The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-11-19
NEW YORK. Nov. 18. 1873.

StduQ.
NEW YORK, Nov. 18. 1873.
The good effects of the election returns of the
9TH OF November are already beginning to make
themselves manifest. From financial point
OF view they have proved sgnally beneficial.
The greenback mania in spite Of its utter i'm
potence for any practical purpose was disturb
ing element in monetary circles. 1t served to
tighten the hold of capitalists upon their hoard
and to dissuade them from engaging in any
undertakings predicated upon permanent in
vestments. They didn't begin to realize the
proportions to which this extraordinary delu-
sion had attained until after the Maine cleo
tion. When it was ascertained that nearly
third Of the voters of one of the most intelli-
gent States of the Union had been seized with
this strange infatuation, general alarm was fel.
lest an agitation should ensue threatening Sc
rious disturbance of the peace of the country.
Itturned out that some apprehension Of that
sort was needed to apprse the people of their
danger. 1t was unfortunate that it should
have happened that the brunt of the battle
must fall on your honored commonwealth. But
it was your i'll luck to be in front, and you had
was no help for 1t. 1t was the consequence Of
occupying an advanced position. However,
you have this consolation, whatever there may
be of It, that your disaster answered the pur-
pose of note of warning to the friends Of hard
money in other States, and prepared the way
for the victory in Ohio and an abatement Of
the initiation craze in Indiana and Iowa. 1t
remained for the great Middle States and their
sisters of New England to turn back the tide Of
error and establish the fact that there was to
be no interruption to the fulfilment of the obli-
cation of the government to redeem its notes in
honest coin in strict conformity to the letter of
the law. This having been successfully accom-
plished the timidity Of capitalists will rapidly
subside and they will bs as eager ss they have
hitherto been reluctant to place their funds
where they feel sure of getting satisfactory
compensation for the use of them. .-l
The action of the New York banks touching
the disposition to be made of silver coin lsa
very sensible method of dealing with an ex-
ceedingly embarrassing question. The PROPOSE
ton to receive silver as o special deposit, re-.
turnable in kind, is just and equitable. There
is very little doubt but that it will elicit strong
expressions of dissatisfaction from the advo-
Gates of remonetization. It will probably In
tensify the hostility to the National Banking
system which has already assumed fsrmid-
able proportions among q certain class
of politicians. They will complain that it Is an
attempt to evade the operations Of Q Law
Of the land created by q two-thirds vote of
Congress. But in reality it is nothing more
than measure Of self-protection forced upon
those institutions by invidious and inexpedient
legislation. The use of silver as legal tender
for the payment of all debts, whether due to
corporations or individuals cannot be pre-
vented But if the banks refuse to receive it.on
deposit it will be difficult matter to force
much of 1t into circulation. Nobody can get ID
without paying par for it, consequently there
will be no motive for employing it as . currency.
There are likely to be schemes of some sort in
troduced early in the session, designed to COM
pei the banks to treat silver as il 1t were the
equivalent of gold. Bot it is q pretty hard
matter to contrive statutes with sufficient In
genuity to render them operative. when they
are alike defiant of the natural rights and the
inherent common sense of the people The in
trinsic value of silver dollar is an eighth less
than that of gold one. 1t is not In the power
Of all the law-givers in the universe to alter
this disparity ,and as long as 1t exists, the effort
to make them co-squal is q strife against ma
ture in respect of which the chances of success
in the long run are ininitesimal.
The currency agitators, however, have oppor-
tunities Of doing great deal of mischief by
creating disturbances at iuncturs when we
are most in need of peace and quiet There
are some disappointed Presidential aspirants
who will find 1t difficult to bear their griefs In
silence Mr.. Thurman especially bas placed
himself in very unfortunate position by re-
canting his hard money opinions at the mo-
ment when il was vital to his hopes of prefer
ment that he should preserve his consistency.
He has gone too far now to receie, and will in
all probability ba the foremost leader in the
anti-bank crusade which threatens to break
out with increased violence as soon as Congress
assemblies. He is an able and popular man
Ordinarily he may be trusted to act wisely and
discreetly when the rigidity of party discipline
will admit of it. But somehow or other when
man becomes saturated with the ambition to
be President he ceases to be amenable to the
dictates Of reason. and acts as strangely as II
he had lost his head. He tries so hard to fol-
low the current of public opinion that he
works himself into kind of moral strabismus
in watching the drift Of it. OF course every
body understands what he is driving at, and il
he changes his attitude he is liable to the sus-
picion of insincerity, and injures instead of
improving his chances of gaining the object he
is pursuing. There have bsen so many men
afflicted with this dstemper first and last that
At,z oF - L..
everybody notices it when it breaks out any
WHERE The contortions of the sufferers are
amusing in the extreme. and as they involve
no physical pain there is no cruelty In laughing
at them.
We shall hear , great deal of fault found
with the banks for having proposed measure
that has the appearance of the purpose to
nullify the provisions of the silver bill. 1t in
not to be denied that that is precisely what the
bank plan amounts to. But really there ia no
other way of meeting the issue. If legislators
try to fix values by proclamation. the sooner
the fatility of the undert aking is demonstrated
the better on all accounts. Suppose some of
the wild suggestions that were rife in WASH
ington, during the discussion in reference to
authorizing further issue of legal tenders, had
been listened to and q considerable expansion
of that form of the public debt decreed? The
result would have been simply that the paper
would have deprecated in proportion to the
amount of 1t afloat, and the business of the
country would have been conducted on q specie
basis. We should probably have adopted the
same policy that has bsen pursued in California
ever since the rebellion began. There, specie
has been the standard all the while, and green
backs have been bought and sold at their mar
ket value. If man chose to pay his debts In
paper the law of the land compelled his credit
or to accept it, and there certainly was great
tempt alton to resort to this method of legalixed
dishonesty during the times that the deprecia.
ton reached as extreme point Is sixty cents
on dollar. And yet there was no man within
the limits of that imperial State who had tina
courage, or the baseness-or both-to take sd-
vantage of the opportunity to swindle parties
who had trusted him. The sense of shame at
the idea Of wearing the brand of infamy which
would have been scared into the brow Of snv
one who had been rash enough to court II In