Year: 1876

Vuyo Voutoius tuc mOSt luLcTCstluR anu
valuable information co:erning money
matters. to-day has the following:


MIR. Joseph G. Grubb, of this city.
who was one of the representative
of the Philadelphia Board of Trade at
the meeting of the National Board of
Trade at New York last week, gave
utterance to sons very sensible sug-
gestiens on the questions of currency
and public credit. These are themes
to which DIR. G., an old practical
merchant, has given much thought,
and he presents his views regard
them with considerable force OF rea>
soning Some of his views ON finance
are little peculiar, and though
frequently presented have drought
but few followers. lie does not
weary, however, in his efforts at
wholesome reform, and, to the extent
that he labors to have our paper cur
rency redeemable in coin on demand,
opposes the foolish theory of the ad>
yocates OF a non-exportable currency,
and the wild and hazardous policy of
an inconvcrtable bond currency, he
has the sympathy and support of near
ly all intelligent writer's on credit and
currency. His whole paper is inter.
esting mad instructive, we clip here
and there from it paragraphs that are
irrefutable. He says


The National Government now en-
acts the laws of finance, and works in
accord at pleasure only. 1t lis part
capitalist, part banker, at Times it is
neither. 1t floats paper to pay its
debts, and fails to retire it, even at
seasons when it is in excess of the
wants of the people. Thus, our dol
lar OF promise Is an Outcast. since it is
the duty of no one to fill the constitu
tional equirement-''to regulate the
value thereof"


My idea of monetary plan is, that
1t should be separate and apart from a
treasury system. The business of a
Secretary of the Treasury is simple:he
has to regulate expenditures and i'm.
prove income, so as to make both ends
meet. If the country were
to depend upon coin absolute as a sole
means of resumption, it could not
maintain its credit for single hour.
To barter a dollar of coin for dollar
of paper-to so foreshorten credit that
a metallic dollar may cXtinguish u
paper dollar-is not what commerce
asks for. Resumption is tho work of
skillful pilot, not the business of
wrecker; it operates as a cause, and
follows prosperity as an effect.


MIR. Grubb pays this just and meri-
ted tribute to our national banks:


MIR. President, my candid convic-
tion is, that the present national bank
ing system reformed and perfected
offers and will be the means of res
toration that must eventually be
adopted A round sum of fifteen hun
dred millions of dollars is due to the
national banks by the people and the
general government. They stand to.
day between us and an absolute chaos
of values. They have battled bravely
and hard to maintain the commercial
situation. The evil they have prevent
ed has no demonstration; the world
will never know the imminence of
the peril. During the thirteen years
the system has been in operation the
have met every reasonable and just re
quirement.


After presenting his place for u re-
sumption of specie payments and the
maintenance of a sound currency, he
adds


A discussion of the subjec. would be
incomplete without reference to the legal
tender issue, which has been happily
named 'the financial orphan Of the govern
ment." An ill-defined idea exists that
its redemption in coin would be an all
sufficient provision of coin for the bank
circulation. This might be found to be
grave error of judgement. Neither
should regard funding as proper dis
position OF it. These notes represent
supplies furnished in the rebellion, but
not yet paid for. They have been the
innocent instruments in the creation of
vast debt. 1t is this superstructure of
credit that must be cared for. To fund
the notes is to remove the Props suppor-
ting it. The legal tender immunity is
the stone that must be rolled away be-
fore true resurrection can appear. This
is rather the work of Paul, who never
destroyed without replacing, and like his
Master, abolished only by fulfilling.


OF the inter-convertible bond scheme,
he says:


The "Kelley- Carey Baird convertible
bond" can afford no relief. 1t asks that
the promise itself shall be accepted for
the thing promised. 1t is simply plan
of finance with: payday left out. Such
a currency is financial incest, for it is
the offspring of its own loins. 1t is a.
delusion to suppose that n money of
mere paper will add anything to the
the wealth of a nation. The currency
of sound trade is national volume fol-
lowing business conducted successfully,
and it cannot be forced before its time
A money of paper-of statute law-unlike
metallic money or that which is its
equivalent, becomes, in the hour of
greatest need, immovable and unproduc-
tive, amp it is only consnmmate when it
transfers something underlying, or be-
hind it, of its full value. Carlyle, in his
quaint way, gives the substantial
thought. 1T WAS shrewd and valua-
BILE suggestion which an ancient drover
made to the world, when tired of driving
his wearied OK to market for trade, he
turned him into stall, and simply took
his weight and value upon a piece of
paper and carried that to market, where
it passed from hand to hand, until lit
was presented by the consumer as an or
der for the OK. Hence arose the multi
tuds of paper devices for transferring
property by bills of exchange, checks
and bank notes, and hence the whole