Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-31
Any Debasement of the Currency Is
q Most Delusiye Remedy.
COSTLY LESSONS OF THE PAST.
That $5,0OO,OO0 Bank Syndicate Not Such q
Beneficial Thing.
ITS OBJECT AKIN TO FREE COINAGE

motely Its conduct Is affected Dy the SOBER
consideration of facts, is shown by the re-
| cent rise in the stock market and by the in
crease Of the volume of its transactions.
Nothing has come to light which was not
known a month ago, and nothing has hap
| pened during the interval to make any
security intrinsieally worth fraction more
than it was then, but the stampede has been
started, and men are tumbling over one an
other to buy things which, until it began,
they would not look at
How long the movement will last and
how high it will carry prices, 1 do not pre-
tend to foretelL Probably it will continue
for weeks, and perhaps for months, and
buyers at present will, if they have the
nerve to let go in season, make a profit, but
there is no certainty about the matter one
way or the other. As usual, too, when the
current of speculatioq sets the way it is set
| ting now, it carries with it, sympathetically,
any people who have no pecuniary interest
in a; ding it, but who feel that they ought to
aid it for the public good.
THE POPULAR MARKET.
The vast majority of men are naturally
bulls-that is, their only idea of a success
full transaction is to sell a thing for more
than they pay for it. Hence a falling mar
ket almost always kills business and a ris-
ing market stimulates it, and, as it seems to
be for the common benefit that the market
should always rise, everything which tends
to produce that result is popular, while all
which works against it is unpopular. Even
warnings of possible fall are received with
disfavor, and those who utter them are sus-
pected of sinister, or, at least, interested
motives
The main factor in the prevailing upward
movement is, of course, our abundant crops
and the assurance that we shall sell them at
high prices in consequence of the failure of
the crops in Europe Added to this are
minor elements, which in special cases tend
to remove apprehension and to inspire con-
fidence in the future. The Union Pacific
Railway Company, for example, has been
saved from the imminent danger Of
receivership; the Sugar Trust is working
harmoniously with its rivals; the Lead Trust
has been successfully reorganized, and the
open bankruptcy of many smaller concerns
has been avoided by the generous, at the
same time prudent, forbearance of their
creditors.
HUMAN NATURES MOOD.
Every impulse to a downward movement
being thus removedt the natural desire of
human nature to be active in doing some
thing finds opportunity for qualification
only in the other alternative, with the
result that we see. An illustration of the
way in which the minds even of superior
men are affected by popular craze is found
in the proposed syndicate of National
Banks to purchase S., 600, 900 or more of the
maturing Government Az per cent bonds;
extend them at 2 per cent and take out cir
culating notes against them.
The ostensible purpose of the scheme is
to aid the Government by lending it the
principal of the bonds purchased, and to
accommodate the public with the additional
currency needed just at this moment to as
sist in moving the crops to market, but l
can see plainly enough that its managers
are, perhaps unconsciously, more influenced
by desire to avert possible chill which
might be thrown upon the growing enthu-
siasm of buyers, either by an unfavorable
showing of the National Treasury or by
depletion of the bank reserve.
NO PROFIT IN IT.
As a matter of business in other respects
the scheme will not be profitable to the
banks which engage in it. This is admitted
on all sides. Nor will the assistance rem
dered TO the Government and the accommo-
dation furnished to the people amount to
anything worth mentioning. The Secretary
of the Treasury has publicly declared that
he has ample means with which to pay off
all the bonds that are likely to be presented
for payment on September 2, and the addi-
ton of S5,000,0O9 or thereabouts to our
present stock of currency will be only q
drop in the bucket compared with that al
ready in existence, and with the S54, 900, 600
annually which the act of July, 1890, is
adding to it in monthly installments.
IVa hou S216 000 mn of old lauo1 topdorc.
S4OO, ,OOO 600 of silver dollars; $50, ,OOO, 600 of
new bullion notes of July, 1890, which are
increasing at the rate of 81, 100000 per
month; over $40, 000, 600 of national bank
notes, and an indefinite quantity of gold
coin and gold bullion, estimated by the Di-
rector of the Mint at 100000, 600, and
which cannot be less than $500, 1000, 900, be-
cause that amount is in sight in the Treas
ury and in the vaults of the National and
State banks
LIKE THE TRADITIONAL FLY.
The banks which propose. to add IS, ,00O,-
600 to this vast mass may 1atter themselves
that they are going to do a great thing, but
to me they seem like the fly on the cart
wheel boasting OF the dust which he kicked
up. 1t will be said, know, that extraor-
dinary emergencies require extraordinary
measures, and that the addition OF S., 600, 600
to the country's currency just now, though
a small amount in itself, will be of the
greatest service in averting threatened
stringency of money and in facilitating the
operations of shippers of grain and cotton.
In the first place, an emergency which
recurs regularly, year by year, cannet be
called extraordinary, and if it is in the
province of the National Banks to meet it
at all, they should do so with the ordinary
resources at their disposal, and not by a
new and special issue of currency In any
event, the relief now proposed will be only
temporary After the new Sc, ,O00, 900 have
once gone into circulation they will stay
there, and next year there will be a call for
another S. 0O0, 900, or even more, to effect the
same result over again.
WORTHY OF PRAISE
Still, like buying stocks for rise and for
the same reason, every device which increases
the volume of currency and thereby raises
prices, or. at least, prevents them from fall
ing, is popular, while everything which has
a contrary tendency is unpopular. Hence
am quite prepared for the success of the
Sc, 10000 syndicate and for general praise
OF those who have gotten it up. They will be
sustained, too, not only by those who wish
to see continued rise in stocks, but by
every one in the country who has property
to sell and debts to pay.
In principle, though not in form, they
will be in line with the advocates of the un-
limited or, as it is called, the free coinage
of silver. The effect of this measure, it is
openly claimed, will be to enable debtors to
get higher prices for what they own or what
they produce than they get now and thus
to pay debts with less real value than is
now required of them. The proposed ad-
dition of S5f00 600 10 the National Rank