The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-01-29


Nearly NJ Par.
The tendencies favorable to nm early and
healthy revival Of business have been OBJ
structed for some time by political uncer-
tainties and the violence of party contention.
We are happily at last on q sure and easy
road out of our political complications.
Whoever may be installed as President we
nre to have period of tranquility and prob
ably an era of good feeling All the natural
causes which tend to industrial rehabilita-
ton will soon have free play. and it may not
be out of place to consider at this time what
some of these causes are.
We suppose few business men will dissent
when we assign the first rank among these
causes to the low prices of property and
commodities Our reasoning on this head
rests indeed, on the idea that the lowest
point Of depression has been reached; for II
there were reasons to expect still further
decline in general prices there would be no
immediate ground of hope. Men do not
manufacture largely without prospect OF
buyers, nor buy largely in what is called
falling market. Ever since the panic OF
1873, now more than three years, prices
have been constantly tending downward, to
the utter encouragement of enterprise and
the prevention of new undertakings. But
the lowest point has been touched and
the downward tendency arrested, ex-
cept in one great branch Of property,
and within the ensuing two months the
lowest point will also have been reached in
that We here refer to real estate, or, moro
strictly speaking, to rents, which determine
the value of real estate. Rents have been
reduced every spring since the great panic,
and they are now about to receive their
fourth and final reduction in the approach
ing annual readjustment between owners
and tenants with short leases A reduction
of rents, accompanying the general rednc-
ton of commodities, will enable the labor
ing classes to be comfortable, even ut the
present low rates of wages, as soon
as they can find full and steady employ
ment. On the opening Of spring the coun-
try will be in possession Of every element
of cheap production-namely, low wages,
cheap raw materials, low rents and album
dance of money at moderate rates of inter-
est. An energetic, ente-prising people like
ours, who have so long pined or fretted in
stagnation, will be eager to avail themselves
of these favorable conditions in the certainty
which now dawns upon them that the coun-
try is not again to be convulsed by civil
troubles
AS a drawback to this favorable prospect we
have to regret that the financial action of
the government will be less favorable than
it's political action. When we are so near
the specie basis-gold being only 1906
it is q pity that the remaining short
step cannot be taken at once, in order
that the forthcoming revival of bust
ness may proceed on q sound and stable
currency. But if the currency is not imme-
diately to be any better there are satisfac-
tory reasons for thinking that it will not be
any worse. There will be no steps back
ward in the direction of imitation. We are
as certain of this as we can be of anything.
Mr.. Tilden and Mr.. Hayes are alike unal-
terribly pledged to hard money. Whichever
of them may be President he will appoint
a stanch supporter of specie payments ms
Secretary of the Treasury. If there is any
distinguished usefulness to be achieved or
any favor to be won by the next administra-
ton it must be in connection with fiscal
measures. Whether Mr. Hayes or Mr..
Tilden be at its head the whole influ-
ence Of the administration will be exerted
on the side of sound finance and stable
| currency. One will have the same interest
as the other in putting the ablest financier
in his party at the head of the Treasury
Department., and statesman of command
ing ability in that important post will not
lack cooperation in Congress on a question
which is henceforth to be relegated from
party politics to the business sense of the
country. There will continue to be strong
hard money majority in the Senate after the
admission Of the new members on the 9Th of
March, and the soft money element will be
much weaker in the new House than it
is in the present Let us hope, then,
that we are not to wait for specie payments
until January, 1879, according to the existing
law, but that our currency will be at par in
1873 1t is clearly practicable within one
year. without injustice or hardship to the
is to say, greenbacks plus one years inter-
est are equal to gold. If the money which
has lain idle for the last year had been
earning six per cent its owners would be as
we'll off to-day as if they could exchange
their paper dollars for an equal number Of
gold dollars. If all the wheels of industry
and business were in successful motion the
gain to every individual would be worth
more than the one years interest which
forms the narrow margin by which we arc
separated from specie payments.
Prices are perhaps even lower now thar
they would be in an active state of business