Year: 1869

i


unworthy of soldier Of the high reputation


Of General Grant.


| The Austrian Currency System Compared
with That Of This Coantry-The Lessons
| or History.


We publish to-day In another part Of the
paper highly interesting review, by our


Vienna correspondent, of the system and his


tory Of Austrian currency and finance, with
comparison Of our own system with that Of


Austria. 1t will be remembered by the read


ers of the HERALD that we gave shortly after
the close Of the war, in 1856, series Of SINH
lar exhaustive articles on the currency and
| finances Of England at the conclusion Of the


long wars with Napoleon, and also on the
financial history Of our own country during
crises of q like character. The teaching Of


Austrian, British and American history is the


same, and our Vienna correspondent shows in
his communication what we have urged over
and over again, that it is ruinous to the best


interests Of country to tamper with and un-
wisely contract the legal tender currency.
Whenever Austria has had an ample currency





prosperous, trade and manufactures have
been more active, and the people generally
In q bettor condition than at any other
period and whenever the bullionists contracted
or swept away this currency for the purpose
Of forcing specie payments, ruin and appalling
distress to the mass Of the people inevitably
followed. The same ruinous policy In England
produced, however, worse state Of things in
that country, as its history, from 1915 to 1924,
or even long after, shows. Our correspondent
justly remarks that the transfer into gold Of
public and private obligations, contracted in
deprecated paper, as carried out In Great
Britain and as demanded by the bullionists in
the United States, is, to use the language Of Sir
James Graham, in his pamphlet on ''Corn and
Currency,"a fraud upon every debtor, public
and private" Yet this would be the effect Of
forced resumption here. The debtor class
that is, by far the largest portion Of the COM
munity-would be ruined, and the burden of
the public deD. immensely increased upon the
taxpayers for the benent Of the capitalists and
bondholders.


Whether the views Of General Butler, which
are advocated by our correspondent, with re-
gard to establishing permanent paper cur
rency, in the form Of and to be called taxa


tion money, are sound and practicable or not,
there can be no doubt that the present
legal tender currency is the best for the country,
under existing circumstances, and that it ought
not to be withdrawn. Indeed, there ought not
to be any other paper money. The circula-
ton Of the national banks should be taken up
and greenbacks issued instead We would
then have a uniform and cheap currency,
based directly upon the credit of the govern
ment, and twenty to twenty-five millions of
dollars year would be saved in taxes; for
with the issue Of three hundred millions Of legal
tenders in the place Of national bank notes, a
corresponding amount of interest bearing bonds
could be cancelled. There would be no
expansion, and as the population, trade and
wealth of the country increased this govern
ment paper money would gradually and insen-
sibly approximate specie standard. The
people would learn to like this cheap and con-
venient currency more as time rolled on, and
in the end, when it would reach par with
specie, they would prefer it, probably, to
metallic currency; for it would not be subject
to contraction and expansion In obedience to
the cbb and flow of bullion or the balances Of
trade with other nations. The history Of Aus
triau finances and currency, as given in the
article referred to, and the views thereon
expressed by the writer, are worthy the seri-
Gus attention Of the government and people Of
this country.


A BANK PAYro.--The depositors in the