The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1878-04-06
Official Press of King County.
Saturday. April 8, 1878.
CONTRACTION AND EXPAN-
SION.

theories. IL II should DE, II wOuld eiIneT
stop stock still. or fly all to flinders.
In regard to the currency question for
example, we might have q money sys-
ten 50 very hard that trade would
freeze up a. dead "a the North pole, or
one 50 soft. that. SO to speak, it would
not Il rat even bubbles.
The tendency of currency contraction
is to congest money at the commercial
centers, aud freeze the extremities; to
to depreciate labor, deprcciate real es-
tate. dcpreciate merchandise. aud gen.
orally TO distress the country districts
snd impoverish the frontiers.
The Pacific coast, however, has from
q popularity in its financial situation,
reaped one very material advantage
from the late financial contraction in
the United States. Having adhered to
q gold and silver standard of currency
II has happened that in the equaliza-
ton Of the Nationsl currency with
gold O great wall of embargo against
immigration is broken down, in that
immigrants are no longer subjected to
q discount Of % rer cent. or such a
matter on all their funds, in removing
from q greenback to coin country.
Although San Francisco merchants can
not any longer buy goods in the East
with the cheap greenbacks and sell
them for gold on this coast. the effect is
practically to put premium equal to
tho difference in the greenback dis
count on local production and home
industry.
There is no disputing the fact that
in general. aside from such Incidental
offsets, currency initiation has operated
to stimulate western development.
However many have been the draw
backs connected with tho verious ficti-
tious money expodients that have been
in vogue in the Union ut different
periods of its history, they have been
benefcially instrumental in conducting
to that fcverish spirit of unrest and
enterprise. and the visionary entheusi-
asm that has impellcd the settlement
of the rough new Territories, and led
men to fesrlessly challenge tho risks of
pioneer industrial undertakings. 1t
has made no difference with tho daring
fortune seekers. that there was no bot
tom to their bubbles. and all was des-
tined sooner or later to collapse
because unreal; they have driven ahead
without stopping TO calculate and
thsorire on possible future contingencies
and the result has been that great new
States have been created, to stand for
all time. before the stern logic of events
could explode the financial decisions on
which their specious prosperity gained
its impetus.
It is no doubt the fact that great
part of the present population of Seat
tie were drawn here in the first in
stance. either directly or Indirectly, on
tho strength of the delusive hopes of
the terminus bubble. That bubble
burst live years ago, but Seattle had
gained the prestige of pre-eminence as
the city of the Sound, and that prestige
she has ever since easily maintained
and will forever continue to maintained.
II can not DO denied that abstractly
considered the principle of mammoth
subsidies to private corporations is
wrong and inequitAble to the people
who are taxed 10 raise them but at the
same time. it 10 equally self-evident
that the people who are thus burdened
reap in various ways compensating
advantages to fully of set ami even
more than balance The inequality
In new country the theoretical 10
compelled TO give way in o measure to
the practical. Extraordinary conditions
require extraordinary adaptations. The
prosperity of the merchants. farmers,
manufacturers professional. laborers
and nearly all interests of the frontier
States are best secured by an abundant
even though inflated supply of cur
rency. But as the status of commu-
nifty becomes more settled, it becomes
not only more expedient but more
practical to conform the circulating
medium o. oil other matters connected
with commerce and politics to the rigid
limitations of established system and
soundness.