Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1876-08-16

; numerous sellers. The additiona
| need of currency ut such times il
: five or more per cent. of the whole
volume, and if surplus beyond
that is required for ordinary use
, does not happen to have been or
, hand at the money centers scarci.
ty OF currency ensues, and also q
stringency in the loan market. II
was in reference to such expert
ences that in a discussion of this
subject i'll my annual message to
the New York Legislature of Jan
uary 8, 1875, the suggestion was
made that "the Federal government
is bound to redeem every portion
of its issues which the public do
not wish to use. Having assumed
to monopolize the supply of cur
rency and enacted exclusions
against everybody else, it is bound
to furnish all which the want of
business require. The system
should passively allow the volume
of circulating credits to ebb and
flow according to the ever chang
ing wants of business. 1t should
initiate rs closely as possible the
natural laws of trade, which it has
superseded by artificial contri-
vances. And in a similar discussion
in my message of January 4, 1876,
it was said that resumption should
be effected "by such measures as
would keep the aggregate amount
of currency self-adjusting during
all the process, without creating at
any time an artificial scarcity, with
outexciting public imagination with
alarm, which impaired confidence,
controls the whole large machinery
of credit and distrusts the natural
operations of business"
"Public economies, official re-
trcnchment, and wise finances "are
means which the st. Louis Convcn-
tion indicates as provisions for re-
serves and redemptions. The best
resource is q reduction of the ex-
pcnses of the government below
its income; for that imposes no
new charge on the people. If, how
ever, the improvidonce and waste
which have conducted the United
States TO period of falling reve-
nues, obhge us to supplement the
results of economies and retrencb-
mcnts by come resort to loans, we
should not hesitate. The govern
ment ought not to speculate on its
own dishOnor in order to save in
terest on its broken promises,
which it still compels private deal
ers to accept at fictitious par.
Tho highest national honor is not
only right, bnt would prove profit
able. OF the public debt $685., ,000,-
900 bear interest at six per cent.
in gold, and S712,000,000 at five
per cent. A financial policy which
should secure the highest credit
wisely availed of ought gradually
to obtain u reduction of one per
cent. in the interests on most of the.
loans. A saving of one per cent.
On tho average would be $4,000 ,
100 year in gold. That saving ,
invested at four and a ,
,alf per cent. would in less than ,
hirty-eight years extinguish the /,
The whole 81, ,I00, 200, 900 {
# the funded debt might be paid |
~ this saving alone without cost ,
o the people. The proper time
or resumption ia the time when /,
wise preparations shall have ripen- !
ID into perfect ability to accom- ,
,lish the object with q certainty I
nd ease that will inspire confidence !
nd encourage the reviving Of 2
BUSINESS. The earliest timo in :
which such result can be brought
bout is the best. Even when the /
shall have boon ma d
urcd the exact date would have to 4
e chosen with reference TO the 4
hen existing stateof trade and cred I
operations in our own country, I,
he conrse Of foreign commerce and n
ondition of exchanges with other n
aiiops. The specific measures +
nd actual date are matters Of de- q
,il, having reference to over n
conditions. They belong r
, the domain of practical admin =
'trative craftsmanship. n
The captain of steamer about $
Iarting from New York TO Liver q
COL does not assemble a council I,
YER his ocean chart ard fix an n
ngle Ivy which to lash the ruddcr v
" the whole voyage. A human E
ltclligcnco must be at the helm to y
iscern the shifting forces Of the n
aters and winds, n human hand /,
'usi be on the helm to feel the {,
cmcnts day Ivy day and guido TO G.
mastery over them. Such pre- A
arations are everything. With y
ut them, legislative command q
king the day, an official promise b
king a day, are shams. They &
re worse. They are q snare aud n
delusion to all who trust them. r,
hey destroy all confidence among Il
men whose judgement b
ill at last sway public opinion. I
N attempt 70 act ON such com C
,and on such proiDise without @
ropai alton would cud in new G.