The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-09-03
The Greenback Doctrine.
To the Editor of the Press:

DEAR SIR:-In an editorial in your paper
under date of August 31st in referring to the
congress Hall Convention, and those mis-
guided though well-meaning men, there assem-
Dled and the principles there advocated, you
seem not to have given the matter mature
thought due subject of such vast import.
You speak of :he 100000, 900 limit as point
beyond which government cannot issue green
backs, but the power that fixed that limit, at
the time the treasury note bill became law in
1867 liked the limit at $780, 100000 and several
Ilmes changed it previous to the $400, 900
limit and that same power can increase it
again. One Congress cannot enact laws which
an other Congress has not the power to repeal
line legal tender act you assume to be uncon-
stitutional in time of peace, but let us see.
The Constitution of the United States says
Congr esssshall have the power to coin money
and regulate the value thereof. To coin, Web
ster defines, To make; To fabricate; To stamp
convert into money.
The Constitution is silent as to the material
from which money shall be coined, hence Con-
gress alone has the power to determine Whist
shall be the material of money; and in 1862
Congress did determine that paper as well as
well as gole and silver should be the material
of money; and in 1873 Congress determined
that silver shouldlnot be the material of money
in sums greater than five dollars.
But II 1t be constitutional, you claim it to be
dishonest to use that power unless the notes
were to be redeemed in the current money of
the world.
l would like just here Mr.. Editor, to inquire,
what the current money of the world is. Our
gold money is not, India's silver money is not,
England's gold and paper money are not the
current money of the world.
Money is a national institution, and the cru
ciai test OF what is money, is, is it legal ten
der
There is no international law making legal
tender any particular kind of money, in all the
nations OF the world, hence infer there is no
such thing as current money of the world.
When our gold dollars are received in for
elgn country they are received as commodities,
like bales of cotton or bushels of wheat and
cannot be used there as tender for the pay
ment OF debts, any more than cotton or wheat.
AS to the redemption of paper money, of
course 1t should be redeemed in the same man
ner gold money is redeemed, in the commodl-
Ties and property OF the country, without such
redemption all money would be useless, as
money.
You also assume that considerable portion
OF our currency is Dot now in use because
there is no call for 1t, that there is no need for
more.
Were we to cease contracting the currency,
preparatory to resumption in 1879, the depre-
ciatlon In values would cease, then there would
be an Increasing demand for money which
could not be supplied with the present volume,
for the money could be invested in productive
business, starting at once the wheels of indus
try, with an absolute certainty that the labor
thus employed would have the means to buy,
and consume. and thus create demand for the
product OF labor, at prices remunerative both
to capital and labor, but with further coDtrac-
ton of the currency, causing proportionetely
greater depreciation in values, which must
necessarily be enforced to enable US to resume
III 1879, staring US IN the face, wise man will
not invest his own idle money, to say nothing
about taking that of the banks at usury.
You think it unjust to force people to receive
as money greenbacks, resting as they do on a
naked promise to pay, assuming that they are
not money, and ignoring the fact that the
promise to pay which the greenback carries
was placed there at the dictation of the money
power, in order to deceive people, as it seems
to have deceived you, into the belief that it
only represents money, whereas it is money
itself. What would be the sense in stamping
upon gold dollar promise to pay when it is
pay itself; and it is equally meaningless when
printed on the paper dollar.
Our government debt is about $1,000 0OO, ,O0O
all resting on the same promise to pay, and that
part of it which the government pays interest
upon, whether that interest be gold or paper, is
above par, while that which draws no inter-
est is below par in gold
Why this difference, when it all rests en- the
same promise to pay, on the same security?
Simply because the government honors the
former by paying promptly the interest, while
the latter it dishonors by refusing to receive it
Tor duties or imports. When government
Will nonor Its own notes the people will honor
them. and paper and gold will have the same
paying and purchasing power and little force
Will De required to oblge our impoverished
producing classes to receive it. 1t requires but
little force to induce people to take money in
exchange for their products, while to induce
them to take private notes on time, which
notes must be exchanged for bank notes, on
Wnicn interest must be paid, the force of nee
esslty must be great, and this virtually is the
only way bank notes get into circulation
j. +. TURNER.
line above communicate on demands consd-
GRAFTON because it so frankly sets forth the fall
lacy upon which the theory of the greenback-
ers is based; namely, that money is not com
modify and that any material which a govern
ment chooses to label money" is money. Our
correspondent has yet to learn the very primer
of finance, for his whole Communication rests
upon this one gross error. That corrected, his
whole superstructure falls to the ground.
Where our gold dollars are received in a for
eign county, he says, 'they are received as
commodities" Certainly, for the fact that
they are commodities make them money.
Money is commodity. That is its very es-
sence. That quality is what gives it its value,
makes it money. 1t is received throughout the
world in exchange for other commodities, BY
ment. There is no law that can compel man
to give away his property for money. He only
does it because he feels sure that all other men
will do exactly the same thing as he has done,
will give their goods for money as readily as he
gave his goods for 1t. Our correspondent con-
POUNDS the voluntary afixing of money prices
on goods with the obligation imposed by the
law of legal tender of discharging debts
with money. The test of money islnot: Is it
legal tender? Governments can, unless re-
strai ned by their own laws, make anything a
legal tender; but they cannot make some
thing out of nothing-that is prerogative of
the Almighty. They cannot give value to
something that has no value They cannot
create values. The government stamp, the
mark on coin, is simply this: 1t certiies that
gold dollar-piece, for example, really contains
dollars worth of gold; that if you choose to
melt it you can sell the gold in it for q dollar;
that if you give it in exchange for any article
the man with whom you trade has received
something as valuable as the article which he
gave. When the government makes thiscoin
legal tender it simply declares that its coinage
shall be accepted by all its citizens in their
sA"hSoSeAObo az VIC WOiSnb dnU puLlby WulCu IL
has certified This is in order that no man
shall put his neighbor to trouble, 10 making
payments, by disputing these qualities Of the
coin. But it is evident that this does not give
government a right to debase the coinage BY
certifying that to be dollar which contains
less than dollars worth of gold, for this
would be to cheat the people; still less can it
afix arbitrary denominations to things, as
prices of birch-bark, or of paper and command
them to be accepted, for this would be to au-
thorize one citizen to swindle another. All
that government does in coming is, for the gen.
eral convenience to declare the purity and GER
tify the actual weight of piece of metal.
This declaration is not recognized in foreign
trade; so our coin is not with foreign nations
legal tender, but it is money received all over
the world at its value as ascertained by weight
and assay. Gold is the current money of all
the world, because it is the current commodity,
the only commodity which is received every
where at all times in exchange for all other
commodities, at fxeG value. Did paper pos
sess these qualities it might be used as money.
1t does not and that is the reason, as our COR