The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-10-24
uIllllll,d llspaflI,
ass, ocTo BER a4, 1878.
., 1,ne Interconyertible scnome,

A sissine gentleman oi e . es.,
said Il ,rs recent II that fter rcatisn BiasSk ?
I 1atsar to ,YsspESr pHrLLrps he was COM
,,anas Is ackroWiss,ge that the scheme OF
-. 7, j and bonds intercony
Ma MAS inrraeticabse. We think, with him,
that o far as yet appears, there IS no need
for ANYBODY to e'ain, the credit OF It's ~. ]
vant;ou. 1t is a sort OF kEELiy motor,
/ ,vbjsh has promised much but has never yet
done any good to anybody, and probably 'si'l!
never will. Mr.. HUNTER writes letter to
,,royc that he originated the scheme during
the recent war between the United States
and the Confederate States; but, unfor-
funately for him, the scheme did not work
we,.. In fact, it was dead failure, and he
candidly tells us why. He says:
aThe scheme failed because the bond
,ntr, which the note was coDvertiblewa not
kept at par with specie. This was essential
10 the success OF the scheme ii currency
bonds were provided only in such quanti-
ties as might be necessary for the converti-
Bile and recoverable purposes OF the CIR
culating note. the success OF the system
must be easy and sure. That note wouia
NOT be redeemable pcrforce into specie bnt
eycban geable for it at ali times by virtue OF
its own credit and that OF the country.
.The scheme failed because the bond into
ao,ich he no,e ras convertible acas moi kept
a, par soit6 specie" Sure enough; but
what sort OF Greenbacker is Mr.. HUNTER
that he should utter such hard-money doc
trincs?
We confess that we have looked with
some favor upon this interconyertibie
scheme; but we have nevertheless our
doubts as to its workings. II seems TO us
that IL the bonds were OF denominations
under thousand dollars they would De
passed for currency themselves. II man
held such bond, and desired to get green
backs with Which to pay debt or make a
purchase. why should be take the trouble
to go or send ITO the Treasury agent to get
the sreenbacks when his creditor and every
BODY else knew that the bond was conVcrti-
BILE into greenbacks at the pleasure OF the
holder. Again: The whole Of the currency
might for the same reason be converted into
Understanding bonds. The banks OF New
York have millions oil dollars OF currency
lying idle almost constantly. Ii the bonds
could be used as currency, as they could IN
New York city, even il they were all one
thousand-dollar bonds, the banks OF that
city would never again keep thousand dol
lars Of idle money in their safes. However,
the scheme is so far superior to the quack
remedies for hard times prescribed by the
ereeDback lunaticS, that it will not now
evoke much discussion. IL the scheme were
adopted, and the bonds kept always at par,
the greenbacks would necessarily be there
by kept at Or near par, one would think
Hence we cannot imagine what Green
hacker can find in this scheme which meets
his appreciation, seeing that it is hard
money scheme to all intents and purposes.
It is plan for providing currency re-
deemable in COMA currency convertible
into coin on demand. The bonds are to be
convertible into coin en- demand, and the
greenbacks are to be convertible into bonds
on demand. 1t is too soon, however. to
attach any Importance to the question as to
who originated this scheme.
Mr.. HUNTER is an old man, and has proba-
bly, not very go Cd memory. Otherwise ne
could not fail to recollect that Mr.. SHERMAN
when in the Senate advocated scheme for
keeping the greenbacks at par by making
them convertible into bonds which were
worth their face in golG-five per cents
sthen, we suppose. He did not, however,
propose to make the bonds recoverable
into grecnbacks, we think. So that his was
not an interconvertible scheme, but pro-
vided for only one conversions fact which
we distinctly stated in the Dispatch on the
day following that in which we made the
two statements which Mr.. HUNTER, for
some rcasonunknownt to us, attributes to san
anonymous correspondent Mr. HUNTER
can easily learn from Mir. DOUGLAS and Mr..
SHERMAN, with both OF whom he is we'll ac-
quainted, whether our statements went be-
yond the facts. We do not wish to make
any harsh remarks concerning him.
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