The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-11-20
Inflation Of the Currency.

There IS one SUBJECT, uiIeCtiy SO''CcihihS
every citizen of the republic, upoa which ev-
ery newspaper ought to aid in the expression
of the almost (if not quite) unanimous senti-
ment of the people. That is relative to any
imitation of our paper currency upon any pre-
text whatever. If there b. anything which
we ought to learn from our own recent ex-
perience,-any conviction which ought to
be deepened and strengthened by all the
teachings of history;-it is that an irredeema-
BILE paper currency is an evil, and nothing but
an evil, and that continually We have it
now, not because it is good, in and of itself,
but because its adoption seemed necessary to
avert the greatest and last evil which could
befall our country. In this respect IL was
like the war itself; and awful afflction, but
to be borne to save the nation. In theory al
most everybody in the United States admits
this those who, having upon them the bust
ness and responsibility of the administration
of the government during its terrible crisis,
felt compelled to resort to this measure of re-
lief as well as those who originally opposed
the issue of greenbacks, but, practically many
of those who are professedly representatives
of the people, in Congress and the Cabinet,
do not act up to this theory, whenever there
can be any pretext offered as an excuse for
departure from it.
Everybody knoGs-for it is taught by that
common sense, which belongs to the whole
nation, and is not the exclusive possession of
learned and able men, or Of those only in
high position-that it is very desirable to
have a resumption of specie payments at the
earliest practicable day. Among parties, and
between men, ideas naturally differ as to
hoau we can soonest reach the desired result;
but there is really no dispute as to the desir-
ableness of the end, by whatsoever means il
is to be accomplished. That end is attained
whenever the gold in the national vaults bears
such reasonable proportion to the outstand
ing paper promises of the government, (cal-
ed "greenbacks'' as to make it morally GER
tain that every such promise, of which per-
Torrance is actually demanded, can be
promptly fulfilled by payment of the coin
which on its face it processes to represent.
Then we postpone that day just the same
whenever we issue anew our paper promises
to pay, as we do when we diminish the gold
in the treasury; for the one course changes
the proportion between coin and greenbacks
just as much as the other. 1t is only when
the funds accumulated by our revenues are
applied to the redemption of greenbacks and
the permanent retirement of them from cir
culation that we are really approaching the
goal of our hopes. We are led to these re-
marks because we see that, acting upon his
own construction of the doubtful meaning of
a statute, the Secretary of the treasury has
recently set afoat again, at one time, five
millions ofgreenbacks that had been paid and
retired; thus there are so many more holders
of the paper promises of the government to
be satisfied whenever Tor before) we under
take resumption. These same greenbacks
have to be bought up again by the officer
who issued them. The fluctuations caused
by these operations are ruinous to all legiti-
mate business. The judgment and opinions
of one man, happily at present man gener-
ally discreet, enter as a factor into all COM
,nercial transactions modifying and disturb
ing them. For it is too plain for argument,
and none can be needed by us who have
seen the practical workings of the measure
during the war-that as the number of paper
promises is increased their purchasing power
is proportionay diminished-that is to say,
merchandise nominally rises in the market
with every fresh issue of greenbacks. 1t
ought in this connection, to be noted that
while gold dollar actually represents an
equivalent in labor, the greenback dollar does
not. Indeed the muscular power expended
in digging gold dollar from the bowels of
the earth and in the various processes that
convert it into coin will, generally speaking,
produce more cloth or wheat than that gold
dollar will buy;-hence the coin represents
an intrinsic value at least equal to its face.
This is not true of the greenback; that rep
resents only the trihing labor required to pro-
duce the paper and print (which is the
same for a thousand dollar note as for dollar.
That for the greenbacks issued, men have ex-
changed the products of labor-food, clothing
and all the equipments and munitions of war
lis true; but what they received for these
articles did not, in ard of itself, represent any
labor Scarcely required in its production,
but only promise, at some time, in the un-
defined and indefinite future-to pay for
these supplies an equivalent in labor, repre-
senting csn. While in the hands of the hold
ers these notes represent the equivalents CIV
en- for them; in the hands of the government
at their first issue from the press, they repre-
sent the Insignificant expenditure required to
print them. The difference which the origi-
nal issue makes in the price of every article
of consumption is forced loan from the
pockets of the people.
Take an instance. The York Mill sends to
its Boston agents goods which it cost ten
thousand dollars to make; this consignment
is sold to a New York merchant at a given
price and his note therefor, on four months,
is taken; the price is fixed with reference, of
course, to the currency of the country; but
within these four months Mr.. Boutwell,, upon
some real or fancied emergency, financial or
political, issues five millions more of green
backs; naturally this oversupply, or increased
supply, diminishes their value and they fall,
Though IHe mOlc USUAL cApIeSSiOu is UuaC
merchandise rises; then, when the note ma
lures, the merchant pays the numerical
amount he has agreed upon but in currency
which the option of one man has in the
meantime deprecated and the York Mill is
really cheated out of this difference: and in
the future it must provide against repeti-
ton of this procedure by demanding an en-
HANGED price tor its productions; and this
increase necessarily comes out of the pockets
of the consumer.
1t is these and similar considerations that
induce the Boston merchants, even in the
extremity of their disaster, to vote uuan-
mously against any attempt to relieve them
by another batch of greenbacks. If this
emergency does not justify a resort to such a
measure we do not believe that any has arisen
in New York within the past three months
which affords sufficient reason for its adop-
ton. The unanimity with which the bust
ness men of other cities, as well as Boston,
have deprecated this course shows it TO be no
mere party question but one of vital impor-
lance to every community and individual and
on which they have right to express their
opinion emphaticaly and plainly and to de-
mand that the popular judgment shall be
resnected