The New York herald., 1875-11-27
senator Ferry's Views ON the Cur
rency.

President of the Senate, telegraphed from
Washington and printed in the HERALD yes
terday he made a frank exposition Of his
financial opinions. Justice requires US to
say that they are not such az should set the
country wild with alarm in the event of his
succeeding to the highest Office in the gov
ernment. Although there are parts of his
views from which we dissent there are other
parts which are reasonable enough to merit
respectful consideration His prompt
recognition Of the right Of the country to
know his opinions in view Of the new CON
tingency which has arisen is square and
manly, and should exempt him from cap
| tious criticism.
| A great deal could be said in defence OF
/ Mr.. Ferry's opinion that it was unwise to fix
a definite date for resumption. He was the
head Of the committee which framed the law
requiring the Treasury to pay specie on and
after January /, 1879 but he makes no Sc
| cret Of his opposition to that feature of the
law, and explains that he consented to
it only by way Of compromise. Other men,
bers of the committee favored January l,
/
specifc date at all but he yielded so far as
to consent to place it in January 1879, wish
\ ing to extend the period as far as possible to
\ give time for preparation. The HERALD
maintained at the time that the fixing of a
date was of no value. We have seen no rea-
son to change our opinion. We contended,
when the bill was on it's passage, that such a
- 4
quent Congress would be as free to repeal it
as the last Congress was to enact it. re-
peal is inevitable if it shall be found, when
the period approaches, that the legal tender
notes still remain considerably below par.
1t was our opinion then, and is our opinion
now, that it would have been wiser to fix no
date, but to adopt practical measures of prep
aration which would gradually lead up to
an equalization Of the currency with coin.
Let this equality be established, let
it be maintained for year or two
without disturbance or fuctuation, and
it will then be safe to put a law
in force requiring specie payments The
law Of last winter began at the wrong end;
what it enacted as the first step should have
been reserved for the last. If Congress had
passed measures tending to appreciate the
greenbacks and bring them steadily toward
par the country would have justified it in
waiting to watch the progress Of appreciation
and see what further legislation might be
needed for fastening an advance toward the
goal If, Ester such preparation, it should
be found in 1878 that the paper currency was
already at par, it would then be safe and
easy step for the Congress then in session to
pass law requiring resumption in the fol-
lowing January. The law of last winter is
utterly worthless since it does nothing tow
ard equalizing the value Of legal tender
notes and gold. On the contrary, the pre-
MUM is higher than it was last win
ter and there is no reason to expect
its reduction by the operation of that
law. If it should be found in 1873 that
the paper currency is still below par
nothing is more certain than that the Con-
gress then in session will be forced to repeal
the act Of last winter fixing January, 1879,
as the date for resumption. On this point
we are in accord with Senator Ferry, and
could fortify his opinion with stronger rea-
sons than the brevity Of his interview with
our representative permitted him to state.
The truth is that the act Of last winter was
not measure Of finance, but q manpuvre of
politics. The republican party had just
been disastrously beaten in the elections and
thought it necessary to do something to re-
trieve its sinking prospects. The measure it
adopted was a mere lip service to specie pay
ments. It amounted to nothing, because no
provision was made for the intermediate
steps. 1t was as absurd as it would be to
say to workman that at the end of precisely
four minutes he must stand on the topmost
round Of high ladder when the ladder had
no rounds and none were supplied for the
first forty feet from the ground. While our
government has been thus trihing with a
great subject there has been success
full contemporary example of intelligent
dealing with similar problem. We, Of
course, refer to France. The government Of
France has acted on sound financial princi-
pies 1t did not attempt to drive the wedge
butt end foremost. It did not begin by fix
ing day for resuming specie payments, but
by adopting measures for bringing its paper
currency to par. 1t had succeeded in this
nearly two years ago, but even then it was in
no haste to resume being unwilling to take
any risk which might imperil the stability Of
what it had accomplished. 1t was not until
some seven or eight weeks ago that it fixed q
day for specie resumption, although its cur
rency had been maintained steadily at par
for long period. And when it did recently
fix the date it did not select an immediate
1 but distant one. The Bank of France will
not resume specie payments until January
| 1878, although its notes are at par and it has
/ gold in its Golfers to the amount Of five
hundred million francs. This may be
an excess of caution but il is better