Year: 1879

Prospects for an Initiation.


II seems really absurd 10 see Sam Cary
going about making speeches against the


Republican party and in favor Of Ewing,
on the ground that the Republican party
is the party Of contraction, while Ewing Is
the representative Of the need Of the
country for volume Of currency sufficient
to meet the demands Of trade. Sam Gary
represents the class OF people who believe
that settlement on the basis Of real
values could have been prevented in this
country by wise legislation. He holds
that the panic came by contraction, and
not by the bursting OF the soap bubble
that General Garfield so we'll described in
his .Etnaville speech. We should have
kept on blowing the bubble gently, and
thus have escaped the "mess Of suds" al
luded to by Garfield.


Gen. Cary ought to know that we are
now rapidly initiating prices once more in
this country, and yet we have very little
more paper money than we had at the
time OF the panic in 1873. The prospect
is that in year from now we shall see
much higher prices for almost every arti-
tice Of merchandise. How will this
come? The answer is very simple. We
shall proceed to go in debt once more.
The slate having been sponged of by
compromises, liquidations, and bankrupt
cies, we are now ready for new deal.
There is new basis Of credit on which
to recommence operations. This basis is
the confidence inspired by return to
specie payments. Prices found their way
to the bottom under the weight Of gen.
eral want Of confidence. They were
heavily, and in many cases unduly pressed
down by this want Of confidence. Now,
that everybody has been up to the Cap
tain's office and settled in some way or
other the reaction has set in. We are
commencing on solid basis 10 rebuild
the fabric Of credit. We are now build
ing the FIST story, and by and by we will
put on a second story, and then a third,
and after a while the building
will begin to get top heavy. We have an
immense volume Of money greater by far
than in 1873, when the difference in prices
is considered) and We are daily adding to |
1t BY importations of gold. But the par.
ticular point is that we are gradually com
mencing to add the credit system to this
immense volume. Nearly everybody Is |
now presumed to be solvent, and mer-
chants are once more willing to sell goods
on credit. This tendency is bound to in
crease. History never fails to repeat itself
in this respect. The credit system is the |
tender that follows the locomotive oitrade;
that supplies the fuel and water that gets
up thestean in the locomotive, that final
ly sets it to running faster and faster.


Now the point We make is, that II Sam


Cary is after imitation he Is on the wrong
track. The basis OF inflationis confidence.
II he and his crowd should succeed to
power they would at once unsettle the
present widespread and growing conf
dence OF the country and bring about o
settlement Of accounts as they then might
stand. Everybody would be at sea once
more, aud capital would once more seek
to secure itself. We hold, therefore, that
Sam Cary is defeating the very object he
processes 10 have in view. he is, as it
were, trying to put Ohio in a posi-
ton to alarm capital. We do
not say that such Is his object,
but simply that such is the logical tendency
OF his efforts. The election OF Foster will
do more to initiate credits than the election
Of Ewing. It's effect will be, as the boys
express it, to boost the present boom, be-
cause it will bean assurance that specie pay.
ments arc not to be disturbed by attempts
at unsettling legislation. twill, In other
words, maintain the existing confidence.
The maintenance OF this confidence is to
be the measure Of the rising busin ess
tide. The success OF the Republicans
is known to be an assurance OF
stability In our finances. Stability is the
boosting element in the present revival Of
trade. In proportion as we have been
able to eliminate the element Of uncer-
tainty in our finances have we been able
to bring about revival. Therefore, we
say to all those who regard q boom as the
great desideratrm Of the times, that they
are on the wrong track when they seek to
upset the National banks and get up q
grand scare Of capital. sr lFEl n