The Republican journal., 1875-04-29
Mr.. McCul1och on Finance.

L
to which the paper is seDt.-aH
Mr.. McCul1och on Finance.
At the request of the New York Tribune
ex-Secretary McCulloch has commenced
series of letters, addressed to that journal,
in which he proposes to discuss the gen.
eral subject of the finances Of the United
States. with especial reference to the cur
rency The views of Mr. McCulloch will
receive more consideration now than they
did when he stood in an official relation
ship to the subject, as secretary of the
treasury Of the United States, endeavor-
ing to give shape by them to the financial
policy of the government. On our part
we have learned something since then,
and Mr. McCulloch has been learning,
too, in a new school of great Instructive
ness. Our experience as people, during
the past six years, has certainly gone far
to justify to us the soundness OF the doc
trines on which the conservative financial
policy of Secretary McCulloch was sub
stantially based, and we are far better pre-
pared to comprehend and appreciate the
reasoning by which such doctrines are
maintained. Mr.. McCulloch, on his part,
has been fortunately situated during the
same years for observing and studying in
their largest field the phenomena of fl
nance. His association with a great bank
ing house at London has placed him in the
midst of the monetary movements of Eu-
rope, and the knowledge and experience
which he has thus gained must certainly
add importance to the financial views that
he now undertakes to present.
The first of Mr. McCulloch's letters re-
fers to the financial condition of France,
by way of text and introduction-aptly
turnished-to a survey of the financial
condition OF the United States There is
a great lesson to be learned from the re-
cent history of France, and it is plain that
Mr. McCulloch has studied it with exceed
ing care. lie describes graphically, in a
few words, the uneXampled state OF pros
tration in which the unfortunate nation
was left at the close of its contest with
Germany and its struggle with the mad
Commune of Paris: "With q govern
ment provisional only; with a democrat
lied people with an empty treasury, an
i,,,, loI,t To no y,nor1p 1nn1,1aI INV
the expenditures of a single year (includ
ing the indemnity this great nation, here
tofore one of the most powerful and in
tluential in Europe, seemed to be on the
verge OF political and financial ruin
-Four years ago this was the state OF
France. To-day Mr. McCulloch does not
hesitate to declare that her financial con
dition ''is in most respects better than that
of any nation in the world
Her waste places have been restored;
her industries have been stimulated into
unprecedented activity her exports, large
ly exceeding her imports, have made her
a great creditor nation, so that gold has
been steadily drawn to her from England,
from the United States. and even from
Germany, until the Bank Of France has in
its strong rooms the enormous sum of
three hundred millions of coin and bullion,
and its notes, although not absolutely con-
vertible, are only the tenth of one per
cent discount.
No other country in Europe, says Nh
McCulloch, has been so prosperous as
France has been during the two past years.
In no other has labor been so well reward
monetary OF commercial disturbance. Ger
many, to whom France paid a thousand
million dollars of indemnity, has suffered
more financial embarrassment than the
nation from which the indemnity was ex-
acted Although borrowing to large
extent at first the money to pay this in
demnity, the French citizens, we are told
by Mr.. McCulloch, have been steadily call
ing back the securities which went abroad,
SO llltiG UOW VIC L lCllCIl UCDG, CllC ldISCSl
in the world, is almost wholly home
debt
These are wonderful facts, and there
must be profound laws in them which we
need to study The condition of France,
politically, morally and economically, was
worse in 1871 than ours in 1863 War,
foreign and domestic combined, had intlict-
ed more wounds upon her-had bruised,
trampled upon and crippled her more.
Yet at the end Of four years she exhibits
more substantial recovery than we do at
the end Of ten. She is the creditor of other
nations in trade and the manufacturing
mistress of the world; her Golfers are
overlooking with gold; she has preserved
her paper currency from depreciation and
has gathered her debt into the hands of
her own citizens What is the secret of
SO marvellous recuperation?
This is the deeply suggestive question
which Mr. McCulloch propounds in his
first letter, and which he promises to con-
slider in his next
1t appears that the Collectors at Chicago,
Detroit RuffaO Duluth p,,.l