The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-04-14
NEW YORK, April Is, 49,

necessary IOl It's COuSIdub OutluSiou upOu youi
readers So completely does it absorb general at
tention here, that our people seemi to have for
gotten fo- the nonce all about local or State
affairs. Even Chadband snivels unheeded
through countless columns of piteous whining
over the degeneracy of the times in the "inde-
pendent dailies'' and our modern Jeremiah,
howl he never so dismally, in hebdomadal lam
entations, is contemptuously pushed aside as an
unmitigable bore.
In one sense it is a relief to have the public
mind occupied with theme which can be con-
decency, and without the intermx-
ture of personal scandal which is fast rem
dering some of the metropolitan newspapers
| unfit for the perusal of the rising generation.
There is no occasion however to deal with the
merits of the subject in your columns. That
| branch of the argument has been fully sifted.
1t is especially noteworthy in view Of all that
has been said and written about the matter
that the theory of expansion has been support
ed by one solitary pea-necessity; that restor
alton of the currency to legitimate standard is
deprecated simply because it would give rise to
temporary inconvenience. Occasionally one
meets an enthusiast who processes the profound
est admiration 70 rpaper money; who cherishes
with childlike faith the per capita chimera, and
believes that it is the duty of the government
to add nineteen dollars or Whereabouts to the Cir
| culatiug medium whenever child is born or
| an immigrant arrives, deducting therefrom in
equal ratio for all mortuary inroads upon the
population This class, albeit respectable ir
character, and embracing many of those philos-
ophers whose delight it is to demonstrate the su-
periority of human ingenuity over natural law
who endeavor to prove automatically that
debt and wealth are synonymous terms and
that mourning the one is equivalent to acquiring
the other-is not sufficiently unassailable in
logic or powerful in numbers, to make any ma
terial impression in the debate. Far the larg-
est and certainly the most potential division of
the inflationist host frankly admit that depre-
ciated currency Is an evil-that whenever
money is below the pas of gold it is to that ex-
tent debased and that its value should be raised
by diminishing its quantity. But they exclaim
''not nowr'. Wait till business has resumed
its normal activity-till the country is better
able to bear the strain of curtailment- till the
work of publication can be effected without
hurting anybody Now this is precisely as
absurd as it would be for a patient to ask his
Doctor to wait till he got we'll before he should
take the medicine prescribed for his cure, Or for
the subject of surgical operation to insist on
postponement of the use of the knife, until tie
wound was healed.
+ The exact truth of the matter is that fully
nine-tenths of all the men who favor an increase
of currency in any form regard il as a temper
ru d,op hu which fhov h0p To ovtri naf r.
themselves from present embarrassments, and
leave the burden of the next crash to fall on
other victims There are great number of
stranded wrecks that were washed ashore in
the great tempest of last autumn which their
owners fancy can be set afoat, and sent on prof
table voyages provided there satisfactory in
dications of smooth seas and favoIing brcezes,
They foresee clearly that sooner or later another
storm will send them on the rocks again, with
greater damage may-hap to vessel and cargo
than before, but they are entirely confident of
saving themselves from loss, by shifting it on
to the underwriters. f a.. r
I hear this motive avowed in guarded terms
by pretty much every one of the comparatively
few, who either actively or passvely favor in
flation. Nobody seems to have the smallest
particle of misgiving as to his ability to get out
at the last moment. Although the remains of
the old debt are to be vitalized by the creation
of new one of much greater magnitude-al-
though we must inevitably pursue the same
dangerous course, with increased intensity,
which carried us to bankruptcy before, such is
the sanguine hopefulness of human nature, that
the very men whose means were impaired or
wholly lost in the last hurricane are eager to
embark again upon the perilous ocean of speeu-
lation and expansion.
And yet it is by no means certain that the
currents of adventure would take the same di-
lection, as they have done in the past by what
ever tricks of empiricism we might WOO that
tickle goddess fortune. Just as likely as not,
the old hulks will be suffered to rot on the de-
serted beach, and newer craft of tighter seam
and safer rig, may be launched and sent to sea,
by fresher competitors in the voyage of enter
prise. Indeed this seems highly probable for
no appliances of oakum or paint will SO effect
ually disguise hull once dented and battered
by the breakers but that she will be recognized
by her scars and condemned as unseaworthy.
But we are told that a dilution of the crcu-
lating medium must be consented to in defer
ence to the united sentiment of the imperial
West. Is there not room for doubt as to the
teuacity and universally with which this de-
lusive opinion is entertained in the West?
Certainly no section of the Union has so deep
a stake in the integrity of the currency. The
industries of which manual labor forms the
principal component must always suffer most
by redundant supoly of paper money.
A majority of her representatives in both
houses of Congress, to be sure, are ranged on
the side of the expansionists. But may they
not be in error to the real wishes of their con-
stituents? Such things have happened before.
When MI. PendIeton of Ohio raised aloft the
banner of Reputation in the form of a PROPOSE
ton to extinguish the national debt with
flood of greenbacks and sought to make it the
shibboleth of the democratic party, we all re-
member with painful distinctness with what
eagerness certain leading Republicans en-
braced that disgraceful heresy under the mis-
taken notion that it would be popular with the
people, Naturally enough, when we look at
the present advocates of the milder form of re-
pud:ation, now pressed under the guise of sup
plying additional currency for the wants of
business we recognize almost to man the
same false guides who at that time sought to
lure us to dshonor We were told then that the
West was base enough to sanction measure
which would have inflicted an ineradlcable
stain upon the national character. To the
immortal credit of the Republican party it re-
fused to palter with or be silent about a scheme
so Infamous but inscribed upon its ensign the
strongest assertion which language could con-
vey of the inviolability of the obligation to pay
the public debt IN coin. What was the result?
Why this same West, so slandered and ma
ligned by men who were supposed to know its
sentiments, responded with enthusiastic
unanimity to the Chicago platform, and
brought the demagogues who had misrepre-
,ented her, to discontinue and modification
New England to-day contributes one voice
and vote in Congress to the policy of imitation.
1t proceeds from the same representative that
championed the greenback re Judiaton during
the johnson interregnum. He protested to
defer to the opinion of the West then as he
does now. 1t is at best, low motive of ac-
ton. But waving for the moment the question
of ethics, when and where did the doughty
hero of Big Bethel and Fort Fisher acquire the
facultv of diyinipo the will of the West? His