The Portland daily press., 1876-08-07

wise finance are the means which the st.
Louis Convention indicates. As provision
for reserves and redemptions, the best re-
source is a reduction of the expenses of the
government below it's income, for that i'm
poses no new charge on the people. If, how
ever the improvidence and waste which have
conducted US to period of falling revenues
oblige us to supplement the results of econo-
mics and retrenchments by some resort to
loans we should not hesitate. The govern
ment ought not to speculate on its own dis
honor in order to save interest on its broken
promises, which it still compels private deal
ers to accept at a fictitious par. The highest
national honor is not only right, but would
prove profitable.
Of the public debt 1886, 900, 900 bear inter-
est at 6 per cent. in gold and $712,000,000 at
per cent in gold. The average interest is
5.5S per cent. A financial policy which
should secure the highest credit awaited of
ought gradually to obtain a reduction of one
per cent. in the interest on most of the loans.
A saving of one per cent. on the average
would be $l7,000.000 year in gold. The
saving regularly invested at Al per cent.
would, in less than SO years, extinguish the
principal. The whole seventeen hundred mill
lions of the funded debt might be paid by this
saving alone, without cost to the people.
The proper time for resumption is the time
when wise preparations shall have ripened
into perfect ability to accomplish the object,
with certainty and ease that will inspire
confidence and encourage the revivings of
business. The earliest time in which such
result can be brought about is the best. Even
when the preparations shall have been ma
~ 10 he
en- with reference to the then existing state
Of trade and credit operations in our own.
country, the course of foreign commerce and
the condition of the exchanges with other
nations. The specific measures and the ac-
tual date are matters of detail having refer
ence to ever changing conditions. They be-
long to the domain of practical administra-
tive craftsmanship.
The captain of steamer about starting
from New York to Liverpool does tnot assem-
BILE council over his ocean chart, and fix an
angle by which to lash the rudder for the
whole voyage. A human intelligence must be
at the helm to discern the shifting forces of
the water and the winds. A human hand
must be on the helm to feel the elements day
by day and guide to mastery over them.
Such preparations are everything; without
them legislative command fixing day, an
oAClai PIouiioS AAlliS q oays aic ouduiSs 1uct
are worse; they are snare and delusion to
all who trust them. They destroy all conf
dence among thoughtful men, whose judg-
ment will at last sway public opinion. An
attempt to act on such command or such a
promise without preparation would end in a
new suspension. 1t would be fresh calam-
ity, prolific of confusion, distrust and
distress.
The act of Congress of the 14th of JAN
uary, 1875, enacted that on and after the first
of January 1879, the Secretary of the Treus-
ury shall redeem in coin the legal tender
notes of the United States on presentation at
the Office of the Assistant Treasurer in the
city of New York. 1t authorized the Secre-
tary to prepare and provide for such resump-
ton of specie payments, by the use of any
surplus revenue not otherwise appropriated,
and by issuing in his discretion, certain
classes of bonds. More than one and half
of the four years have passed, and Congress
and the President have continued ever since
to unite in acts which have legislated out of
existence every possible surplus applicable to
this purpose.
The coin in the Treasury, claimed to be-
long to the government, had, on the 30th of
June, fallen to less than $45, 900 900, as
against $50,000,000 on the LIST of January,
1875; and the availability of part of that
sum, is said to be questionable. The reve-
nues are falling faster than the appropriations
and the expenditures are reduced, leaving the
Treasury with diminished resources. The
Secretary has done nothing under his power
to issue bonds.
The legislative command and the official
promise fixing day for resumption have thus
far been barren. No practical preparations
toward resumption have been made. There
L. L..
backward. There is no necromancy in the
operations of the government. The homely
maxims of every day life are the best stand
ards of its conduct. A debtor who should
promise to pay loan out of surplus income,
yet be seen every day spending all he could
lay his hands on, in riotous living, would lose
his character for honesty and veracity. His
offer of a new promise, or his profession as to
the value of the old promise, would alike
provoke derision.
The St. Louis platform denounces the fail
ure for eleven years to make good the promise
of the legal tender notes. 1t denounces the
omission to accumulate any reserve for their
redemption. 1t denounces the conduct which
during olovon years of peace has made no ad-
van ces toward resumption, no preparations
for resumption; but instead has INSTRUCTED
resumption by wasting our resources and ex-
processing to intend a speedy return to
specie payments, has annually enacted fresh
hinderances thereto" and having first de.
nounced the barrenness of the promise of a
day of resumption it next denounces that
barren promise as hindrance to resump-
ton. 1t then demands its repeal, and also
demands the establishment of a judicious
system of preparation for resumption.
1t cannot be doubted that the substitution
of system of preparation without the
promise of day for the worthless promise of
day without system of preparation would
be the gain Of the substance of resumption in
exchange for its shadow, nor is the denuncia-
ton unmerited of that improvidence which
sumed forty-fve hundred millions of dollars,
and yet could n0tnfford to give the people a
sound and stable, currency.
Two and a -hA1f per cent. on the expendi-
ture of these eleven years, or even less, would
have provided all the additional coin needful
to resumption.
RELIEF TO BUSINESS DISTRESS.
The distress now felt by the people in all
their business and industries though it has
its principal cause in the enormous waste of
capital occasioned by the false policies of our
government, has been greatly aggravated by
eAAC ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Va tuC CuIIeuCYs
Uncertainty is the prolific parent of mis-
chief in all business. Never were its evils
more felt than now. Men do nothing be-
cause they are unable to make any calcula-
tons on which they can safely rely; they
undertake nothing because they fear loss in
everything they would attempt; they stop
and wait. The merchant dares not buy for
the future consumption of his customers
The manufacturer dares not make fabrics
which may not refund his outlay; he shuts
his factory and discharges his workmen.
Capitalists cannot lend on security they con-
slider safe, and their funds lie almost without
Interest. Men of enterpriselwho have credit
or securities to pledge will not borrow.
Consumption has fallen below the natural
limits of reasonable economy. Prices of
many things are under their range in frugal
pecie-paying times before the war. Vast
masses of currency lie in the banks unused.
A year and half ago the legal tenders were
at their largest volume, and the twelve mil
lions since retired have been replaced by fresh
issues of fifteen millions of bank notes. In
the meatime the banks have been surrender
ing about four millions month, because they
cannot find profitable use for so many Of
their notes.
The public mind will no longer accept
shams. 1t has suffered enough from illusions;