Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-02-04
THE FINANCAb PROBLEM.
The Diversity of Opinion Among
congressman.


A Bill FOR the Immediate Transfer OF
Currency to the West and South
f0w the Diiasory Action OF Con-
gress is Affecting Trade.
From the Cincinnati Commercial.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.-The diversity
Of opinion existing among the fnan-
cial doctors In Congress is beginning
to trouble the best minds among them.
Although comparatively only a few
members ever give public expression to
their thoughts In the halls of legisla-
ton on subjects brought up for consid-
Grafton, yet nearly every one has his
private opinion. Therefore, when a
great movement was set on foot recent
", to hold a caucus of the Republicans
in Congress, to settle upon some dis
tinctive plan of action, it was discover
ed that it would be impossible to recon-
Gle a majority to any n policy, and
the idea was abandoned. The silent
fellows were found to hold opinions of
their own, and scarcely any two alike.
trouble exists. Among the Republi-
cans and Democrats can be found in
about equal number expansionists, con-
t~ractionists, resumptionists, and those
who believe in letting things alone, or
Boutwellites.
From the Cincinnati Gazette.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.-The Com
mittee on Banking and Currency have
appointed Messrs. Phelps and Mitchell
as a subcommittee to prepare a bill to
make Immediately effective the law of
1870, redistributing the national bank
currency, by taking s25, 1000, 900 of cir
culation from Eastern banks, and giving
it to those States IN the West and
South which have less than their quota.
The law provides that the redistribu-
ton shall take place when all of the
$4,000, 900 of additional currency au-
thorized by the same act shall have
been taken up. The Controller con-
strues this phrase to mean the curren-
cy actually issued, instead of applied
for. 1t will be some weeks before the
last of the ffty-four millions will be IS
sued, but even then the transfer of cur
rency cannot be at once made, for the
law appears to have been devised to IA
cilitate delay. The Controller must
make a requisition upon the banks to
be deprived of circulation for the
amount each must give up. The banks
are then allowed a year to comply with
the requisition. If they fail, a sufi-
cient quantity of their bonds must be
sold to redeem the requisite amount of
notes as fast as they come into the
treasury. Itmight be 1.-TWO or three years
more before the amount would come
in, and all that time the West and
South would have to wait for their fair
share of bank facilities and circulation.
The bill which Messrs. Phelps and
Mitchell are preparing viii require the
Controller to make the requisition at
once, and viii give the banks only
twenty days to comply whit. Incase
a bank fails to do so. the United States
depositaries and Sub Treasury Will be
instructed to sort out all the notes of
such banks passing through their
hands and forward them to Washing
ton, where they will be redeemed and
Cancelled according to the provisions of
the old law, by a sale of the bonds of
the bank. New circulation will then
be issued at once, on application from
new or old banks in the States entitled
to the same. 1t is stated that the
banks which must suffer a lossof circu-
lation under this bill prefer to do so
rather than to see the currency inflated
by a public issue of bank currency, as
proposed in the bill of Representative
Monroe. The movement, on the part
of the Banking and Currency Commit
tee, to make the redistributing law eff
f~ective, may be fairly characterized as
hedging" 1t is obvious that the COM
mittee have not much confdencein the
success of their free banking bill, for,
if that measure should pass, the West
and South could get all the bank cur
rency they had the capital to obtain,
and the East could keep all 1t has got.
From the New York Bulletin, Feb. 2.
The dullness noted in Wall street
extends TO mercantile interests, trade
in all departments being temporarily
suspended or checked on account of the
uncertainty attending Washington leg
islation. For while all the indications
point to greater of less initiation at
Washington, yet business men do not
care to make calculations covering
months in which there is so important
an element of chance as whether the
legal tender circulation is to be $780,
100000, 1891, zoo, 900 as at present, or
S+00,000,OOO, as is proposed by the
Committee on Ways and Means. Con-
gress cannot awaken too soon to the
necessity of settling this matter. If it
Is allowed to drag along in its present
shape the spring trade will be injured,
and the Government revenues Will be
diminished. Congress has the exam
pie of Mr.. Richardson to profit by,
and hal should be a warning to
everybody. He did not see the
necessity for action during the
early part of the panic, when it
vas comfortable, and felt very "'com-
Portable" about the Treasury revenues,
and remained in this delightfully."- COM
posed frame of mind until the revenues
of the Treasury were greatly diminish
ed, and then, as if he had discovered a
new world, he became ridiculously ex-
cited, lost his head, and bawled out
through the length and breadth of the
land that Congress must come to the
rescue by imposing S42,000,O00 more
taxation, or the Treasury would be
bankrupt or be compelled to use a re-
serve, which nobody except himself and
Mr.. Boutwell, recognized. If the spring
trade is injured-and that means in
jury, o or less, to every business
man In the country-because of the
dilatory action of Congress In this i'm
portant matter, then Congress will be
held to an accountability for it, as Mr..
Richardson has for the greater part of
the panic of 1873, with this difference,
that Congress, or at least the lower
branch of it, is directly responsible to
the people, while Mr.. Richardson is ap-
parently onlytothe President. Without
pretending to prescribe what the
amount of legaltender circulation shall
be-we having been well satisfied with
the disposition made of the subject b.
the Senate Finance Committee last year
we II called upon by representative
business men to urge an early, if i'm
mediate is impossible, settlement Of
this important question, so that bust
nacc mon NOV hava cOmafhinO ON which