The New York herald., 1876-01-17
The Currency Question In Congress.

It is already too evident that nothing prac-
tical or at least nothing valuable, is to be
done by Congress at this session on the inn
poriant subject of the currency. Three bills
have been brought into the House by demo-
cratic members-one by Mr.. Payne, of Ohio,
represented to be the fruit of consultation
or semi-caucus of leading democrats; one by
Mr.. Morrison, Chairman of the Committee
on Ways and Means in preparing which he,
OF course, took advice; the third by Mr. Fer
nando Wood, representing, so far as yet APP
pears only his individual views. Mr..
Payne's bill and Mr.. Morrison's bill are so
similar in their general outlines that it
would make little difference which of them
is passed if the passage of either were possi-
BILE. Mr.. Woods bill, which contemplates
the substitution of legal tender notes for the
national bank circulation, is a more radical
measure than either of the others and a more
undisguised concession to the views of the
Western democrats.
! These three bills, though differing in some
respects, have striking points of agreement.
They, one and all, contemplate a repeal of
sumption of specie payments January l,
1879. They also agree in postponing, for
long period, any reduction in the amount
of the currency. They all alike seem to
have been framed with political, instead
Of a financial, purpose They all attempt
to solve the difficult party problem of re-
storing harmony between the Eastern and
al, hot
they may have, when judged by their real
aim as party devices for straddling a diff
Guilty, they are alike futile and worthless as
methods of reaching specie payments None
of them has any chance of passing the re-
publican Senate, nor, if it could pass the
Senate, of escaping the veto Of the
President and enabling him to emphasize
his devotion to hard money in message
exposing the shallow trickery and egregious
trihing of the democratic party, which,
under feigned zeal for resumption, makes
full surrender to the Ohio democrats
Mr.. Paynes bill, which was first presented
and does not differ in its leading features
from that of Mr.. Morrison, contemplates the
accumulation of o specie reserve both in the
Treasury and the national banks, but leaves
the present amount of the currency undis-
turbed for an indefinite period. In other
words, in intent and practical opera
tion it is an anti-contraction bill
accommodated to the wishes of the
Western democrats. 1t repeals the act of
last year providing for resumption in 1879,
and requires the government to lay by an
nually five per cent of the amount of the
greenbacks and the national banks five per
cent of the amount of their circulation
reserve for the ultimate redemption of the
paper currency Resumption is not to take
place until both the Treasury and the banks
have gold reserve equal to thirty per cent
of their circulating notes. 1t would require
six years to accumulate the amount of gold
prescribed by this BILL and specie payments
could not be commenced under it until 1882.
Within that period we are to have two Presi-
Dental elections and three new Congresses,
and the whole project is liable to be inter
rupted and upset if the infatonists should
meanwhile gain any additional strength.
They are already strong enough to compel
the Eastern wing of the party to renounce all
attempts to contract the currency within the
ensuing six years. and if the democrats come
into power the in1ationists will no longer be
restrained by political expediency This
bill is transparent device for tiding the
party over the Presidential election by hol-
low pretence of resumption six years hence,
leaving the amount of the currency unaltered
in the meantime. 1t yields the substance of
the thing in dispute to the Western demo-
Gratis, reserving nothing for the hard money
wing but vague and postponed hope.
If we were to examine this project as a
measure of finance instead of a party strata
gem, we should find it exposed to fatal OBJ
jections Nobody qualified to form an opin-
ion on such a subject can doubt that our cur
rency could be brought to par without pay
ing out any gold for its redemption. 1t is
deprecated because it is redundant, and
withdrawal of the excess would surely en-
hance its value. BY gradually funding
portion of the greenbacks in long bonds the
remaining volume Of the currency could be
safely and inexpensively brought to par.
There is no practical necessity for gold re-
serve until this point is reached, the only
use of such reserve being to maintain
the equilibrium and give the requisite
elasticity to the circulating medium. Gold is
not wanted to bring the currency to par
but to maintain it there when the point
shall have been reached by other means.
If we already had the thirty per cent gold
reserve in the Treasury and the banks which
Mr.. Payne's bill seeks to accumulate in the
course of six years, it is obvious that we
should be just as well prepared for specie
payments now as we could be at the end
of that period. But how would resumption
operate with this stock of gold ready to be
paid out on demand Why, on the very