The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-02-16
TERMS $500 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE.

pelf to the government. But reason as we may,
the stimulant of contingent com pensation must
be applied to the ill-paid officers employed in
the lhternai revenue service, if they are to be
relied upon to watch with the requisite vigi-
lance, the sharp, cunning, unscrupulous fels
lows, to whom the excessive rate of the tax
presents such temptations to evade it. The abb
rogation of the moiety system has led TO a
great augmentation of smuggling. Many of
the very merchants who joined in dscrying it
now aim at substituting some method of a
similar nature to protect them from the compe-
titon of dishonest importers. And yet the
chances of preventing the distillation and sale
of whisky that has not paid the duty, with
tax of dollar gallon, is infinitely greater
than that of hindering the bringing in of mer-
chandise surrepttiously under our well estab-
lished custom house regulations. There ought
to be scale of recompensa Fixed upon to be
paid to any and every officer who exposes case
of illegal making or vending of this noxious
fluid and it should he large enough to ensure
such degree of vigilance as will be much more
likely to spring from self interest than from
mere patriotism.
But the addition of the war tax of ten per
centum on numerous leading articles of for
eign merchandise is ''step backward which
will not command the approval of the intelli-
gent men of the country. A restoration of the
duty on tea and coffee would have been far
preferable, as well as more certain to rsplen-
ish the treasury. 1t is impossible to avoid the
deduction that the refusal to utilize this source
of revenue originated in an apprehension that
the levy of such tax might affect the politi-
cal fortunes of members. The extreme pro-
tectionists of course declined to assent to It
because they object to any duty being assessed
npon commodities which we do not produce at
home. But those who declare themselves the
advocates of tariff for revenue only"-and
they-constitute an undoubted majority in this
Congress-will find it difficult to explain why
they hesitated TO avail themselves of the large
income which would have resulted from this
form of taxation, which satisfied everybody
while it existed, and which it was great mis-
take ever to have dispensed with.
1t is precisely one month since the new
finance bill became a law. Its operations thus
far have been contractive. There have been
5000, 900 of new national bank notes emitted
which are offset by the cancellation of $3.50, 700
legal tenders. But in addition to this there
has been withdrawal of national bank notes
of So, 800 900. This retirement of bills is likely
to be continued until our present excess of cur
rency is taken out of circulation. Bankers
find small margin of profit from this source
when bonds are so high and the rate of inter-
est so low. Some of our city banks have de-
cided to curtai their issues largely so that they
may avail themselves of the heavy premium
on the national securities which the govern
ment now holds as pledge for the iedemp-
ton of their notes, so that we are by the force
of natural laws approaching to better finan-
cial condition more rapidly than our national
Legislators contemplated. But during the pre-
gress of this transition the inertia which char
acterizes every branch of business is unpleas-
antly observable. The chief drug in market
is paper money. IL can be borrowed on un-
questionable securities subject to call at two or
three per cent, and good promissory notes
having four or five months to run are eagerly
sought after at four per cent. per annum.
Banks which have hitherto solicited the city
deposits at four per cent interest now decline
absolutely to take them on any such terms
The Mayor and Chamberlain have found it
necessary to apply to the legislature for au-
thority to loan the balances in the city treas
ury at the market rates, the charter Of 1871
having fixed the minimum rate at four per
cent, that having been considered at the time
a safe limitation.
These commonplace facts are instructive as
commentaries on the avalanche of treatises
which were in vogue twelve or fifteen months
ago setting forth the dearth of money and the
imperative necessity of enlarging the volume
of our circulating medium. The position then
maintained by the best minds Of the country
that contraction instead of expansion was the
wisest policy has been vindicated by expert
ence. If we can continue to reduce the meas
ure of our floating paper until it appreciates
to par, we shall have reached at an earlier day
the goal of solvency which Congress, with
more prudence than foresight, postponed till
1879 The surging tide of impatient specula-
ton may dash us back into the trackless ocean
of irredeemability, but unless the country goes
mad again the surplus of paper will become
exhausted by the same great law of supply and
demand which regulates the production and
consumption of every other article of staple
use. YARMOUTH.