The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-06-20
HENRY CAIRY BAIRD ON THE
FINANCIAL QUESTION.

l. xNhNO111A X LIN OA'e
In an Associated Press dispatch in
your paper of this date it is stated,
among other things which transpired
at a Cabinet council at Washington
on the previous day. that
ssFinancial matters found a topic of
considerable attention at the meeting.
Much qualification was expressed at
the exhibition of the nations financial
condition, as shown by the public debt
statement on the 1st inst, and the
fact of heavy subscriptions to the
four per cent loans was thought to be
peculiarly gratifying in considering
the favor with which the four-and-a-
half per cent loans is received. Mr..
Sherman stated that the subscriptions
to-day to the four per cents amounted
to over half a million dollars. REFER
ence was also made to statement OF
the Bureau Of Statistics showing that
during the twelve months ended
March 81 last, our exports exceeded
our imports by the unprecedented
amount of 5000, 100000. This was
considered highly favorable for a
maintenance Of specie payments by
the United States from and after an
early date Of resumption.
AS regards the public debt state
ment there is really no cause for
satisfaction; for, while by the in
genious device of deducting the cash
in the treasury from the amount Of
the debt, it is made to show de-
crease; it has, in fact, undergone an
increase of $l3, 900, 900 within the past
thirty days.
So far from the subscriptions to the
four per cent bonds being cause Tor
GENERALIZATION to a statesman OF broad
and comprehensive, views, they would
be exactly the reverse, seeing that 1T
is notorious fact that the sale OF
these bonds is owing to the destruc-
ton of business, and, as a necessary
result, of confidence in nearly every
other form of security. Business
having come to stand still, there are
hundreds of millions of dollars worth
of merchandise and other property,
and other hundreds of millions worth
of labor power which are wholly una
BILE to command money and market.
The owners of these millions OF
property and labor pass into bank
ruptcy and beggarY, many to Starva-
ton, while those who have money TO
loan seek satisfactory security (out-
side the government bonds) IN VAIN:
and hence the ''peculiarly gratifying
nature of the information which MI.
Sherman was able to communicate TO
a Cabinet as devoid of true statesman
shin as himself. If he will continue
his policy of destruction until the
few remaining good securities OF the
country are destroyed, he will be able
to float three per cent loan with
more ease than he does now one OF
four per cent. But even this road
has an end, for the goose which lays
the golden eggs and pays taxes Will
cease her work, and reputation Will
be the inevitable and necessary re.
suit.
Then as to the statement OF the
Bureau of Statistics, Showing that
during the twelve months ending
March 3lst last, our exports exceeded
our imports by the unprecedented
amount of 5000 900, O00.' Even this,
when it is critically examined, is not
so ..highly favorable for maintain.
ance of specie payments by the United
States" us would appear upon its face,
for the excess of exports falls at least
Omillion short of paying our foreign
interest, expenditures of American
travellers and residents abroad,
freights in foreign ships, commissions
to foreign bankers, commission mer-
chants, etc. But even were 1t as
favorable as Mr.. Sherman and the
cabinet consider it, at what frlghtful
cost of human woe haslt been OBJ
tanned This excess Of exports over
imports results from two forces CO.
operating to this end. the inability OF
the people to consume domestic as
we'll as foreign products, and the
consequently increased export of the
former at low prices in competition
with other countries, and the de-
creased import Of the latter.
If this be the true end and aim OF
all statemanship, we would invite the
attention of Mr.. Sherman to British
India as a model after which to
fashion these once prosperous, happy
and enlightened United States. In
dia contains 19l 900 900 inhabitants.
and in 1872. Torrens, in his Empire
in ASIA" placed his annual products
of all kinds at under 81 500, 100000. or
less than three times that of the city
of Philadelphia in 1875 with 500. 900
inhabitants. Like all countries de-
void of diversified industries. and
dependent upon agriculture alone
India is land of famines-these
famines coming. not of an absence
Of food, but Of the means of purchas
ing it. In 1866 there was one in
Orissa which destroyed over 1000.
600 human beings; in 1859 one In the
northwest; in 1874 one in Behar. and
in 1877 one in Madras and Bombay.
The relief extended to the people
in famine-stricken districs by the
government in lS7I-7S has amounted
to over $45. 0OO,0 and funds fol-
famine relief are hereafter to be in.
cluded in the regular budgets of the
Empire. And yet for the ten years
1S67-76 the balance of trade was in
favor of India to the amount Of one
billion dollars because these one hun
bred and ninety one millions of people
were so wretchedly poor that. while
consuming but little domestic pro-
duce, and having almost absolute free
k~>AA 18th Ahn rook ~ fha v>or1A khAv