The Portland daily press., 1878-08-23
New York Herald
Greenback FalIacies,
Contraction No Cause of Hard Times
The Country Richer md Growing More
SO Folly to Think that Imitation Would
Eeneft Anyone.

The voters in this country who incline to
support the Greenback-labor party do so on
these grounds: they see that industry and
trade are PROSTATE; they would like to see the
country once more on the high wave of pros
perity; they have been told that severe and
pinchiDg contraction of the currency caused
the collapse of 1873 and the prostraton which
followed; aud they believe that, in some way,
they know not how, new and great inf alton
OF the currency would give us a new period of
good times.
Now. if they are right in their conclusions
and belief. we should agree with them and cup
port the Greenback labor party. If they are
wrong, however, they are in the position of q
physician who, when called in to treat very
serious case of disease, should mistake its
nature and give the wrong remedies. He
would iDjure the patient and not help him.
Where the sick man is big country like this
1t becomes grave matter to offer prescriptions,
and we have at least right to require that the
doctor who presses his medicine upon US shall
understand the disease.
I. Nvwit is
GREENBACK LABOR FALLAcY
to assert that great contraction of the cure n
cy has caused the collapse and hard times
There has been. in fact, no such great contrac-
ton. Oficial. l.statistics show that the amount
OF paper money out, exclusive of interest-bear-
ing notes, which cannot properly be counted,
because they very rapidly disappeared from cir
culation, was greatest in 1874, after the panic
and collapse of 1873; that, therefore, the great
est amOunt of in ati
not prevent or cure a collapse or panic, but, as
we hold, was one of its main causes The total
paper circulation, exclusive of nterest-bearing
notes. was. in 1870. $685. 000, 900; in 1871, $716-
000.0O0 in 1872, $737, 100000; in 1873, the year
when the paoic and depression began, $780,
goo, 1000; in 1874. $7S3. 100000; in 1875, S773-
OOO,0 900. In 1873, the present year, when for
the hrst time there are real signs of an indus
trial revival-slow, but apparently sure-and
on sound basis, the circulation is within a few
millions of the year 1870 1858 ,O0O, ,OOO), and
when the honest greenback-labor man looks
back with sigh TO the good times of 1870, he
should understand that the country has now
substantially the sa me amount of circulating
medium as then; and when he is told by some
quack like Ewing or Gary that what is needed
is more currency, he ought to reply by point
ing to the fact that it was precifely when the
greenbacks were most abundant that the big
panic broke. But he ought to add, for the in
formation of the quacks who are misleading
d
the same volume as in the prosperous year
1870, its value reckoned in gold, has greatly ap-
preciated, and if we count in gold there was
but 1900 900 worth of paper 10 circulation
in 1870, against 1884 100000 worth 10 the pre-
sent year.
III. 1t is
ANOTHER GREENBACK FALLACY
that the country is poor If it were really
poor, surely no one is so absurd as to say that
the printing of great quantities of paper prom
ises could make it rich. 1t is not the amount
OF notes farmer or merchant has out which
makes him rich man, but the amount of grain
or cattle or merchandise he owns, and the
country is in this respect like the individual.
In fact, however, the country is not poor. 1t has
had succession of great crops; it produces, as
oticial statistics show, more cotton and woolen
goods, more iron, more coal. more products of
all kinds this year than in 1870, which was the
year OF model prosperity to which the Green
back-lsbor man always refers. In fact the
American people are so iogenious and industr-
Gus that in many and perhaps most branches
Of industry they produce more than they can
themselves use. But "plices are low" is the
general complaint; and so they are, to the
great comfort OF everybody who consumes.
Ill. It's is Greenback-labor fallacy that
IRREDEEMABLE PAPER
and plenty of it is good for the working
men. On this head the history of the years
1868 and 1875 ought to be enough to warn
the wOrkingmen. Citizsn Schwab summed
up that experience SO well the other day
that we cannot do better than repeat what
he said. A new initiation of the currency
would give the speculator new chance,
perhaps; it would make tAe fortunes of mer-