New-York tribune., 1874-06-22
An OPPORTUNITY MISSED.

The dispatches tell that the President
has decided to sign the Conference Finance
bill. 1t is piece of news so deplorable, and
withal so discreditable to the President, that
we shall refuse to believe 1t until the actual
signature is announced. To expect him to ap-
prove this bill is to assume that the President
did not mean what he said in his last veto,
and did not understand what he was talking
about in his financial memorandum; that he
has no comprehension OF the evils OF expan-
sion, and no idea of the principles he has
himself so well enuncated concerning the
way of getting back to specie. 1t is, In a
word, to expect him to set his foot upon
every principle which he has advanced in his
financial utterances, and to hold up his own
financial attitude to the ridicule of the country
He may double on his own track after this
fashion to-day, but it will be making greater
shpwreck of his late-earned reputation than
even his worst enemies could have predicted.
At the very outbreak of the panic The
TRIBUNE earnestly protested against the issue
of a dollar from the United States Treasury
by way of panacea for the disorders of the
money market. We did not at that time fore
see the decided attitude since taken by the
President, but we were thoroughly confident
that whatever might be the overissue of green
backs by Mr.. Richardson, that overssue would
become a permanent addition to our depre-
ciated paper money. Nine months have passed.
Not dollar of Mr. Richardson's overlssue has
been withdrawn, and Congress has voted
that not q dollar shall be withdrawn. The
President, who has just decla himself In
favor of positive measures for the restoration
IN ia al
to afiix his name to a measure which is the
direct opposite of everything suggested in his
memorandum
Let us a little further examine this last
production of q committee of compromisers
and innationists. Note, at the beginning, that
it had the solid support of the whole body of
infationists in both Houses. 1t was supported
by them for the avowed reasons that it
would initiate the currency by adding the illegal
twenty millions to the circulation. and
relieve the banks from any legal obligation
to maintain reserve, thereby throwing as
the infationists suppose, thirty or forty mil
lion dollars into the pockets of the people.D y
Initiation was the sole merit of this bill in the
eyes of ee-fourths of those who voted for
it. And what other support did it have {?
lnere were ~ NOlcS against IL In the
Senate and 40 against it in the House.
There were doubtless some who were
paired. On the cath OF March there
were 20 votes in the House in favor of
fixing the amount of the legal-tender circula.
ton at $685. 100000. OF these 20 we find 20
who now vote to raise the limit to s3s2, 900 .OOO
With few exceptions they are not men of
much weight. We have Burleigh, Frye and
Hale from Mane-tbe friends OF Speaker
Blaine, who will find that he is not big enough
to straddle this question:; Dawes, Harris. and
Williams of Massachusetts,, not the most i'm
portant part of the delegation; Garfield of
Ohio, who compromised on the salary grab,
and Clymer of Pennsylvania. In the Senate
we have Mr. Sherman. To Sherman, Dawes.
and Garfield we may apply the patriarchal
admOnitiOn-" Unstable as water, thou shalt
"not excelr The rest are hardly worth n
text, though there are plenty that would fit
them.
SuppOsing this bill to become law. how
will it affect the United States Treasury and