Year: 1874

tion OF Speaker Blaine.


The dexterity Of Mr.. Blains's recent address
at Oshkosh, Wis. does not seem to have beer
appreciated by the journals that have mad'
it a subject Of comment Nothing could lool
more colorless and non-committal in part,
view or in relation to great national ques
tions, than an elaborate speech on the growth
of State and municipal debts. 1t presents an
appearance as if Mr.. Blaine studiously shrinkf
from expressing opinions which might COM
promise him on the question Of the currency
which divides the East and the West His
trimming course during the heated imitation
debates Of the last session showed his wish to
stand well with both sides. But this astute,
shifty politician and undisguised aspirant to
the Presidency must have calculated the remote
effect of this recent speech on his Presidential
prospects He is long headed, and has cast an
anchor far to the windward. He delivers o
carefully prepared speech in the West of q
perfectly neutral tint but he lays down
premises from which he foresees that other
minds will hereafter draw conclusions Of q
character which cannot fail to be acceptable
to the Western mind. His speech, if we do
not misconceive its purpose, is master
piece of adroit suggestion thrown out for
future use.


We gather from Mr.. Baine's able and
studied address that he will oppose any i'm
mediate movement toward specie payments.
This purpose is veiled, but it is the logical
outcome of his impressive array of facts.
Early resumption of specie payments neces-
states contrn ction Of the currency. This
would injure the debtor class in proportion
to the amount of their debts. Nothing would
so discourage efforts in this direction as
proofs of vast indebtedness which bears
with oppressive weight on large sections of
the country. When, therefore, Mr.. Blaine
dexterously exhibits the enormous amount of
State, county and city debts, he
strengthens the argument against attempts
to resume specie payments The heavy
increase of local debts Is almost universal
throughout the country. These colossal debts
are OF recent creation, having grown up DUR
ing and since the war. They were contracted
in deprecated currency. It cannot be de-
MED that there is want of equity in making
laws under which debts are contracted in
currency of small value, and then, before they
fall due, altering the standard, 80 as to compel
them to be paid in Q more costly medium.
The usual answer to this argument is, that
most business men stand in the double rela-
ton of debtor and creditor, and that their
losses in one relation would be Offset by cor
responding gains in the other. MIR. Blaine
makes an ingenious answer to that argument
without seeming to have any such purpose.
He points to vast debts whose payment in
such compensation. He shows that the local
debts of the United States amount to the
gigantic sum of 81, 14O, 600, 900, and it is very
evident that their burden would be enhanced
by contraction Of the currency. The whole
| body of taxpayers would be the suf-
ferers. It would require more bushels Of
wheat, more bales of cotton, more of every
commodity by the production and sale OF
which people raise money to pay their taxes
and discharge these heavy local debts There
is probably o still larger amount of private
debts in respect to which there would be no
offsetting compensation. The records OF
mortgages in the agricultural counties of the
West and South would show an aggregate of
private indebtedness even more astounding
than Mr.. Blaine's figures relating to local
public debts. People who mortgage their
farms to borrow money are seldom creditors to
any great amount and q contraction of the
currency would infict on them an unmitigated
loss, except SO far as they might afterwards
participate in the general advantages of a
sound monetary system.


MIR. Blaine, who is one Of the shrewdest OF
our public men, sees the resistance which the
vast debtor interest would make to o forcibie
return to specie, and his recent speech dis
closes, though it does not obtrude, the
ground he means to occupy on this
subject as candidate for the Presi-
dency. The crazy imitation policy has
collapsed, and will give no candidate
any further trouble. But there will be
many hard-money campaign in which every
inch of ground will be contested by the debtor
class. MIR. Blaine may not be good judge
of what is wise on such subject, but no man
has clearer perception of what the country
will bear. The policy he viii favor is to.leave
the present amount Of the currency un-
changed, and let the country grow up to
specie payments by the increase of popula-
ton, wealth and business There is too much
reason for believing that Mr.. Blaine correctly
estimates the tendencies Of public sentiment
on this important question. The truth is,
as all history proves, that no country which
perpetrated the mistake of depreciating its
currency ever got easily out Of it. The best
known illustration is afforded by Great
Britain, which, in 1877, undertook to suspend
for thirty-two days and continued the suspen-
sion for more than twenty-five years.


One Of the most marvellous things in his
tory is the readiness with which O nation can