The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-12-10
Senator Blaine
AND THE CURRENCY QUESTION.
An Interview by Boston Reporter.

The following appears in the Boston Journa
under the date of Augusta:
l. Your reporter met Mr. Blaine today whei
taking his long constitutional walk at hlgi
noon. His house has been the centre and head
quarters of all Republican consultations ON TN
| pending crisis and with the exception OF a wv
hours walk about midday, he is kept indoors
conducting a very large correspondence
answering calls and holding Congratulations
| He consented to remain short time alie
| Congress met at the unanimous request OF th'
Republican State Committee any many SEM a'.
| tors and Representatives-elect and their attor
| news. His house has been the fortress from
| Which the Republican fight has been maze
| and he has done a surprising amount OF WORK
After q few questions were asked ant
answered about the pending situation mere ere
your reporter, joining in the walk asked hin
| W hat he thought of the financial situation a
| Washington
M Blaine-I have been so absorbed here
that 1 have had little time to give u
anything else. To what particular point 40
| you refer in your question?
| Reporter-I had special reference to the re-
| port of Secretary Sherman and its various rec
| concentrations.
| Mr.. Blaine--I have read that report with
| great interest. The financial exhibit which
| Mr. Sherman makes is most honorable to 0ul
| country and does very great credit to the Sec
rotary. He has conducted the refunding OF
the public debt with ability, wisdom and tact
The results are highly advan ageous to the
Treasury and to the people. Mr.. Sherman't
administration of the Treasury Department
will remain most memorable one in our
financial history.
Reporter-How do you view the specie rec
concentration that the legal tender clause
| should be struck from the greenbacks and that
they should be left to circulate merely as
| treasury notes?
| Mr.. Blaine-I should be compelled to vote
against that proposition, because | think il
would work great I'M ustlce to the vast majority
| of the people of the whole country. The green
| backs are actually redeemed at only one point
| the Sub-Treasury in New York city. Now
suppose man away down here in Maine, or
| out in Iowa, or Texas, or Minnesota, or Ore
| gon, owes debt of say five Thousand dollars,
and his creditor demands the gold. There
| stands the debtor with his five thousand dol
| lars of greenbacks with the legal tender out OF
them, and the creditor refuses to take them.
What can he do?
Reporter-But wouldn't all notes be given
payable in currency and thus the business of
the country adapt itself to the change?
Mr.. Blaiae-Negotiable paper might soon as
sumo that form, but that would cover very
small part of the debts of the country. Nego-
table paper, payable at d bank counter on a
given day, averaging four months credit. is
generally given with full understanding OF
its terms. But go all through the country and
contracted by verbal understanding, judgments
of the courts and the thousand and one forms OF
Indebtedness that spring up in the transactions
of fifty millions of people, and see what ire
mendous revolution it would make to strike
the debt paying quality from three hundred
and forty millions of paper money now in the
hands of the people.
r porter-But the experience of the country
since last January has shown that the people
do not really caro- to handle the actual coin.
Mr.. Bloine-Of course not, if they can have
something equally good and more convenient,
as the redeemabLe legal tender note is. But
strike the legal tender out, and with actual re-
demption in the city of New York, you impart
to gold an extrinsic value which it does not
possess to-day. You might indeed create such
exaggerated notions of it's possible value that
you would have panicky run after it, and in
this scramble those who live nearest to the
Sub-Treasury would have the best chance. Ii
there is to be race we ought all to have a
fair chance to start even. L don't think 1t
possible to get together enough greenbacks to
drain all the gold from the Sub-Treasury, but
the withdrawal of even twenty-five or thirty
millions would produce very bad effect,
create widespread scare and embarrasS bust
ness immensely throughout the country.
Reporter-You don't think it possible that SO
much as that could be withdrawn, do you?
Mr.. Bldine-I do not see why great deal
more would not necessarily be withdrawn.
The national banks hold to-day from seventy
five to hundred millions of legal tender for
redemption purposes, and if the legal tender
feature be struck out of the notes they would
be compelled to redeem in coin, and that coin
they would necessarily draw from the Treasury
of the United States.
Reporter Well, don't you think it better, on
the whole, to have each bank in the country
redeem in coin?
Mr. Enthusiastically, as soon as we have a
sufficient large accumulation of coin. Our
stump speakers during the late campaign, The
Secretary of the Treasury leading off, pointed
out that the three hundred and thirty millions
of National bank notes are actually redeema-
BILE only in legal tender notes, and that the
three hundred and forty-seven millions of
legal tender notes are redeemable in coin.
This divides tho load and makes the burden
far easier. Will any one now say that with a
hundred and fifty millions of coin on hand we
are prepared to throw the entire SIX hundred
and eighty millions of paper money. directly
on the Treasury for coin redemption? For
that is the real point involved in the repeal of
the legal tender clause. -
ReDorter-Do you hold that the greenbacks
now out shall be always kept in circulation?
M Btaine-That is an entirely different
question, though Secretary Sherman lntlmates
that he sees no objection to the simple Treas
ury note, stripped of legal tender, remaining
permanent part of our currency-subJect to
increase or decrease by Congress. Does not
this leave the whole volume OF our paper cur
rency to be voted up or voted down according
to the temper of CongreSS-the most danger
Gus of all the heresies preached by the Green
back party? To answer your question more
directly L suppose that no honest believer IN
hard money ever contemplated the perpetual
circulation of three or four hundred millions
of legal tender government paper which we
were compelled to issue during the war. In
due time we shall come to that question, but
l would not raise premature discussion up
on it.
Reporter-I do not quite apprehend your
meaning.
Mr., Blaine-What mean is this: The coun-
try has just emerged from prolonged and
very severe financial depression, and is getting
into good condition again as rapidly as we
could possibly expect Everybody is taking
heart and hope for the future, and l cannot
conceive better mode of checking the rising
tide of prosperity than to throw the country
into another angry financial excitement to car
ry out what is at best but theory.
Reporter-Then you would let the legal ten
der notes alone for the present, would you?
Mr.. Bldine-There is every reason for SO do
ing. The influx of coin is hourly increasing
our financial strength, and will soon make us
complete masters of the situation. And then
we NAV have judicial determination of the
questit by the Supreme Court whose decls-
ion on the pending case may lead to results
not now foreseen And then in three years
the bank charters expire. and the question OF
the currency will necessarily be then discussed.
Let us wall. n very WISE olu pollIiCdl leduer
in Kennebec, of the past generation-Ben.
White of Monmouth-was in the habit always
of repeating to his associates the advice,
".Stond still aoltile y0u stand .OeU." And he al
ways added, Don't venture on experiments, y
pronouncing the word with full double Q. l
may say with Ben. White, Don't venture on
experiments
Reporter-Then you object both to the sug-
gestion and to the time it is made?
Mr.. Blaine--I object on both grounds, l
think if the proposition were even expedlent
in itself this would be an 1nJudlclous time to
make it. Sir Robert Peel made notable ans
wer to Lord John Russell once, when he told
him that "his amendment, even if right in
principle, was wrong in time" 1t is of great
consequence that our people get accustomed to
the specie standard without going through
some experimental legislation which many
will oppose and many more distrust.
Let us not forget that specie payment was
suspended full seventeen years. We have had
resumption now only eleven months We are
doing wonderfully well. Let us continue to do
so.
THAT LETTER.