The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1877-03-29
GlreGntelIiqs'teer.
Answer to a Correspondent.

aOopVuuoutt pTthumV yVu w ~, t4SSs
the case as he desired to put II, although
his slauguage might require such an an
uwBr.
The "prematuro legislation" as you
suggest, has rather been the "othSr way"
You evidently place your correspondent
among the in6ationistS, where he does not
belong. Placing him among the adyo.
catCs Of specie payment what would you
make out Of his suggestions? The fact
that in the general shrinkage OF values
"only the mortgage coverings have pre-.
served their proportions" Is producing 4
class Of disContented people. II Is well
to look at the cause Of this and find q
remedy, as the stability OF any govern
ment rests upon the contentment Of her
people, Yours, &C.,
SPECIE PAYMENT.
Ohio county, ". Ia, March 27, IT.
1t would require considerable space to
go into an exhaustive examination Of tho
subject broached by our correspondent.
The premature legislation" referred to
has consisted rather Of premature pro.
positions in and out Of Congress than any
actual enactments. As we remarked in
answer to our West Liberty correspond
snt the other day, we have not had since
the panic u specie payment Congress,
and hence, very naturally, have not had
any real specie payment legislation.
But we have had great many specie
payment projects, brought forward
m all sOrts OF shapes sbelore the
public, and for more than three
years the people have been kept 10 a
condition Of mystifcGtion,and apprehen-
sion as to what was to bs the actual out
come Of so much talk for and against
specie payment.
OF course We cannot undertake to say
how much harm has been done to the
debtor class Of the country by these
premature projects, or whether, indeed,
they have had any effect at all in precipi-
tnIing a shrinkage upon the country
greater than wonld otherwise have oc.
CURED. One thing we know well, that
such crude and premature theorizing is
inaeparable from a condition Of things
such as settled down upon the country
after the panic, Many men have many
minds, andt country is full OF financial
quacks, all Of whom had to have
their say, in Congress and out, and the
consequence has been that at times we
have been threatened with imitation and
atother times with specie payments. The
condition OF the country in this respect
has been a little like that Of the young
woman who was sort o. Courted and sort
O not but rather more sort o than
sort o not" That is to say, there has
been no decided tendency either way, but
rather more in the direction OF
specie payments than in the direction
Of initiation.
The question suggested by our CORES.
pondent goes very deep down into exist.
ing troubles. The discomfort Of large
number Of people is inevitable after
great financial panic. Those who have
suffered by the collapse Of their assets
are naturally at outs with any policy
which, reasonably or unreasonably, ia
held responsible for their shrinkage,
particularly the numerous class whose
obligations have not shrunk hand in
hand with their assets. There Is no way
toprevent, or even to materially assuage
this discontent. The country must pass
on through its troubles, and thousands Of
killed and wounded must fall by the way
side. There il no way 10 prevent such
thinning out process. 1t is an insep-
arabic accompaniment OF all panics.
Whether a strictly let alone policy
would have soitened the blow inflicted
by the panic is mere matter OF specula.
tion, on the discussion Of which we will
not now enter. We ourselves favored
such a policy, always opposing any at.
tempt to force specie payments, on the
ground that II mans assets we're 10 be
scaled down from an irredeemable paper
money standard to coin basis, his debts
should be scaled in like manner. But the
trouble was we bad large element in
the country who were clamoroua for
imitation, and who would not per.
init let alone policy to hold sway, but
kept upthe agitation i,r more money un.
til after Aliens defeat in Ohio in the
fall oflS75; or, iu'other words, until after
such decline in values had occurred as to
convert many people to the idea that It
would be castor and cheaper to 20 for
ward TO hard pan than to stand still. As
"result OF this change in public opinion
we saw that both political parties drop.
ped the financial iSGue In the Presidential
campaign, and took up hard money men
az their candidates, and now there ia no
longer any large number Of people who
clAmor for more greenbacks.
This brings us to our correspondence
question about Shrunken assets and up.
shrnnken mortgages. The general ac0ui.
escenee Of the country in this tendency
towards a specie basis has apparently left
no remedy for the hardship compl aimed
OF. The process Of liquidation has gone
steadily on to suck an extent, while We
were discussing initiation on one side and
specie payments on the other, as to leave
virtually solved, in a very rough
way, the original problem as to
how debts and assets were to be
equalized. The two have been ad.
jnsted by amicable compromises and
by bankruptcy processes, and are still
being adjusted in the same way. Those
who have remained solvent after paving
their debts, have, of course, suffered
severely, but inasmuCh as they have
walked up to the Captains Office and
settled thew are are not desirous to ca