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Show THS FINANCIAL MUDDLE. The financial minds of the country appear to be in a completo muddle, not only in regard to the results of past legislation, but in relercnco to what tho laws really are tho questions ques-tions of the gold standard, the double coin standard of gold and silver, or the greenback nUudard. One party will have nothing but gold redemption, redemp-tion, and insists that anythiug else would be repudiation. Another claims that gold and Bilver furnish tho tiue standard of valuer, and that the attempt to throw gold out as a portion of the money of tho world has precipitated a world-wide financial crisis and a mercantile panic. Thgn Iheie are thoso who demonstrate conclusively to their own minds that neither gold nor silver can form a true standard; that these metals are not adapted to uao as money; but I that government paper currency based on the credit of the country and supplied to the people in Bufli-' cient bulk to meet the demands of business, furnishes the safest and best medium of circulation. Tho greenback green-back currency is ferociously denounced de-nounced by tho hard money men and vice versa. Judge Doolittle and Senator Sen-ator Jones say that the congress of tho United States in 1S73 destroyed tho legal tender quality ol the silver dollar which it has maintained ever since the commencement 1 of the government, but this is contradicted by another authority, au-thority, which says that congress simply stopped the coinage uf the standard silver dollar, but did not interfere in-terfere with its "legal tender character, and that the silver dollar would still be a legal tender for all debts, if they ( could be supplied to the people. Gov-! Gov-! ernor Tilden, in hia letter of accept- j ' ance, referred to the interest-bearing bonds of the United States as payable I ia gold-; but he is speedily corrected in '.his statement by leading congressmen, congress-men, who allege that by no act of . congress is .gold specified as the medium in which the bonds are to be paid. All tho acts in reference to the . bonds eay that they are to be paid in coin, which includes silver rs well as gold. i How and when to resume is anoth-j anoth-j er vexed question, not likely to be . settled until resumption is actually ) achievod. One says that the act to i resume specie payment in January, k 1879, is a delusion and a snare, and 3 that to maintain this false promise . on the statute books can only be pro-. pro-. ductive of disappointment and evil; but tho measure has its advocate, . who insist that it is a solemn pledge . of the government to make its greenback green-back promises equal to gold on the i specified date, and that the failure to : do this would be repudiation on the ; part of the treasury. There is a claas ; of people which contends that gold it not needed for resumption, while others insist that tho precious metals should be hoarded in preparation for this event. David Wilder, a Boston financier, says that the present troubles arose from the effort of Secretary Boutwe'j to ra'.-e the legal tenders and all currency cur-rency obligations from 70 up te 90, which caused tho pressure'lhat ulti-mated ulti-mated in the crisis of 1873, which waa the commencement of what we see now, and of which we havo not seen the last nor tho worst. This writer adds : In my opinion, unless juftico comei oon, there will be riots and bloodshed. And this in a c untry where there is unlimited un-limited field for lab'-tr. My proposition is, Fat that there shnll be more gold or les paper, but that all paper shall be made to represent commodities com-modities at jrold prices. .Legal tender notes Bnd all currency cnt.-acts are wortb nin-ty ar.d no more The present Yalu is the only one we can deal with not the pt, nor the future, but the present Accopt ninety, and resumption re-sumption is accomplished without gold. Refuse this and you will have riots. But, it ia iaid, the government must pay the legil tender notes in full. Did B utwell pay par in gold for 0 per cent 5-20 gold bond?? Not at all. Then why is there s- much noise about taking tbe legal tender notes at their present gold value? I can only add in cloBine: It creditors credit-ors bewarfl how they push this thing much further. There appears to be no general agreement on the embarrassing questions ques-tions of tbe day, either in congress or among tho people, and no settled policy ha3 been adopted. It is simply drifting, as we are likely to drift until after the election without rudder or compass. Where wo shall como out will depend upon the force of the winds and waves. |