Year: 1874

THE POLITICIANS AND THE CURRENCY


Some forty or fifty State conventions, repre-
sentipg all existing political organizations and
every section of the Union, having said some
thing with more or less distinctness about the
currency, there would seem to be no lack of
material for forming a judgment as to the
state of public opinion on this important sub
ject. Conclusions, founded on the resolutions
of political conventions relating to paper
money, are, we confess, to be formed with
caution and expressed with reservation. The
certainty Of mathematics and the vast reach OF
modern science we cannot aspire to In this
inquiry, but what we think we have good
reasons for believing we proceed to state
without further preface.


The desire for initiation is not as extrava-
CANT as it was. No convention that we know
of has peremptorily demanded imitation as In :
dispensable for the reliefn of the country. On
the contrary it seems to be dimly recognized
that there are causes for the dullness OF busl-
ness and low prices of commodities entirely
distinct and apart from the scarcity OF money.
It is also seen that there is more money to
lend than ever, and that the rates of interest
charged for the use of that money are below



ers demand good security. Now this, in our
opinion, should always be required, fur
nishipg, as it does, q guarantee that the money
will not be wasted or lost in unproductive
enterprises. This abundance OF money to
lend on good security, it is also seen, Is not
confined to New York, but exists throughout
the country. At the same time there are
many banks, corporations OF various kinds,
and individuals who have engaged IN foolish,
reckless or Improbable enterprises, and now
find themselves unable to borrow, and In
many cases unable to pay what they have
borrowed. 1f the quantity OF paper money
had been doubled last Fall these persons would
still have failed in the end. Can the setting
up of ten thousand paper money machines at
Washington make the slightest change IN the
natural relations of tkings1 Granting that
plenty of paper money would have kept on
their feet few years longer those firms and
corporations who were wasting the resources
of the country in building railroads to carry
wheat four thousand miles to market where
it could be sold only at a loss, what would
have been the consequence Only greater
wastes and losses than we are already suffer.
ing from. Let people spend less than they
earn, invest only where they are reasonably
certain of a profit, be content with moderate
profits and subject themselves as little as pos
sible to the hazards of speculation, as they
are now doing, and imitation will lose its
charms and contraction its terrors.


To judge from tho political platforms, the
do-nothing policy is likely to be followed out
for some time to come. Meanwhile every
effort must be made to educate the people, to
convince them that there is nothing incompre-
hensible, dreadful, or at all marvellous about
this matter of the currency, and to instruct
them by the logic of facts. They must be
taught that East, West, and South each can
prosper only in proportion to the welfare OF
the other sections of the country, that the
misfortunes of one section are inevitably
shared by the others, that neither the East
nor the West has anything to gain at the ex-
pense of the other by any particular line Of
action on the currency, and that the prosper
ity of all sections must suffer from any injury
to the National faith.