The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1877-02-02
Gnt1ntellt9euar.
Gold Below IOS.

y
ion has been thatit was being artificial,
forced down and must surely go back Il
lOor l2premium. But ntdespiLe this opin
ion it has kept on gradually declining
one day recovering little but losing thl
recovery the next day, and, on the whole
working down little lower every week
Yesterday il reached the lowest poinI
touched since February lSG2-l5 years
falling at one time during the day 10 lO4I
Our financial dispatch from New YorL
says that this low price is attributed tc
the Presidents recommendations in re-
gard to specie payments, many persons
being inclined to look upon resumption
as becoming more and more practicable
at an early day.
Wehave alluded, from time to time, to
the manifest tendency of all values to
lower rates, in consequence of the stagna.
tion in trade and the great oyersupply
OF the various commodities. Even gold
has no longer been in demand TO pay
debts abroad. In yesterdays lNTElLI.
GENCER We made a. note Of the fact that
the exports Of gold had fallen off from
SO,lOS,S52 in 1875 to S47, ,07S, 1852 in 1876.
Our general exports increased from
$i97 ,2G3,737 in 1915 to Sj7j,G9SOtO in
1876. Our imports, on the other hand,
fell of from S53i,777C9l in 1875 to S42G,.
Gl2,7OG in 1876. Thus, instead of burning
our candle as we used to do, at both ends,
we now save it at both ends. All nations
that sell more than they buy are, like all
individuals who earn more than they
spend, on the high road to independence
aud prosperity.
1t is not impossible that golI may re-.
ncSagain and go up several points, and
yet there ia nothing TO keep it up. The
natural tendency is for paper and gold to
keepiq close proximity from this time
on. The only political trouble that
Threatened our peace as nation is now
in course OF settlement and nothing is to
be apprehended in that direction. Our
public debt is being funded at lower
rates, and there is no reason to doubt that
US soon as new President is inaugur.
ated We will go on with the process OF
converting our G per cent bonds into 4 ]
and 4 per cents. W
Notwithstanding The decline in gold to
hepresent low points we do not look tor
a very speedy realization of tho theory
Of resumption presented by the President
in his message on the subject to Congress.
We have not the gold to resume with.
We must get the gold by selling long
4Per cent bond or shorter 4! per cent
one, and with the proceeds call III the
5.2Os as rapidly as possible. There are
those who hold that the only true speedy
way to specie payments is to sell these
new bonds and use the gold obtained for
them to CONTRACT. and destroy green
backs, and thus take in the financial sail
that now flops idly and listlessly in the
breeze, and put the country tant aud
trim before the winds that always blow
cheerily from a golden coast. As re-
CARDS very many commodities We are
really on n specie basis at this very time.
Iron, for instance, is, as near rs may be,
on u specie hasis. Iron has been twice
its present price in specie times. Flour
has been higher many times on specie
basis. Cotton goods have been on that
basis for year past. Furniture is about
IA cheap as it ever was. Boots and shoes
also are down TO ante-war prices.
so that il gold should drop to par, or,
more properly speaking, ii paper shonld
advance from its present price (95) to
par, there would be very little shrinkage
in general values. The assets Of debtors
have already undergone their dreaded
shrinkage (real estate, for example and
the report Of Dun, Barlow & Co. shows
that while during last year, as n whole,
there was an increased number OF fail.
ures over 1875, yet during the last quar-.
Ter of the year there was marked i'm.
provement both in the reduced number
Of failures and in reduced liabilities. In
fact, take the year through, disastrous rs
it was, the average Of liability 10 each
failure has not been as small since 1862
This shows that the disease has very
largely spent its force, and that the pa
tieut is likely 10 mend from this time on
Wearc in the fourth year since the panic
and according 10 Senator Thurman
whose remarks we have several times
quoted in the INTELLLGENCER, the aver
age time required for recovery from Q
panic is four to five years. We ought
therefore, TO be now on hard pan with .
prospect for gradual Improvement from
this time on.
We refer to these matters in connection
with yesterdays decline in gold below
lO5, simply to disabuse the minds Of many
persons from the erroneous impression
that has been sIudiously inculcated by
inAationists that anything like close
approximation to specie paymentAwould
bring with IL Wholesale disaster, The
work OF disaster has been going on since
the days OF the panic in 1873. 4 rednn
dancy of currency for the last three year,
has not interiered to stop it. No amount
Of currency during that time could have
stopped these disasters, snpposing 1t L
be currency that people were not afrait
to hold. The "mills Of the gods" have
simply been grinding fictitious values al
the time, and we all know that they grim
exceeding line." ..us g.aa ls
CITIZENS INSURANCE CoMPANY.-ThG
Secretary of this company, Gen. w. W