The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-05-14
DEIus1oNs ABOUT PAPER MONEY.

good as feast. Bank notes auu
backs are not money; they ar only count
ers or tokens that represent money. lney
are worthless except as the representatives
of the things which have just as much real
value without their existence aswith. And
il would be a blessed thing if everybody
would get this truth into his mind. 1t
would be found key to unlock many n
nancial mysteries.
If you don't possess the thing itself, you
cannot get the counters or tokens that rep
resent it aud if you do possess 1t, it will
bring its precise value in other commodi-
ties, in labor, and in gold or silver, though
there were not bank note, or greenback
or any ether paper token in the world. The
coined money of the world, and the credits
based thereon, are ample to transact the
ordinary business of the world, and were
so when the quantity in existence in pro-
portion to transactions was scarcely more
than half as much as now. IF anything on
earth is demonstrable, or has been demon
strated by the practice and experience of
mankind for centuries, it is these facts.
In this country we absurdly think we
have done a great thing in throwing this
universal money of the world out of use,
and in substituting bank notes and Govern
ment notes therefor. Clamoring for a Aex-
ible and abundant circulating medium, we
have thrown away one which is flexible and
abundant, and substituted one which is
neither. That is to say, our paper money
is not abundant in the view of its advo-
Gates, for they cry always for more and it
certainly is not flexible, for its quantity is
established by law and no demand of trade
commerce, or enterprise by any possibility
can increase it single dollar. In this re-
spect il bears no comparison for usefulness
to coin, which is abundant all over the
globe and daily increasing in volume, and
which always flows in to supply any de-
mand or short stock anywhere, just as GER
tainly and as promptly as water seeks its
level.
The want Of intelligence in regard to the
character and Office OF the paper tokens
with which the channels of our circulation
are filed, is one of the marvels of the
times. They are regarded as money and
regarded as capital, and thence arises the
absurd presumption that their increased
issue by vote of Congress will add to the
money and add to the capital of the coun-
try. But such issues are in this regard
actually worthless to everybody, because
they are out of the reach of everybody who
has not in possession something to OK
change for them. And wherever that
something exists, money can now be OBJ
tanned for it at its market value wherever
money circulates, throughout the civilized
world.
Communities in which money is scarce
are communities in which property is
scarce-that is, marketable property: and
legislation or bank action in the way OF
issuing paper money is as powerless to re-
lieve the necessities of such communities
as it is to enact gold mine or a steam en-
CINE into existence. Import ton of green
backs into an impoverished district o
South Carolina, where the population i
idle and worthless, where the lands are ex
hausted, where corruption abOunds and
knavery reigns, and would its condition
be thereby improved? Would the green
backs stay? Not bit of it, They would
leave quicker than they came. Robbery
alone could scatter them in such a commu
nifty. They would go where they coul(
find safe and profitable employment, O
where they could be securely kept, TO
such remunerative uses as capital is sure Il
discover.
Those parts of the country which ar
clamoring for additional issues of pape
notes and tokens, because they want NOR
money, are totally in error in supposin
hot Nbn
cannot get either bank notes or gresnhack
without buying them and they canno
buy them because they have nothing t
give for them that anybody wishes for
Speaking generally, there is no case where
if a man has anything of marketable valu
that he wishes to sell, he cannot find pay
ing purchaser. The Texas cattle drover i
his solitary ranch on our interminabl
Southern plains has no difficulty to-day i
filling his pockets with gold and silver il
exchange for his bullocks and the owne
OF the remotest cotton plantation can to
day draw the same currency into his pock
ct Tor every remaining bale of his product
at its precise money value as measured b
the prices that prevail in Liverpool or Nev
York, less only the expense of transports
ton and sale. And if every bank bill an
every greenback were struck out of exis
tence tomorrow, the actual gains of tn
drover and planter at the end of every yea
would be precisely as great as if Congress
were to order the issue of thousand mi
lions OF greenbacks tomorrow, and ad
Journ. Why even now, specie is the cul
rency OF Texas and California, and is abur
dant over their whole immense domain
for every necessary use and their popu
lati0ns, not having had their brains mud
died by paper money dreams and fallacieS
reject the circulation of paper none
among them and hold fast to solid COL
and silver, OF whose scarcity there is n
complaint, and of whose value there is n
question.
Aud wherever banks exist, especially il
the large commercial centres, the bushes
men never use currency at all-they wou
not use 1t II ten thousand millions more @
1t were to be printed They do all busi
ness by checks, that being the safest an
most expeditions mode. They want n
more currency. Nobody wants more cul
rIency except those who have nothing to q
1t with, or gambling spectators who liv
upon fascination, excitement unsettled va
ues, and the ups and downs of the indu
trial aud business classes.
There is no answer to the everlastiI
truth contained in these facts and consi
eratlons, except the vain reply: IS,
what paper money has done for us durir
the war and since" The country h
been fed on such wind and emptiness
this for so long a period that people b
lieve there is real substance in it. TIL,