Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1876-08-19

is required for ordinary use does
not happen to have been on hand
at the money centres, o scarcity oil
currency ensue5, and also a strin.
gency in the lone market.
1t was in reference to such ex-
%periences that, in q discussion oil
this subject in the annual message
to the New York Legislature Of
January 5, the suggestion was
made that:
1.-THE Federal Government is
bound to redeem every portion oil
its issues which the public do not
wish to use. Having assumed to
monopolize the currency and en-
acted exclusion against everybody
else, it is bounded to furnish all
which the wants Of business re-
quire.
The system should pas
sively allow the volume of circu.
lating credits to ebb and flow, ac-
cording to the everchanging wants
of business. 1t should initiate as
closely as possible the natural laws
of trade, which it has superseded
by artificial contrivances." And
in a similar discussion i'm my mes
sage of January 4, 1876, it was
said that resumption shuld be eff
fscted "by such measures as would
keep the aggregate amount of the
currency self-adjusting during the
process without creating at any
time an artificial scarcity and with
out exciting the public imagina-
ton with alarms which impair
confidence, contracts the whole
large machinery of credit and dis
turb the natural operations of bus
iness.'
MEANS OF RESUMPTION.
"Public economies, official re-
trenchments and wise finance''
are the mems which the st. Louis
Convention indicates as provision
for reserves and receptions.
The best resource is q reduction
of the expenses of the Government
below its income; for that imposes
no new charges on the people.
If, however, the improvidence
and waste which have conducted
us to a period of falling revenues
oblige us to supplement the results
of economies and retrenchments
by some resort to loans, we should
not hesitate. The government
ought to speculate on its broken
promises, which it compels private
dealers to accept at a fictitious
par. The highest national honor
is not only right but would prove
profitable. OF the public debt, 9S5
millions bear interest at 6 per cent
in gold. The average interests is
$50 per cent.
A financial policy which should
secure the highest CREDIT, wisely
availed of, ought gradually to OBJ.
tain a reduction of l per cent. in
the interest on most of the loans
A saving of l per cent. on the av'
erage would be II millions a yeal
in gold. That saving regularly in
vested at Al per cent. would in less
than thirty-eight years extinguisl
the principal. The whole I,700(
millions of funded debt might be
paid by this saving alone, without
cost to the people.
PROPER TIME FOR RESUMPTION
The proper time for resumption
is the time when wise preparation
shall have ripened into a perfect
ability to accomplish the object
with q certainty and ease that will
inspire confidence, and encourage
the reviving of business. The ear
Hest time in which such a result
can be brought is the best. Even
when the preparations shall have
been matured, the exact date
would have to be chosen with ref
erence to the then existing state OF
trade and credit operations in our
own country, the course of foreign
commerce, and the condition OF
exchanges with our nations. The
specific measures and the actual
date are matters of detail having
reference to ever-changing condi-
tons. They belong to the domain
of practical administrative states.
m~anship. The captain of steamer
about starting from New York to
Liverpool does not assemble a
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 force
of the waters and the winds. A
human hand must be on the helm
to feel the elements day by day,
and guide to a mastery over them.
RELIEF TO BUSINESS DISTRESS.
The distress now felt by the peo-
pie in all their business and in
dustries, though 1t has its princi-
pal cause in the enormous waste