The Portland daily press., 1878-08-13
NEW YORK. Ano 10 1879

Is good tning tina the currency question
is getting SO interfused into the politics of the
day, because that will insure pretty full and
free discussion of .he subject in its various
rami6cations. The advocates of an increase
in the volume of paper money are 30 utterly
wrong in their premises that their conclusions
must necessarily be fallacious. The opinion
prevails widely that this country is burdened
with an enormous foreign debt and that the bal
ance of trade, unprecedentedly large as 1t has
been during the last fiscal year, has very little
more than paid the interest on what we owe
abroad. An examination Of the facts will un-
questionably show that this calculation Is en-
tirely erroneous 1t is the opinion of those who
have the best sources of Information and are
not likely to be deceived that the whole amount
of United States bonds in the hands of foreign
holders does not at the present time exceed
$250,00O,00O The excess Of exports over in
ports of merchandise for the five years ending
June 30, 1878 amounts to $46S, ,0OO, ,OOe and of
specie $159, 100000, making total of S627 ,O00,-
900. To this extent the transatlantic indebted
ness of the Republic has been reduced. Pretty
much all Of it is represented by American Sc
curities that have been negotiated abroad and
very large proportion of these are government
bonds which have been sent back. These fig
ures go great ways towards confirming the
estimates of experts that not more that $780,
00O,0 900 of the obligations of the government are
held outside of its limits
One year more of such fruitfulness aud profit
as the past has been would extinguish the en-
tire sum. Perhaps it is too much to expect an
other twelye-month of such vast productive
hy,k& &ta E.
accession of the sources of wealth, and it may
safely be taken for granted that the liabilities
of the nation to those who are outside of it will
undergo continuous dimnution till they are
virtually extinguished.
The prominent argument of the paper mon
ey men is that specie standard cannot be
mainta;ne without a. still further contraction
of that kind of currency. Supposing this
theory to be correct it does not follow that there
need be any withdrawal Of their favorite cir
culatiDg medium, the greenback. The issues
of the national banks will naturally be the
first to be called in, il there are more Of them
than are required to conduct the commercial
affairs of the country. If these institutions
find their business upproftsble they will re-
duce it, or it may be abandon it altogether.
Experience has shown, in all ayes aud under
all circumstances, that the obligation to redeem
in coin is the best regulator of the volume of
paper money that human ingenuity has ever
contrived. There will always be enough of it,
no matter how stringent the compulsion to
keep it at par may be; there will as certainly
be too much of it if no such restrictions upon
its quantity are imposed
That the difficulties that lie In the way of
accomplishing the desideratum of resumption
have been greatly exaggerated Crews more and
more patent every day. OF course it was i'm
possible to resume when the debts of the gov
ernment, the states, counties, towns, corpora
tions and individuals represented so stupend-
GUS an aggregate as they footed up at the time
OF and for years after the panic. But the dim
mutton that has taken place in the sum total
of these membranes has completely ch anged
the condition of things, and rendered what
was impossible aforetime perfectly practicable
now. The best evidence of that Is that with
all the uncertainties of legislation and in the
face of the knowledge that a majority of the
members of both Houses of Congress would
have yoted to repeal the resumption act IL Q
vote had been reached, gold has not for sew.
eral months commanded except IN occasional
instances higher premium than half of one
per cent There is a growing conviction in
this community that resumption on or before
the 1st January is an assured fact-something
that cannot be hndered-that we have got 30
far along in the right course that there can be
no step backward.
Aud really, when we take into account the
gain of material wealth that has been scored
up within the past two years, it does seem as if
all occasion for distrust of the future had van
ished. The most superficial observer cannot
fail to discover that in New York, even amid
the torrid heat Of the hottest summer the oldest
inhabitant has any memory of there are un-
mistakable signs of increasing commercial
activity. Sellers are eager to trade, and buy
ers are sharp in making bargains. There Is no
needless headlong style of oper ations of the
sort that was 80 often witnessed when every
body felt flush and credit was practically illim-
table. But the people are demonstrating their
augmented facilities for procuring the goods
they need. They never were so nearly out OF
debt before, and they have been growing rich
very fast of late.
OF course there have been remarkable
changes of circumstances since the great revul-
.ion of property. The real estate in the city of
New York, take it altogether, is not worth as
much by at least forty per cent as it was rated
at five years ago. But the whole of 1t is here
and it answers all the purposes it ever did.
The few who owned it are good deal poorer,
but the many who hire and use it are cores
pondingly better off. In the days of imitation
the tenants who were numerous were obliged to
pay heavy tribute to the landlords, OF whom
there where but a small number. The order Of
things is reversed now, and it does not take all
man can earn to pay his rent aud expenses.
II the profits are less the cost of doing business
has also been curtaled ic like proportion.
We hear great deal about "bloated bond
holders" and occasionally some demagogue or
charlatan little more coarse and ruffianly Of