The New York herald., 1878-08-27
Sherman I'm Reply to Thurman.

Secretary Sherman delivered Mt Toledo,
last evening, a carefully prepared speech
explaining the financial measures OF the
government and answering the recent argu-
ments of Senator Thurman. Mr.. Sherman
has great advantage over his antagonist In
the fact that he defends policy which is
the fruit Of mature reflection and mqch
consultation with able fnanciers, while
Senator Thurman's speech was an attemP'
to accommodate his real convictions 10 the
exigencies of political canvass. Although
the Secretary of the Treasury treats Ohio
preiudices with dexterous tenderness ne
keeps for the most part on defensioie
ground, and has made very instructive
| speech.
Mr. Sherman skilfully defines his position
on the ticklish silver question, which is
the most difficult subject he had to handle.
In respect to silver he does not directly
combat Mr.. Thurman, but merely states his
own views in a manner which shows the
precise extent Of his concessions to the
silver men when this subject was agitated
last winter in Congress. There can be no
him to disarm much opposition to his
resumption measures, and we trust
he may succeed in persuading the
West to acquiesce in his own moderate
views respecting the use OF silver IN our
coinage. There can be no question that
this metal must always play an important
part in our currency, as indeed 1t does IN
the currency even Of those countries where
gold is the single standard OF value. The
proper use Of silver is for subsidiary coins.
Mr.. Sherman states that in Great Britain,
which is the leading gold country, the shil-
lings and half crowns outnumber the SOW
ereigns many times, while in the United
States we have coined since February, 1875,
about thirty times the number OF silver
pieces that we have of gold pieces, the num-
Der of the former having been 22O, S29, $40
and the whole number of gold pieces
coined in the same time only 7,7lO,O4O.
Silver coin is necessity up to certain
limit, but unless regulated in some way it
cannot be kept at par with gold. Mr. Sher-
man says, truly enough, that while the
market value of silver is lower than its
legal ratio with gold it may be made to
circulate at par in one Of three ways-first,
by limiting the amount issued; second, by
readjustng the relative weight Of the two
coins; or, third, agreement on a common
ratio by the bi-metallic nations represented
in the Paris Conference Mr.. Sherman
prefers the last Of these methods and hopes
the Silver Conference may prove successful.
But he is under no illusion respecting
silver and attempts to practise no decep-
ton. He frankly tells his Western
hearers that unless the silver question
is solved in some OF these ways
the unlimited coinage of silver will
Danish gold from the country and bring US
to 'sthe. single standard of silver, like the
Chinese and other Asiatic nations" We
are glad that he has expressed himself with
so much truth and EN- phasis on this point
to an Ohio audience.
On the great question Of resumption
Secretary Sherman talks in Ohio with as
much decision as we could wish the wisest
of our financiers to talk in New York. Now
that we have gone so far in restoring our
currency Mr.. Sherman thinks that it would
rency is now almost at par with coin.
s.Will you insist he asks, ''upon
keeping it at par, or will you, by
repeating the Resumption act, retrace
the steps already taken and embark
again upon the sea of irredeemable paper
No hat
of the Treasury has the courage and conf
dence to stand up and ask this question in
the fnce of Ohio citizens in the eXpec-
tation that the election can be carried by
the republican party on hard money plat
form. General Garfield, Mr.. West and
other distinguished republicans have al
ready addressed Ohio meetings in the same
vein and with the same confidence, and,
since they have truth and reason SO clearly
on their side, we trust the election will
convince Mr.. Thurman that he has COM
mitted an irretrievable blunder in taking
his stand by the side of Ewing
There can be no reasonable doubt of the
ability of the Treasury to resume specie pay
ments successfully on the 1st of January MIR.
Sherman presents in his speech table pre-
pared few days since by the Treasurer of
the United States, giving in detail the
amount Of coin now in possession of the
government and the part Of it against
which there are current demands. After all
deductions there is on hand in the Treasury
s134, $50, 900 OF coin available for the pur-
pose OF resumption. Considering that it is
only the greenbacks which the government
will be called to redeem, and that the
amount Of paper circulation is not deemed
to be in excess Of the wants of busin ess, the
Treasury is in strong position. With large
exports and moderate imports, which have
come TO be the rule in our foreign trade