New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-06-15
JIDGE KELLET on THE TREASCRY.


Judge Kelley, who for many years has repre-
scented one OF the Philadelphia districts i'll the
House of Representatives,, and WHO is one Of
the most inflated of inationists, has given to
q. reporter OF The Philadelphia Times an OK
tended statement of his views on the common
ruin which is TO Oycrtake and ovcrwhclm at
one and the same time both the Nation and
the National Treasury. Judge Kelley was a
member of the Committee of Ways and Means
in the last Congress and might naturally be
expected to know something of the revenues
and expenditures of the Government, bat we
find that his understanding of these ques-
tions does not spread any wider or
deeper than that of Mcssrs. Dawes
and Garfield. While it is true tina; the reduc-
ton of expenditures for the fiscal year about
to close has not been twcnty-six million dol
lars, as the two state snen last named predicted,
and while it is also a fact that the Sinking
Fund is too big an eater for the scantily pro-
vided table of the Treasury. Judge Kelley is
rdclllously mistaken in predicting serious
trouble for Secretary Bristow. He is entirely
wrong in asserting that the purchases OF sill
yer for coinage and the redemptions of green
backs rs an Offset to new ISSUES Of bank notes
are made at the expense of the cash in the
Treasury since the law expressly authorizes
the issue of bonds TO raise funds for these pur-
poses, and careful study of the Debt state
mcnts would have shown him that some mil
lions of bonds have already been issued under
the act of Jan. II, 1875.
The Judges views on contraction are, if pos
sible, still more exaggerated than his prcdc
lions of the insolvency of the Treasury. We
showed the other day that there had been in
twelve months a net decrease in the paper
money of the country of about one and il half
per cent, or ten million dollars, a quantity
utterly insignificant, the absence of which has
had no effect whatever on the business CON
Germs of the country. During the last twenty
months there has been contraction of one
hundred and twenty five million dollars, or
twenty per cent, III the paper money Of
France, and yet it Is an indi-putablc fact
that French trade and manufactures are
moro 2ourishing than the same interests
in England, Germany, or the United
States. IL the trouble with business in this
country was scarcity Of paper money there
would be no such extraordinary accumulations
of currency and low rates of interest in New
in short, downright impossibilty to trace
any connection of cause and effect between The
changes which have taken place in the cur
rency since September, 1873. and tho stale of
trade during the same period. We had, first,
an initiation of twenty-six millions in the green
back circulation, and we have since had con-
traction of less than half AZ much, but neither
the one change nor the other produced any ef-
feet on business, because business had been
Frustrated by causes which struck in far deeper
than any mere pin scratches on the back of the
currency. Ii is inconceivable to Ills why Judge
Kelley should give himself any troabe about
the expectation of gold, gold in his opinion
having been made useless as money since the
invention of greenbacks and one hundred dol
lar bonds, bearing interest at the rate of
cent a day. We have read through twice the
two solid columns which are filed with Judge
kelley's sentiments, and we can find in them
10 cohcrency, no argument. and no correct