Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1876-08-10

seventeen milnoosa year in gold. That
saving regularly invested at tour and a
half per cent would in less tlan thirty
eight years extinguish the principal.
The whole $1,700,OOO 600 of funded
debt might he paid by this saving alone.
without cost to the people.
PROPER TINE FOR RESUMPTION,
The proper time for resumption is
the time when wise preparation shall
have ripened into perfect ability TO
accomplish the object with. certainty
and ease that will inspire confidence
and encourage the reyiving OF business
The earliest time in which such result
can be brought about Is the best Even
when the preparations shall have been
matured the exact date would have to
be chosen with reference to the then
existing state of trade, credit operations
in our own country, the course of foreign
commerce, and the condition of the ex-
changes with other nations The specific
measures and the actual date are matters
of detail having reference to ever
charging conditions They belong to
the domain of practical administrative
craftsmanship. The captain Of steamer
about starting from New York to Liver
pool does not assemble 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 waters and the winds. A
human hand must be on the helm to
feel the element day by day, and guide
to mastery over them.
PREPARATIONS FOR RESUMPTION.
Such preparations are everything
Without them d legislative command
fixing day, an official promise fixing
day are shams They are worse. They
are a snare and delusion to all who
trust them. They destroy all confidence
among thoughtful men, whose judgment
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 a fresh calamity, prolific Of
confusion, distrust and distress.
The act of Congress Of the 18th of
January, 1875, enacted that on and
after the first of January, 1879, the
Secretary of the Treasury 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
secretary to prepare and provide for
such resumption Of specie payments
by the use of any surplus revenues not
otherwise appropriated, and by issuing
in his discretion certain classes of bonds.
More than one and half of the four
years have passed. 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
belong to the government had on the
30th of June fallen to less than SIS,
100000, as against S59,000,O00 on the
LIST of January, 1875, and the availability
of part of that sum is said to be guess
tionable. The revenues are falling
faster than appropriations and expend-
lures are reduced, leaving the treasury
with diminishing resources. The sec-
rotary has done nothing under his
noxpar to issna bonds
The legislative command, the official
promise, fixing a day for resumption,
have thus far been barren. No practical
preparations towards resumption have
been made There has been no progress.
There have been steps backward There
is no necromancy in the operations of
government. The homely maxims of
everyday life are the best standards of
its conduct. A debtor who should
promise to pay a loan out of surplus
income, yet be seen every day spending
all he could lay his hands on the riotous
living, would lose all character for hons
esty and veracity. His offer of new
promise or his profession as to the yalne
of the old promise would alike provoke
derision.
RESUMPTION PLAN OF THE ST. LOUIS
PLATFORM.
The St. Louis platform denounces the
failure 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
eleven years of peace, has made no
advance towards resumption, no prepa~
ration for resumption, but instead has
DISTRACTED resumption by wasting our
resources and exhausting all our surplus
income, and while protesting to intend
a speedy return to specie payments, has
annually enacted fresh hindrances
thereto; and having first denounced
the barrenness of the promise of 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
iCcuiH PVtoN.
1t cannot be doubted that the substi-
tuition of system Of preparation With
out the promise of a day would be the
gain of the substance of resumption i'll
exchange tor its shadow. Nor is the
denunciation unmerited of, that inprov-
idence which in the eleven years since
the peace has consumed $3.50, 100000,
vet could not afford to give the people
a sound and stable currency. Five and
hall per cent. on the expenditures of
these eleven years would have provided
all the additional coin needful to
resumption.
RELIEF TO BUSINESS DISTRESS.
The distress now felt by the people