Litchfield enquirer., 1878-10-10
"Greenhack Ethics. "


 correspondent, under the foregoing title. We take pleasure in printing so candid statement of views on the Greenback question, though diametrically opposed to our own. The En- quirer is an independent and not party pa- per, and is always glad to be set right by Re publican. Democrat or Greenbacker who con- ceives that we have fallen into error in fact or opinion. We think also that every one who has found it necessary to make such corTec- tions will acknowledge that he has been treat- ed fairly and courteously and that we have never taken advantage of what a lawyer would term the editors ''closing turn" to abuse, belit- tie, or misrepresent candid and courteous op- ponents.
 Our difference with 'tE. w. B." will not be so much regarding the facts themselves as re- garding the inferences to be drawn from those facts. We shall, however, take issue with a few of his facts, particularly as regards the supposed connection between financial crashes and coin currency. In the first place, we never heard of a national paper currency that did not promise payment in gold at fixed rates, or at least in some valuable article. The as- signat of the French Revolution promised pay ment in land. The continental currency and the greenback currency promised payment in coin. The value of the promise of govern ment, like that of an individual, depends upon it's ability or it's willingness to pay. The prom ises of the old French Republic became worth less because of their manifest inability to pay. The promises of certain States of this Union have proved worthless, recently and of old, because of the unwillingness of those states to redeem those promises Experience has al- ways shown that currency based on nothing is worth nothing The proposed ''fat" dollar is based on nothing. An entirely solvent gov ernment-willing and fulIya to perform its promises-can indeed issue.a paper currency that will be. as valuable as the coin it promises to pay. Its agreement to pay coin contain ing 212 troy ounces of silver, in redemption of certain paper on due presentation thereof, would make that paper worth as much as the coin. A proper order of the Selectmen of Litchfeld, ordering it's Treasurer to pay the bearer one dollar, makes that bit of paper worth one dollar-because Litchfield is a town that is abundantly able and willing to pay it's debts. Suppose our selectmen, however, were to cause to be printed on various bits of paper, ''This is Dollar" 'This is Horse," "This is Barrel of Flour" what would such bits of paper be worth9 People would simply re- mark that the selectmen of Litchfield had gone crazy. Can Congress give money value to bits of paper the government is never expect cd to redeem in coin, or in some other article of intrinsic value ? The government of Amer ica can no more make bit of paper worth as much as 212 grains of silver than they can make the sun go around the earth, unless by promise of the direct or indirect redemption of that paper is something of the same intrinsic value as 212 grains of silver. A ''fat" dollar would be worth nothing unless upon the ex, pectatiOn that, at some future time, Congress would come to it's senses and redeem it in gold CT silver coin. When E. w. B. refers therefore, to the practical working of currency founded upon ''full and unlimited greenback basis' (meaning as we suppose, a fiat" crrrency) as something somewhere in existence, we simply ask him to show where, in any civilized coun- try, such a currency has ever existed.
 Nor dees it strike us as reasonable to attrib- ute the repeated financial crashes that have oc- cured in this or in other countries to ''eon- fractions" of the currency. Take the English case of '23 for instance. During the long war with Napoleon there was temporary prosperity because there was an immense outlay of public money. After the war was over, the opening of new markett in Europe gave England another period of prosperity. At last, howev- CT, the inevitable reaction set in. A crash fol- lowed which cannot be attributed to any con- traction of the currency but to over-production and speculation in business.
 Can any reasonable and intelligent person attribute our hard times to any contraction of the currency There has certainly been no contraction of the greenback currency and, if the bank note currency has contracted, it has been because less currency was needed by the crippled business interests of the country. What occasiOned the crash of 1873 was the in- vestment of hundreds of millions in railroad and other enterprises that did not prove re- munerative, and the over-production of our manufactures. These financial crises are in any change in the volume of the curren- rency, but by unwise business ventures. It is absurd to suppose that our thousands of miles of unproductive railroads and our thou sands of unprOductive manufacturin estab- lishments can be made productive by ''fat" or any other currency.
 In calling the legal tender desperate war shift" we merely adopt the view of the U. S. Supreme Court. For one we sincerely regret that So dangerous measure was ever adopted even as war necessity. Our objection, be i, understood, is to the irredeemable, not to be a redeemable greenback.
 k. w. E. compares the outpouring of exports by the hundred millions to the desperate act of the farmer who sells off stock, and farming tools, and finally his farm tself to raise money, We must confess that we see no evidence of any such desperation, but of reviving prosper ity in the mOoving of our immense surplus of wheat and cotton and other products abroad We look upon imitation, in fact, as sort of national bankruptcy. It is a declaration, if justifiable at all, that as people we owe more than we can pay, and that all the creditor must expect of his debtor is a dividend of 90 ne sort of fiat dollar-wCrth perhaps 50 cents in gold-in place of the coin dollars really due. Such an act would seem to us as unwise as ii would be dishonest.
 The Democratic nominee for Congress in this District is said to be aman of good reputa tion and fair ability. He has served in tho State Senate, and in the convention, last week announced himself hard money man. The Courant remarks in reference to this nomina tinn ssIf fhn ra.,nlAicans non,;nnto O sA.c,as