New-York tribune., 1878-11-20
CONGRENS AND HILTER.

weeks Ncnct, tHt IltStut pOSltiOh VI 'iiO 'H'
bers of each party, with respcct to the publlc
| faith and the currency, will he tested Ii VIII
be shown how far Republicans are worthy
of the victory they have won, ana
whether they are able to keep its
fruits. 1t will be shown whether Green
back members are or are not essentially
repudiatOrs. 1t will be shown whether there
is III the Democratic party sincere, honest
and uncompromising hard-mOney element, and
if so, how much there is OF it. If the repudi-
ators in that party have the upper hand, as
they had at the last session, we shall see
proof of it in the first vote taken on the sll-
yer question. For the whole force of the re-
pudatols, including all members OF either
party who can be induced to act with them,
Will be concentrated upon an attempt to de-
feat resumption by forcing silver coins into
use.
The radical difference between those who
are repudiators and those who are not-be-
tween those who oppose and those who favor
a real resumptiOn-iS that the latter propose
to make the United States dollar actually and
perInanenty worth as much as the gold dol
lar which was promised by the Act of 1879.
1t is a mere deception, and shallow one, to
say that the Resumption Act promised
redemptiOn IN "cOin and not in gold.
When that act was passed, the United
States had no silver dollar. The trade
dollar was by special enactment au-
thorized for foreign use only. The subsld-
iary silver coins were not lega-tender ex-
cent for a small sum- The only "cOin which
was meant or could have been meant by the
Act of 1875, was the gold coin of the United
States. because it was not then possible to re-
deem the notes in any other. The sub
seauent change of the law as to COIN
age has not in any respect changed the
obligation of the United States TO keep
its pledge, and make Its notes as good as
gold. To cause that promised redemption to
fail is reputation. To redeem i'll anything
less valuable than the gold coin promised by
the Act of 1875, would be National dishonor;
it would put the United States even below the
level of those dIsgracfd Southern States whose
"scalngsn - and "adjustments" and "cOm-
"promises y of debts have become by-word
and kissing, and have enlarged the lexicon
of financial rascality. For those States.
least in some instances can plead poverty
and stress Of misfortune; the United States
has already borne all the cost of full rcsump-
ton, and enjoys abundant crops and high
credit.
The proposal to "scale" the debt of the
United States and all individual, corporate and
municipal debts not covered by special con-
tract, is q little more dishonest in an
other respect than the schemes proposed
bv the Southern readjusters" and slow
tax Democrats The latter propose to
offer some definite percentage of the
debt. But nobody can guess how large
part of the United States debt may be reDu-
dated if coinage of silver is made unlimited
and free. 1t is particularly important to make
this truth clearly understood. For it is GUS
t0mary to reason that silver dollars, if coined
without limit and made a full legal-ten-
der would not fall quite to the bull
lion level, and that the depreciation
or "scalingr of debts cannot, therefore,
amount to as much as Is per cent There
are some, indeed, who insist that the silver
dollar cannot deprecate at all until coin
amounting to $500, 900, 900 has been issued.
because they say, France has that amount in
circulation. They further insist that the bull
lion price of silver would be raised long be-
fore az much as $500 OOO,O had been alb
sOrbed. In all this reasoning the fact is over
looked that we Rave in this country vast paper
circulation, far exceeding that of France and the
effect of free coinage of silver would be, not
to force silver into actual circulation, but to
drag down that paper circulation to the bull
lion value of the silver In which it would then
become redeemable. In France the coinage
of silver is not free but is restricted even
more than it now il here. AS soon as any
holder of bullion, by sending it to q
mint, can pay any debt at no cost be-
yond that of the bullion, the legal
tender paper must sink toward. and posi-
bly, far below, the value of the silver In
which it, can be redeemed. For there is alb
sOlutely no limitation of the issue of bank
notes. United States bonds will become very
cheap if they are to be redeemed and the in
tcrest on them paid in silver, and as they
fall the cost Of procuring bonds upon which to
base an increased circulation of notes will de-
cline. Increase of the paper circulation will
also be stimulated by the sharp speculation
which a shrinkage in the purchasing power of
the dollar and an advance IN prices must
cause Hence there is absolutely no limit to
the depreciation of the paper, even after that
paper becomes only promise to pay depreci-
ated silver.
Against this "scaling" of debts to an in
definite extent, the banks OF tins city and
Boston have raised barrier. They have
neither violated nor disrcgarded any law, be-
cause there is no act of Congress making it their
duty to accept deposits from or make loans
to any person with whom they choose not to
do business. If they have been warranted in
keeping gold only as n special deposit, they
are equally warranted in treating silver III
the same way. Yet there will be desperate
effort, as soon as Congress meets, to break
down in some way the barrier by which the