of this theory; that he has dis
carded it, with the two Secretaries who
made it their cardinal doctrine, and
has sought for other counsels; and,
certainly, In this search he has gone to
the other extreme, and has adopted the
plan that the best way to get to spe-
Gle basis is to repeal the act which
makes the Treasury notes legal tend
er.
In theory this plan is defensible. In
practice it would at present or within
a year cause needless destruction. That
the legal tender act was wrong no one
disputes.
Imagine the legal tender act repealed
July l, 1875. There are S356,000,000
of legal tender notes now authorized,
and $685., 100000 are outstanding. 1t
is fair to estimate that there is not to-
day in the country S125 ,000, 900 in gold
coin. Does the President expect that
We shall be able to accumulate in the
next thirteen months $50, 900 in
gold? and SIG, 100000 at least would
be needed, allowing that the S26, 000,-
600 legal tender notes outstanding and
not authorized should be retired. And
if he does not, what does he propose
to substitute for the legal tender notes
after they have ceased to be legal ten
derS The banks now bank on legal
tender notes, and have little or no
specie. Any banker will tell the Presi-
dent that it would be impossible to ac-
cumulate in one year specie enough to
take the place of the legal tender
notes.
But for the blind, or, at least short
sighted policy of the Treasury since
Gen. Grant has been President, we
could have been on a specie basis sew
eral years go, and without any great
shock. All that it was necessary to do
was simply to increase the stock of gold
in the Treasury and gradually diminish
the amount of notes outstanding, until
the relation between the two should
Justify the Treasury in offering to nay
its notes in gold. After the notes had
been brought up to a level with gold in
this way, they would have expressed
gold values. In due time gold would
have accumulated in the country, and
the legal lender functions of the Treas
ury notes could have been taken away
when the volume of the notes had been
reduced Ii was possible TO perform
the whole operation in so skillfula way
as to cause very little distress, compar-
lively speaking. This can be yet done
in a judieious and effective way, and it
is the best thing which can be done.
The plan which extreme but imprac-
ticable people recommend, and which
the President seems for the moment to
regard with favor, is crude and cruel.
No one disputes that the toothache can
be cured by taking the life of the per-
son in whose jaw the tooth is, but is
that the only remedy? The plain facts
are that our currency and finances need
intelligent treatment and management.
They deserve the immediate attention
of the most accomplished experts in
finance. The condition which they are
in is due more than anything else to
the malpractice of quacks, who for one
reason or another We have had foisted
into the Treasury.