The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-06-23

AN ILL-TIMED DEPARTURE.

AN ILL-TIMED DEPARTURE.
The Democrats of Ohio in their convention
Of June II, proclaimed certain propositions OF
faith and action, among which were the four
following, relating to the currency:
s. That the contraction of the currency
| heretofore made by the Republican party and
the further contraction proposed by it, with
view to the forced resumption OF specie pay
ment, has already brought disaster to the
business of the country and threatens general
bankruptcy. We demand hat this policy be
abandoned and that the volume of currency
be made and Kept equal to the wants of trade,
leaving the restoration of legal tenders to par,
gold, to be brought about by promoting the
industries of the people, and not by destroy
ing them.
8. That the policy already indicated by the
Republican party of abolishing legal tenders
and giving national banks the power to fur
nish the currency, will increase the power OF
an already dangerous monopoly, and the
enormous burdens now expressing the peo-
pie, without any compromising advantage,
and that we oppose the policy, and demand
that all the national bank circulation be
promptly and permanently retired and legal
tenders be issued in their place.
10. That the public interest demands that
the government should cease to discredit its
own currency and should make its legal
tenders receivable for all public dues, except
where respect for the obligations Of contracts
require payment in coin; and that We favor
the payment of at least one-half OF the GUS
toms in legal tenders.
IL. The extinction of the present National
Banks and the establishment in their stead OF
Il I~,n nf discount a nd
post, under such regulations as the States
may respectively prescribe, and no paper cur
rency except such as may be issued directly
by, and upon the faith Of the general govern
ment
We have been looking with some anxiety
for the utterance of the Democrats Of Ohio
upon the question of the currency, and now
that it is given we do not hesitate to express
our disappointment There is SO much OF
circumlocution and augmentation, SO little
Of definiteness, and SO many chances of mis-
construction, that it would have been better
omitted altogether.
The purpose Of the Democratic party is to
restore metallic currency as soon as it caa
be done without giving jar to the business
of the country. In whatever phrase this pur-
pose may be expressed, the intent is the
ssme, the shortest and plainest expression
being the best because the least liable to am
biguity. The object to be attained is not the
expulsion of all paper from circulation but
such monetary condition as will make the
paper dollar everywhere at all times worth
precisely the gold dollar, neither more nor
less f'the Democrats of Ohio mean any
thing short Of this or different from It, we are
free to assure them that they have not struck
the golden chord that sends forth the key
note of Jacksonian Democracy. This is q
question on which none should falter in a
double sense.
If the contraction of the currency has been
too rapid it will be competent for Congress to
check and moderate it, but the financial poll
cy of the country must lead steadily towards
bullion. The process may be as slow as the
stealing march of the century, but there must
be no step backward. The country can not
prosper until true measure of values is re-
stored. Business of all kinds must suffer
constant and feverish changes and fuctua-
tons until the great regulator of buying, SELL
ing and valuing property be,
in very truth, just what it pretends to be.
Paper protesting to represent money must
prove its capacity to fill that function by
being instantly and everywhere convertible
into the gold coin of the republic.
About the temporary evil, inconvenience,
and even danger of sudden and wanton con-
fractions and expansions of currency by the
Government or its agents, there can be no
manner of question but these very evils and
dangers are enough, we should imagine, to
show to our friends in Ohio that q variable
currency cannot be trusted. Disasters from
fluctuations will always threaten until we
reach the solid basis of gold currency, there
to remain, as we hope, for centuries.
1t is very inopportune for theDemocrats of
Ohio, in canvass which has SO very much to
do with the greater canvass Of next year, to
announce and adopt theory and system of
banking and currency, while return to that
condition in which there shall be no connec-
ton whatever between banks and the govern
ment is the aim and hope of the masses Of
the party at large.
That the holders of government bonds will
be benefited by rapid and forced resump
ton of specie payments need not be dispu-
ted, but the return need be neither sudden
nor compulsory. The approach to it should
begin at once, and the plan should be fixed
and certain. 1t should universally be made
known that from this date onward not q
paper dollar shall in any contingency be
added to the circulation, but that the exist
ing paper is to he slowly and steadily retired,
until at some distant but glorious day the
paper dollar shall be redeemed from it's
degradation and the gold dollar shall be
restored to its regal and appropriate func-
ton. the supreme arbiter in fixing values and
regulating exchanges.