The Portland daily press., 1875-08-26
Panurge's Land.

The Democratic financial doctors of the
West and the Republican inflationists who
have recently gone over to them fatter them
selves that they have evolved from their in
ner consciousness new system Of political
economy. Whenever the clamor for rag
money has been met by references to Cont
mental currency, and French assignats and
Confederate graybacks the answer has been
returned that the new system of finance diff
sfers from these. Hard-money men have taken
it for granted that the infationists lied; bit
it appears that injustice has been done them.
Their policy differs from that of the Cont
nentais and Confederates and French Revo-
lutionists in that they avoid the fatal error of
those financers.
The fault in the systems mentioned was
that while they set out to make money easy
they stopped too soon. 1t was not the fall in
the value OF paper money that wrought the
damage. but the stopping. Our modern infla-
tionists propose to remedy this by not stop
ping at all. Under the Confederate system
the appreciation of values was so great that
a pair of boots came to be worth $500. But
so long as the printing press could make $500
in few minutes and man could easily earn
the same sum in a day boots were really
cheap. Unfortunately at this critical time
the Confederate government stopped its print
ing presses. The price of boots continued to
increase while the supply OF money came to a
stand-still. Here was the great error in the
alaIlat tions of tho old A.
Ohio financiers propose to avoid that error
The printing presses are never to be stopped.
There is another attractive feature in the
Western plan. The money is to be virtu-
ally given away. The great infationist or.
gan tells us how it is to be done. Govern
ment is to stop collecting taxes for three
months, and to pay all its bills in the new
currency. Thus money will flow into the
pockets Of the people from the government
while none is drawn out by the government.
We cannot believe that the far-seeing finan-
ciers of the state of Ohio will stop here. If
the plan works well for three months it will
work well forever. If we can suspend the
collection Of taxes for three months we can
suspend il for all time. In the happy new
era we shall be a prosperous people, unbur-
dened by taxes, and with pockets full of
money. Our government will be carried on
in the spirit Of the maxim which Blair used
to faunt at the head of the old Democratic
Review: That system OF government is best
the burdens of which are least felt. The
policy will do away with many vexed ques-
lions; as for example the collection of the
customs in greenbacks-there will be no Gus
toms to collect.
But we fear that the merit of originality
cannot be accorded to this plan of the West
ern infatioDlsts. That great financier, Pam
urge, had similar plan which the veracious
chronicler, Rabelais, quite fully describes.
In Panurge's commonwealth all men are
debtors. but there are no creditors. There
is much borrowing, but no one is expected to
repay. The Western Democracy purpose
to convert this county into vertable PAN
urges land, and thus furnish new illustra-
ton of the adage that great minds run in the
same chanrel.