New-York tribune., 1874-01-28
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ppnTECT 1H4INNT INEI lTION

We trust that the petition of the merchants
and citizens of New-YoIll against imitation,
already signed by a large number OF the
most influential of our business men, will
have some influence with Congress. That
body has now been in session nearly two
months. During all that time the income OF
the Government has been insufficient to meet
its expenditures, and the Secretary OF the
Treasury has been manufacturing money by
the cart-load to supply the deficiency, and
Congress has done nothing. The petition OF
the merchants is a folcible and digniiied pro
test against the action of the Secretary and
the inaction of Congress. The reasons which
support this protest are most clearly and
compactly presented in the petition which we
print in another column with some OF the
signatures The prayer of these men cannot
fail, we think, to impress the minds OF the
great majority of that class of our citizens
who are capable of thinking on the subjects
to which it relates.
I. The petitioners represent that they view
with alarm the numerous imitation schemes
daily agtated in Congress. Who are these
petitioners who are alarmed at what is doing
and threatened at Washington Why, none
other than the men who control large share
of the capital of the country; the men whose
energetic action is vital to the prosperity OF
the country. They express their belief that
the present course of Congress and the Ad-
ministratiOn is "mOst injurious to the interests
"of the nation" They are men whose Opln-
ions on these matters are of the highest au-
thority. They cannot be waved aside as mere
theorists, practically unacquainted with busi-
ness, and having no knowledge of the wants
of "the West and South"
III. They say that the country is suffering
and has been suffering for twelve years, great
loss and inconvenience from its iDconvertible
paper money. They say. and they know ii by
actual experience to be true. that the values
of all kinds of commodities have been cOntin-
ually fuctuating, by reason of the constant
changes in the currency price of gold. Ex
perience has convinced them that the gold
premium goes up and down like the price of
Erie shares, that no hum an foresight can cal
cnlate the premium for a week ahead, and
that, as a necessary consequence, they cannot
free their business from an element of uncer-
tainty which gives it to an alarming extent
the character of a game of chance.
Ill. They complain that all kinds of specu-
latiops are stimulated by the perturbations Of
the currency, and the minds OF men demOral-
lied and rendered unfit for the pursuits of
steady industry. How can it be otherwise,
when the dollar. which by law should mean
certain fixed weight Of gold or silver, is III
cessantlv varying i'll respect TO that stand
ard with which il should always be identicalf
lV. They unreservedly express their opinion
that resumption OF specie payments at the
earliest practicable time is imperatvcy re-
quired by the true interests Of the nation II
we ascribe to these words the meaning which
would be attributed to them by any intelli-
gent person who heard them for the first
time We must suppose them to imply that
something should be done 70 restore the dollar
to It's original value in gold. If this il the
object of Congress. it is acting like drunk
ard. who, having succeeded in getting half
wav up long fight of stairs, thinks il neces-
sary TO descend two steps in order not to
ovrrwork himself in going up one. Whatever
the drunkard may Say, whichever way he may