The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-10-03
FOR PRESIDENT,
The Greenback In Maine.

1uC UIccuUdCh Ill Mdlues
The most radical of all Democrats are to be
found in despotic Russia. The Catholics of
Protestant America are almost all ultramon-
tanes, subscribe unhestatingly to the dogma
of infallibillty and generously to Peters
pence. So the extreme doctrines of the soft
money party are adopted by the few persons
who are affiliated with the Peter Cooper
movement in Maine, the hardest of hard
money states. Solon Chase and his compat-
riots of Oxford and Androscoggin counties do
not stop with asking a postponement of re-
sumption, like the Democrats. They do not
stop, either, as the more thoughtful of the
soft-money theorists do, with demanding that
all the advantages and profits Of furnis hing
circulating medium be mon opolized by the
government for che benefit of the whole
people. As we understand it this theory is
not incompatible with specie basis or even
with contraction. 1t would exalt the green
back only by making it supplant the national
bank note. This idea is not a novel one. 1t
is a curious fact which has not been noted in
the current discussions of the subject that
substantially this idea was promulgated by
the famous John Law during the Orleans
regency In France, more than one hundred
and fifty years ago. Law was the real father
of the as signats which many years afterward
plunged France into the deepest financial dis
tress, after having first enabled it to drive back
and dlsperse the combined armies of Europe.
Hn haliayod hot bo stot ,,,+ +ln ,,+o of
the people, should ponor olize all other parts
OF the banking system as well rs the furnish
ing of currency. He was perhaps the fist
and certainly the ablest supporter of the
claims of paper money in opposition to those
of specie. Yet in all the wildness of his gi-
gantic projects, in the frenzy of contriv;ng
schemes of social amelioration, he never
dreamed cf abandoning the specie basis, and
of making the peoples paper money a real
entity. This potion of throwing away the
substance and keeping the shadow intact TO
perform all the useful functions of that which
had been the sole cause of itc existence is, we
believe, of purely American origin. 1t is our
own American Buffers and Kelleys who have
daringy imagined these irredeemable green
backs which promise nothing but conversion
into other promises to pay other greenbacks,
these interconvertible government notes
and bonds which begin on nothing and end
nowhere. This peculiar financial theory
might be emblematically represented by the
old symbol OF serpent swallowing its own
tail; or by the well-known pictorial presenta-
tion of the Hindoo cosmogony, where the
earth is supported on the back of an elephant
standing on the back Of tortoise resting on
empty space; better still, perhaps, by the fig
ure of man lifting himself by the straps OF
his own boots.
1t is due to Mr.. Chase and the five hun
dred voters of Androscoggin County who
have followed him and who Low propose to
put Cooper electoral ticket in the field, to
say that they are for the most part thorough
ly honest and sincere. No one who has seen
and talked with them can entertain doubt
on this point. Mr.. Chase himself, through
the columns of his paper, certainly presents
the greenback argument with more ability
than many better known writer's who support
similar views. The great body of his disci-
pies are poor men who confidently believe
that ''cheap money" will foster industry, i'm
prove business and thus, as if by magic, re-
lieve the hardships Of their situation. They
regard it as prominently ''poor mans
movement"
Now it is matter Of history, that, though
paper money has never been deliberately
made irredeemable, it has often become so by
misfortune or accident, and uniformly with
disastrous results. What has so often failed
practically, ought at least, to be perfectly
clear, logical and attractive in theory. in or
der to command support. Is it so with the
greenback theory? What, for instance, is to
prevent the rapid and fatal depreciation of
the interchangeable promises, and what is to
prevent the poor man from suffering. as al
ways before, more speedily and more severely
than others from the effects of this depIccia-
tion? No answer has yet been given to this
question which seems even plausible. The
'faith and credit Of the government" which
are relied upon by the soft money advocates
as support to the irredeemable greenback,
are indeed mighty basis for the public con-
fidence in all things which the government
promises to do. But in this case it is the ex
press understanding at the start that the gov
ernment promises to do rothing but to renew
under another form its promise net to pay..
There are many with whom this obvious
fact would be decisive, did they not remem-
Der with Tegretful longing those humming
days of the war, when money was 'cheap"
and business brisk. But is it not true that
the efusion of blood, the waste of property,
the corruption of manners and morals, and a
redundant and deprecated currency were
alike the misfortunes of that sad era,
while the activity and productiveness of in
dustry were incidental alienation, which
would tomorrow follow from a renewal
OF the contest even if the cur
rency were not inflated to the
point of renewed depreciation? Another war,
and not more greenbacks, is what tn n
tlemen demand but surely not what they
Ddnt; for were they ever so selfish and un-
feeling, an apprehension of the inevitable re.
action which comes after the feverish activity
OF war would dissuade them from taking thai
path back to prosperity.
Nor is it possible 10 believe that the honest
men of Androscoggin and Oxford, in lieu o
better motives. join in the Cooper movement
because they hope to aid in this way the
debtor class by facilitating payments in de
based currency. Such purpose, stripped o