Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1875-01-21
The PRESIDENTS MESSAGE ON TIE
FINANCE BILL.

To the Senate of The United States:
Senate bill No. 1914, ..to provide for
the resumption Of specie payment" is
before me, and fhis day receives my
signature of approval.
l venture upon this unusual method
of conveying the notice of approval to
the House, in which the measure origi
mated, because OF, its great importance
to the country at large, and in order to
suggest further legislation, which seems
to me essential to make this law etfec-
tual
1t is subject of congratulation that
measure has become a law which fix
es a date. when specie resumption shall
commence, and implies an obligation on
the part of Congress, if in its pow
er, to give such legislation as may
prove necessary to redeem this promise.
To this end l respectfully call your at
tention to a few suggestions.
First. The necessity for an increased
revenue to carry out the obligation of
adding to the sinking fund annually
per cent, of the public debt, amounting
now to about thirty>four million dollars
per annnm, and to carry out the prom
ses of this measure to redeem, under
certain contingencies, eighty millions
of the present legal tenders, and, with
out contingency, the fractional curren-
;ox, rou, -, o;roul,t;nn Ho,, 70 ;,,orooeo
the surplus revenue is for Congress to
devise, but will venture 10 suggest
that the duty Oh teas and coffee might
be restored without permanently en-
HANGING the cost to consumers, and that
the ten per cent. horizontal reduction Of
the tariff on articles specified in the law
ofJune 6, 1872 be repealed. The sup~
ply OF tea and coffee already on hand in
the United States would, III all proba
bility, be advanced in price by adopt
ing this measure. But it is known that
the adoption of free entry to those arti.
cles of necessity did not cheaper them,
but merely added to the profits of the
countries producing them, or Of the
the exclusive trade in them.
Second. The first section of the bill
now under consideration provides that
the fractional currency shall be redeem
ed in silver coin as rapidly as practica,
BILE, There is no provision preventing
the fuctuation in the value ofpaper cur
rency. With gold at a premium of
anything over ten per cent. above the
currency in use it is probable, almost
certain, that silver would be bought up
for expectation as fast as it was put out,
until change would become so scarce AS
to make the premium on it equal to the
premium on gold, or sufficiently high to
make it no longer profitable to buy for
export, thereby causing a direct loss to
the community at large and great en-
barrassment to trade.
AS the present law commands inal
resumption on the first day of January,
1879, and AS the gold receipts by the
treasury are larger than the gold pay
ments, and the currency receipts than
the currency payments, thereby making
monthly sales Of gold necessary to
meet current currency expenses, it
occurs to me that these difficulties
might be remedied by authorizing the
Secretary of the Treasury to redeem
legal tender notes whenever presented
in sums of not less than one hundred
dollars and multiples thereof at pre-
MUM for gold Of ten per cent, less in
terest at the rate of two and one half
per cent, per annum, from the first day
of January, 1875, to the date of putting
this law into operation, and diminish
ing this premium at the same rate IN
til final resumption, changing the rate
of premium demanded from time to
time as the interest amounts to one
quarter of one per cent. l suggest this
rate of interest because it would bring
currency at par with gold at the date
fixed by law for fina. resumption. l
suggest ten per cent. as the demand
premium at the beginning because l
believe this rate would insure the re-
tention of silver in the country for
change.
The provisions of the third section
of the act will prevent combinations
being made to exhaust the treasury of
coin. With such law it is presuma
BILE that no gold would be called TO-
not required for legitimate business
purposes. When large amounts of
coin should be drawn from the treasury
correspondingly large amounts of cur
rency would be Withdrawn from circu
lation, thus causing sufficient string
ency in currency to stop the outward
flow of coin. aa" a.
Other means Of increasing the rev
enues than those suggested should
probably be devised, and also other leg.
islation. In fact to carry out the first
section of the act another mint becomes
a necessity. With the present facill-
ties for coinage it would take period
probably beyond that fixed by law for
a final specie resumption to coin the
silver necessary to transact the busl-
ness of the country.
There are now smelling furnaces for
extracting the silver and gold from the
ores brought from the mountain terri.
tories, in Chicago, St. Louis and Omaha