New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-06-25

fractional currency, and legal tenders, and re-
fusing it to Understanding securities, such as
the seyen-thirties, cOmpound-interest notes, ana
three per cent certificates OF the treasury
which were no more paper money than the
$50 bonds or the interest bearing notes OF
private individuals there never was any con-
traction of the paper money, and we have the
word of ex-Secretary McCullOch that he never
permitted his operations On the legal tehder
circulation to go so far as to affect the rate OF
interest and thus obstruct his funding opera
tons. The simple truth about this matter Is
that his Withdrawals of legal tenders were
more than Cancelled by the issues of National
bank notes.
iii. "The contraction of the currency here
"tofore made by the Republican party is,
therefore. an expression which can only be
aDp]ied TO that accidental and unprecedented
contraction which has taken place since the
adjournment of Congress. For that cOntrac-
ton the Republican majority in the last Con-
gress is no more responsible than it is for the
earthquake which lately visited South Amer
lea. The infatiOnist majority III the
Senate and House, uniting with the
men without backbOne-the trmmcrs, we
may call them-had provided, "a they
thought, for moderate initiation
by means Of Free Banking" the legaiza-
ton of Secretary Richardson's $26,OOO,OOO
ove,issue of greenbacks, and releasing the
"bank-rcserves.n When Congress adjourned,
Messrs. Logan, MerrimOn and the other Simon
Pure inflationists whom the heartless Ohio
Democracy now impudently revile as contrac-
tjonists, no more dreamed of contraction OF
the currency as the result of their legislation
than they did of paying their board bills in
constitutional coin.
w. In the fourth place, what does this con-
traction amount TOT AS to the legal tender
circulation, the XLIIId Congress is entitled,
thus far to the credit of having increased it
twenty six millions and decreased it five!
That is exactly the contraction OF the cur
rency for which the country is indebted to the
last Congress-a net initiation OF twenty-One
millions.
V. We have no intention of passing over
without notice the surrender of bank note CIR
culation; but we should like to know just
what the Ohio Democrats mean by their - c-
"mand" that "He rOiume IF the currency DC
"nade and kept equal 10 the woats Of trade"
We should like to know precisely what that
EXPRESSION means. If the volume OF the cur
rcncy is not now equal to the wants of trade,
rs they plainly intimate, how are we to know
when it will be equal to those wants! What
is to be the guide A chicken III every
door mans pot and the purchase money
of ten acres and a mule i'll his pocket
This important point ought not 10 he
left unsettled q moment longer. We, for our
mart do not hold that the surrender OF bank
circulation, which has produced what Is equiva-
lent TO n net contraction of about fifteen mil
liens in that sort of paper money, is the conse-
oucnce of any natural adjustment OF the cur
rency to the wants of trade, but we do believe
that part of that reduction was unavoidable
and had il not taken place in the way ii qua
some of the banks must have wound mp and
retired from business, which would have pro-
duced. in their cases at least, the same
amount of contraction, if not more. In
other cases, including the surrender of
.bout eight millions of circulation by
banks in this city alone, the motive was diff
fercnt. but whatever it was we may be sure
that it was some consideration OF proiit to the
bank. which may or may not agree with the
"wants of trade" So far as this city is con-
cerned we believe that it is almost universally
conceded that the wants of trade are due more
TO scarcity of trade than scarcity OF money.
VI But leaving each reader to put what
stress he pleases on the surrender of bank
circulation, which, by the way, would seem to
he q pretty essential part of Gree Banking
il is undeniable that it .fo'lored in point Of
time the disasters which fell on the business
of the country in 1878 and 1874. If it had
been the cause of those disasters, as the Ohio
Democracy proclaim, it should have preceded
them.
VII. Throughout the whole year 1874 the
business of the country had the full benefit of
S26 OOO. 900 in legal tender notes over and
above the quantity in circulation for six years
previously to October, 1878. In June, 1874,
forty or fifty millions of legal tenders in the
hank reserves were "set Free measure
which, in the opinion of such great opponents
OF the wants of trade as Senators Morton,
Merlimon, and Logan, was to work miracles.
In January the great monopoly OF the crcnla-
tion which the banks of the Eastern and Mid
die States had welded for years was
broken up, and Free Banking" pro-
claimed. Yet what comes of iti The country is
threatened with general bankruptcy and
"ruin," say the Ohio Democracy. And why 7
Because a few banks. mainly i'll this city, have
elected to surrender in whole or i'll part, their
monopoly of issuing notes, thereby decreasing
"the power of an already dangerous monop-
"oly," and complying literally with the " de-
"mand" of the Ohio Democracy " that the
"bank circulation be promptly and rnia-
nently retired y
Without going any further, we confess we
cannot tell exactly what the Ohio Democracy
want. We should like to know just how many
dollars in greenbacks, in the opinion OF the
Ia. IN no 10