The Waynesburg Republican. [volume] (Waynesburg, Pa.) 1867-18??, 1867-10-30
$500
REPUTATION.

nc DctnOcracy are Squarely Wneel-
ing into rank, ON platform of repudi-
ating the National debt, by passing an
act to pay the Government Bonds in
paper instead ofcoin. Mr.. Pendleton,
in a speech, which is endorsed by the
Democratic press generally, in speak
ing of the interest on our bonds, says;
"Theso forty-eight millions annually
should be saved. The fve-twcnties
should be paid in grcenbacks as they
mature, or as fast as they can be done
without too great arrangement of tho
currency"
The Boston Post has not yet been
brought to the new party platform,
and says: "a dollar is metallic SUBJ
stance Of real valuc-nota promise on
a piece of paper F.; therefore, when
Government promises to pay one
thousand dollars, it engages to pay
actual dollars ; not promises but dol
lars. These dollars are made of gold
and silver"
TO this the Pittsburg Post answers
that there is to be one kind of dollar
for the rich bondholdcrs and another
for the poor soldier. IF the bonds
were all, or nearly al, in the hands Of
rich bondholders, the argument would
amount to this Justice does not re-
quire you to pay your debts if your
creditor is already rich" Poverty
may be very pretty thing in poetry,
but are we ready to assume that when
IL man becomes rich he iorfcits his
right to collect debts due him In
thiscountry where men generally make
their own fortunes, and where the poor
struggling boys of thirty years ago are
the capitalists ofto-day, a party must
have slender mission thathopcs to live
by fostering mean jealousy, in the
poor, against the rich. We urge our
boys to industry and economy, and the
gurgcon held out to them is wealth.
Shall we tell them that in gaining it
they lose their right to enforce con-
tracts? This is the doctrine of the Post.
The Government contracts to paya dol
lar, then says to its creditor, "If you
were a poor man I should pay you;
but you are rich and can afford to lose
the dollar, therefore, you have no right
to claim payment, so | shall pay that
promise with another" Would The
Post advise carrying this principle into
the transactions between individuals?
But its assumption that the bonds
are IN the hands of rich men is with
out foundation. There are few men,
or women, who have a few hundred
dollars saved, and have not invested in
bonds. Our circulating medium of
the national banks is founded on
bonds-the national faith pledged to
redeem them. When our currency
does not stand on metallic founda-
ton, it is little better than Confederate
paper. The money in the pocket of
the poor man, as well as in the vault
ofthe rich, goes down to its value as
waste paper, or, at least, is deprecated
to ruinous degree. As money goes
down, the price of everything goes up.
Wheat is always weighed against gold
and the price of labor. A bushel, or
a gold dollar, is the average worth of
a days work of an unslSilled laborer.
No change in the money market makes
any material change in these relative
values, in years of ordinary plenty;
and if you take away confidence by
annulling the coin payment Of interest
on our bonds, you take away the value
of the money already in circulation,
and only increase the labor of paper
makers, engravers and printers in
manufacturing promises to represent
dollars made of other promises.
But in national point Of view, any
thing but the honest payment of our
debt, in honest coin, is ruin, present or
prospective. No one believes we could
have borrowed the money necessary to
carry on the war, if those loaning it
had not believed we would pay in
coin. We kept up the value of green
backs by taking them in payment for
bonds, which we promised to pay in
coin. If we fail to keep that promise,
where should we go for the means to
carry us through any future war? The
question answers itselfin the returning
echo, "Where?"-PiHs. Gazette.