The New York herald., 1876-10-20

deferred until we could feel that the busi-
ness prospects of the country could be cal
culated with some reasonable approach to
certainty We have watched with anx-
ious interest for signs of healthy revival
Of business, with prices approximating, as
present prices do, to the specie basis The
new activity of trade which has been in prog
ress since the beginning Of autumn. and
which has inspired the commercial commu-
nifty with hope and confidence, encourages
us to believe that the time has at length
come when we may safely readjust the
business of our establishment with refer
ence to the future. We have long
foreseen that the prices Of newspapers must
follow the law which imposes general re-
duction in the prices of other things. We
have only waited for trustworthy symptoms
of general revival of business without
new imitation of prices. If the country
were to recover from the prolonged stagna-
tion of the last three years only by a bounce
backward to the same speculative and in
flated prices which preceded the grea
panic it would be imprudent for
newspapers to take steps which
they might be compelled to retrace.
We now present the best proof which is pos
sible for public journal to give of the sin
cerity Of its belief that the recent gratify-
ing revival of business is sound and
stable and is destined to continue with
out relapse to the bloated and unhealthy
state which caused the ruinous collapse
of 1873. We have such perfect confidence
in the convalescence which has set in on
what is substantially specie level that we
do not hesitate to readjust our own business
in expectation of it's permanence. We
should hazard too much in reducing the
price Of the HERALD if the imitation cru could
return.
We make this change from deliberate cal
culation and foresight, and against our i'm
mediate interest Our circulation was never
more satisfactory than it is at present,
being much larger than it was in the
autumn Of last year. A part Of this
increase is due to transient causes,
suoh as the great tide of travel in
connection with the Centennial Exhibition,
which brings to this city, as we'll rs Phila-
dolphin, an immense influx Of strangers,
most Of whom buy the HERALD. 1t is also
due in part to the keener interest in politi-
cal movements in the year of Presidential
election, and in part, just now, to the ex-
citing nature of the European and the
Southern news. We were certain enough
of continued large sales at the former price,
and we no doubt rclinquish q present ad-
vantage by reduction when the flow
of business is so full. But the
HERALD regards itself as one Of the
permanent institutions of the country, and
attempts to regulate its business, not by
hnnd-to-mouth expedients, but on broad
and forecasting policy. Having long ago de-
cided to reduce our price as soon as we could
feel assured Of a healthy return of general
business without relapse into initiation, we
carry out this purpose in accordance with
our settled design, on finding reasons
to believe that the present revival
Of trade is likely to be permanent,
with scale of prices which will
facilitate an early return to specie payments
This hopeful business revival without the
new expansion Of the currency for which the
Western States have kept up o persistent
clamor, will give final quietus to their in
sane agitation. They have stoutly asserted
that revival Of trade was impossible with
out more currency but their theory is now
SO effectually shattered by facts that it can
never be reconstructed with any expectation
of regaining its former hold on large
section of public opinion. AT any rate we
believe that the crazy imitation heresy is at
last exploded and demolished and that it is
now safe for oil business establishments and
all business men to make their calculations
and shape their plans with reference to
stable and prosperous future. We remodel
our own business on that expectation.
In 1861 the HERALD had long been sold for
two cents, and we regret that we cannot put
it back to the same price. But We could
not do that without also putting it back to
the same quality, which is quite out of
the question. 1t has been the ambition
Of the HERALD to be the first newspaper in
the world in the fulness, freshness,
variety and comprehensiveness of the intel
ligence which it daily spreads before its
readers 1t is MS impossible for us to go
back to our condition previous to the war as
for we'll grown bird to go back into the
shell from which it was hatched. Perpetual
progress is the law of all things destined to
q long and vigorous life, and in nothing is
this law so inexorable as in it's application to
the public press. We are satisfied that in
the specie paying times which are SO aus
piciously dawning upon MS no first class
newspaper can be sold for smaller
price than that which we have now fixed for
the HERALD. Instead Of receiving domestic
news by telegraph and foreign news chiefly
by the mails, as we did previous to the war,
wc no longer depend upon the mails for