National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-09-28
CURRENCY PROBLEMS.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NOTES and Cash.
VALUE OF PROMISES UNREDEEMED.
bow IMPROVED BY CONVERSION INTO BONDS.
Interest Replaces the Legal. Tender Quality
Powers Conferred on Congress by
the Constitution Express and Inn.
plied-They Authorize the Estab.
Hshment OF n Treasury Bank.

WASHINGTON, D. O., Sept. q, 1875.
TO the Editor Of the National Republicans:
SIR: You lend me some money or sell me some
merchandise, and give you my note for the
price Of the same, bearing interests are you paid?
According to the prejudices OF business men, as
they are now constituted, you are not paid.
When that note falls due demand 1t back, and
give you, In return, another, not bearing interest,
payable on demand ct my counter. Are you paidH
Not as that ceremony is usually understood In
common transactions. You present the last at
my counter, according to the tenor thereof and I
inform you that have no means on hand that
are available for its satisfaction, and that you
will have to postpone the collection for an indeh
mite period. Are you paid?
TIE NEW THEORY OF PAYMENTS.
These are the financial problems that, at the
present time, are agitationR the mind
OF the statesmen Of Ohio and Pennsylva-
MA and calling their faculties into active opera
alton. 1t seems to DO the opinion Of the Demo-
cratic instructors Of the people that, somewhere
in the Of the process the original debt gets
exiting uished. 1t is admitted, In general, that
the first assurance, being on interest, does not
pay. The logical conclusion that debt survives
so long as an annual sum is paid for forbearance
is not easily avoided. But when It comes to
promise to pay not bearing interest due on de-
mand, which the promisOr declines to redeem,
the case IS altered. The pieceof paper upon which
the promise is recorded then becomes money, and
the right Of the creditor to anything beyond his
paper expires. The course Of reasoning by which
this result is reached is not very we'll defined,
but seems to be founded upon the idea that the
refusal to pay is such proof Of solvency on the
debtor as 10 release him from the obligation to
respond to his undertaking.
WILLIAM ALLEN ARISEN.
The Hon. William Allen was interviewed by a
correspondent Of the New York Tribune at To-
ledo. Mr.. Allen exhibited about the average de-
gree Of skill Of estern stump orator In lodging
the crucial interrogatores Of mis- inQuisitor; but
the sum Of his answers and implications was that
the bonded debt Of the United States could be
properly paid in Treasury notes: anc, as for the
Treasury notes, they are good enough as they
are and as there is no necessity for their redemp-
tomas the interests Of the country are opposed
to diminution and in favor of increase In their
EetSer m%aterfs i In u short, Mr. Aiisa played
with average adroitness the part to which he Is
by constitution adapted-that of demsgogue.
THIS GREAT COUNTRY.
In answer to the question, "Whst Is your idea
to It; in other words, do you think greenbacks
can be used as the permanent currency and meas
S " Ta1e than the SosT based
upon the credit and the property Of this great
natien."
THE MooNsHINE DOLLAR.
This moonsnine phrase, "tbe dollar based upon
which the ipf1ationlsts of the Allen and Pendle-
ton school have borrowed from the metaphysical
Carey persuasion, means-if IL means anything
q circulating medium from which the obsolete
ideas Of conyertibllty and specie basis are excu-
ded. So far as Is, In the nature Of things, con-
ceivabIe by the ordinary understanding, the pres
ent currency Is based upon the credit and prop
erty Of this great nation. How a circulating me-
dium which contemplates redemption now or ever
can be better or differently based upon the ma
tional credit and property is incomprehensible;
ter currency than that in use at the present day,
he states that which is msniiestly untrue. The
fact that circulating medium which looks to
preciates in proportion Its volume is increased
Is too palpable to admit Of contradiction; and
the two schools of ind stenists agree in the Sdvo
cacy Of circulating medium which shall stand
upon nothing; from which the idea OF converti-
for which there is no corresponding fact, and
which shall be "based upon the credit and prop
erty Of this great nation, with no means by which
cation. In short, the spirit Is to inhabit one re-
giOn and the substance another, with no financial
Katy King through whose lamentations the mira
Gle Of naturalization can be enacted.
COVERT REPUTATION.
The redemption Of the interest bearing bonds Of
the United States in paper promises would be re-
pudiaticn. 1t would be a Reputation formally Of
nearly the whole. Such an emission OF irredeem-
able paper illustrating the bad faith of the Gov
eminent ana PGstponlng a return 70 solvency Pc
probation in comparison with which all former
depreciatOns would sink into iDsignihcance. With
away the hope that its promises will some day OF
other be fulfilled, and no Black Fridays that ever
happened in this or any other country will have
OF this Mr. Allen and Mr.. Pendleton are too
much experienced in financial matters not to be
aware thatif they were in power and should carry
out the policy which, for the sake Of getting into
power, they are advocating, the result would be
fes
they are uncandidly holding out to the people in
in unexampled distress and prostration.
THIS is THE MOST CHARITABLE VIEW
TO be taken Of their disposition; for II In case
they are successful they DO really intend to pur-
sue the policy which they loreshadow, as much
who, on the coasts of Barnegat or Hatteras, hang
out false lights to lure bewildered navigators to
destruction, and profit by the spolls which the
they have murdered.
1t does not ssem,to be very difficult proposition
for an interest-bearing bond does not extinguish
the obligation; and yet It is upon denial Of this
that the greenback cause Is founded. II the
faculty OF liquidating Its debts, closing finally
the relation between itself and its creditors BY
passing over to them pieces Of paper in which #
basis Of the agtationis undermined and exploded
They take care, however, to cover
THE NAKKDNKss OF THE QUESTION
by variety Of devices. They are anxious on &C.
count OF the lapOLlnb Clhsscs, VINO are suffering
under the present condition OF things and willing
to listen TO any physician who PROCESSES to have
invented q nostrum that will afford them the de-
sired relief. Measures directed to the advantage
Of any particular class in society, when con-
ceived under the influence OF the purest motives
and the most benevolent intentions, IN most cases
operate to the injury Of tho class for whose good
they were originated. But when the benefactors
have Interior purposes in view, when they propose
measures that have neither reason nor experience
in their favor, and demand q faith In their pre-
scripticns which there is nothing to justify It is
safe to set them down as demsgogues and charla-
tans, and seek the right in the opposite direction
H. +.
THE TREASURY BANK.
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