The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1874-07-11
RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAY
MERITS.

~ 10 lbtNNttbiO tiiit WIZ iiSN
cy bill, of which we spoke on yester-
day, contains no clause looking to Il
resumption of specie payments. This
is the more remarkable in view of the
position taken by President Grant in
his veto measure and in the celebrated
memorandum" that Senator Jones
drew out of him. 1t is remarkable
rather that the president should have
signed such bill in the face of the re-
cord he had made. In the east, where
anything looking in the direction tot
initiation is looked upon with fear and
trembling, the bill sknown as "Grant's
first surrender"
1t may be that the president was in
duced to change his opinion as to the
practicability of immediate resumption
10y official information gathered from
the records of the treasury depart
ment.
II is said that Judge Allison, regis
trar of the treasury, furnished the pres
ident with Il statement made up from
the olficialrecords showing what would
be the effect of too hasty Il resumption
of specie payments. Judge Allison
says that however desirable it may be
to reach specie payments, there are
few who will not admit that q prema-
ture attempt in that direction would be
attended with the most disastrous re-
suits to the general business interests
of the country. The waste occasioned
by the late war, and the constant and
enormous drain upon the wealth and
resources of the people, have caused
too severe u strain, and the real cause
of the depression now existing is not
so much the arrangement of none
tary affairs us actual pecuniary eXhaus-
ton of the people. TO show the mag
nitude of these drains, the registrar
says that in 1860 the maximum of our
national debt was reached at $780,
600; in seven years the government has
paid 500, 900, 600 OF that principal, and
an annual interest of about Sl25, OOO, 600,
in addition to its current expenses.
to this the yearly interest paid
by the country at large upon state,
county, city and railroad bonds, we can
form some idea of the appalling de-
mands made upon the industry and
of the people.
He finds that the cause of our appa-
rent prosperity has been the large
amount of national bonds and green
back currency, and the adoption of our
national banking system, which, to-
gether with the extensive railroad en-
terprises carried OH by foreign capital,
inflated our financial system and pro-
duced fictitious values of all kinds.
This inflated condition can only be
protracted by additional loans from
abroad. The issue of bonds, greenback
and national bank currency is upward
of So, 600, 100000. A comparison of the
national debt resulting from The wars
of 1912 and 1S6l-5 shows that the
former, of $l27, 900, 900, required twenty
years in payment, at the rate of about
Sc, 100000 year, while the debt of the
late war has already been reduced at
the rate of about S6,000,000 a
for seven years. In 1920 our
population was 100000, showing
per capita Indebtedness of fourteen dol
lars. In 1873 the rate was seventy
three dollars per capita. In the last
seven years we have paid nine times
as much as was paid by the govern
ment from 1915 to 1885, when that war
debt was finally paid off. The regis
trar concludes by saying that from
these facts and figures he thinks it evil
dent that the ability of the country has
been too severely taxed, and beyond
what the people can endure. Under
this state of affairs, he says, it becomes
a serious question whether speedy re-
of specie payments would
not cause widespread ruin and unpar-
alleled disaster.