The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-05-02

VI Va boiu, NuohiuS
robbery might excite its admiration?
|
/ Only three months since Deacon Osman
declared that aside from the La Sale Press
and Mr.. Campbell himself the greenback
system of finance had no other advocates
Now, about half of the members OF congress
a large portion OF the business men OF inc
country, and, above all, We have Deacon Os
man, the sturdy old granger, earnestly adyo
eating that system. Who says that there is
no reformation going on:
1t is hardly necessary to say that the above
dignified and courteous paragraph is clipped
from the La Sale Press: one seldom fails to
recognize the grunt of hog or odor of a
skunk 1t was prompted by our copying a
resolution, three weeks ago, of the Farmers
Association of Marshall county, declaring op
position to the national banks, and favoring,as
our only currency greenbacks interchange
able with government bonds, at a low rate
of interest. We copied it only as proof that
the people of the west, whatever may be their
differences in regard to the general question
of imitation or returning to specie payment,
are agreed in their opposition to national
banks We said 80 expressly at the time;
bnt the Press, pursuing its natural bent to fall
sify, represents us as endorsing the resolution
without reserve.
What the people want Is a good, re-
liable currency, that shall be worth just as
much in one part of the country (and in the
commercial world as another. Such cur
rency would be the greenback, redeemablc on
presentation at the national treasury in gold.
1t is true that were greenbacks thus redeem
able national bank bills, being payable on
demand in greenbacks, would also be at par,
or within fraction OF it, with gold; but the
objection of the people to the national bank.
ing system is, that it. costs too much. The
interest on the 100000, 900 deposited by the
national banks to secure their circulation,
and the two or three millions year made by
the banks from loss and waste of their bills,
might just as well be saved to the government,
amounting to over $25, 100000 bonds year,
byfurnishing all the paper money the country
needs from the treasury. As to the "intcr-
changeablc" feature, that is Butler Camp
bell crotchel that amounts to very little.
There is no justice or honesty in giving the
people paper or promises to pay from the
national treasury that are any the less worth
their face in gold than the promises to pay
the treasury issues to the bondholders. Gov
eminent bonds, bearing per cent. interest,
are now worth their face in gold The far.
mcr who takes the bond, notc or promise to
pay Of the government for his corn or wheat
is entitled to have his bit of paper worth what
its face calls for, though it may be but five or
ten dollars, just as much as the bondholder,
though his bit of paper may call for thous-
and dollars. "Gold for the bondholder and
rags for the people" may be Campbellite
but 1t is neither just nor honest.
Making the greenback worth as much as the
bond, therefore, there would be little use in
making it legally interchangeable with bonds,
my more than it would be necessary to make
en- dollar greenbacks interchangeable with
n grconbacks at par with gold can always
,uy U. S. bond with. his money anyhow.
And so, if the government is dishonest
,nough TO issue paper money that is lie on
Is face and not on par with gold and issues
ponds at so low rate of interest as to be
worth as little as the degraded greenbacks,
till the purchasable feature Of the bond re.
aims the same relation toward the greenback,
nd the interchangeable" feature is again
Useless. These words interchangeable" and
inter-convcrtible," that figure in the Butler
Kelly. Campbell resolutions and speeches, are
mere clap-trap, Of the shallowest and most
sort.