The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1877-08-31

are In numerous instances refusing TO re-
ccvc deposits on the ground that they can
not find borrowers. How then shall We
charactcrizc the position or statement, or
argument. that the country suffers for want
Of money Of any kind when it has already
more than it can find employment for. how
would an Increase help its conditions
No, What the country Is really suffering
from il not the absence of vast heaps Of pa
per money, but the pressure of debt and tax
alton. Tho country has been dancing at
furious rate, and it is now called upon to
pay the fiddler Wastcfulncss cXtrava-
gancc, prudigality, theft, and robbery have
done their worst and now comes the rock
oning. This Is what is tho matter. Over
production Of our mechanical Industries,
speculation, and consequent overtrading,
are the ordinary causes of pnucs, cOnvul
siOns. and exhaustion. But now they are
intensified an hundred fold with us by our
exceptional aggravations.
There is no mystery in our case. The
diagnosis is perfect and complete. No man
can mistake the disorder. The disease has
been common enough in the modern history
of nations, and We have all the symptoms.
The qilacks are swarming about US with
Just the same nustrums that were RECON-
mcndcd to France and England in the last
century France took their fatal dose twice,
and twice it ended in reputation and ruin.
England had more sense and resisted the
quackcry She rose to her feet from her cx-
haustiun. and recovered her solvcncy and
her strength by the horoic remedy OF honest
payment This made London the linan-
cial centre of the globe. a position IL holds
to-day with infinite credit and advantage to
the whole British Empire.
Our circumstances are in many respects
not unlike those Of England when she was
emerging from the NapOleOnic contest. In
lsl0-ll she was suffering from an irrc-
dccmable paper currency then nearly twenty
per cent below par. A tribe Of writer's,
numbering some names then and after
ward eminent, proclaimed in full chorus. as
many have long been prOclalming here with
us, that resumption was impossible, and
that a continuance and increase OF the ire
dccmablc paper was the only salvation Of
England. But the solid men of England
came to the rescue, and We know with what
success. Even CoBBETr whose views were
almost uniformly sound on the financial
question. lost his head in this discussion,
and went with the paper money advocates.
ITO cause the bank To pay again IN gold
is impossible, and let what will happen SO
he said in one Of that remarkable series of
letters written from Newgatc prison
:" let what will take place as to commerce or
as to us, the bank proper will never
regain any part of what it has lost
rs long as the national debt shall exist"
1t was the belief Of the whole tribe of paper
money men in those days that England
never could and never would pay her debts
in anything but deprecated paper just as it
is the belief Of our paper-money theorists
now that II is impossible for us to resume or
maintain specie payments because of our
debt Time has long since dissipatcd the
delusion as regards England. and its folly
as regards the United States will sooner or
later be made equally manifest.
That Mr.. PENpLEroS can cover up and
gloss over the vital points in the present cf-
fort Of the country to reach n final solution
Of the financial question Is abundantly dem
onstratcd by his distinguished efforts in
this direction But those efforts are vain.
Time is fast di-sipating the mi-ts that have
cnvclopcd this subject. and the states
man who fails to perceive the truth will
in the end seriously suffer for his error. The
public withholds its confidence from men
who make great mistakes, and the pen Of
history j. ralantl.@-.