The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-09-03

cotton cloth, exchange it for two potatoes +?
The Government could only dispose of its
surplus potatoes at their value for food. 1t
could only get their real worth.
So with the silver dollars. After the sup.
ply of those coined comes to exceed the sums
needed for the payment of duties they will
sink to their bullion value. They have
Fictitious value now, as the demand notes,
which the Greenbackers so frequently men,
tion, had. The notes of the veriest bankrupt
in the country would, under similar circum.
stances, have as great value. Suppose man
owed million dollars. Suppose that half
this debt, the evidences of which were
printed on green paper, could be collected,
and the other hall, printed on white paper,
could not. Would there not be an eager de-
mand for the green notes, aud would they
not be worth their face? Would not any
creditor be glad 20 get hold of them? But it
the whole amount was in green notes and
the assets of the debtor only half-a-million,
what would be the value of the notes? Or
suppose man owed thousand dollars, and
had his notes out for that amount but had
nothing more except thousand dollars
owed him, Would not his debtors be ready
to take those notes in payment of services
and then discharge their debts with them?
But if he owed two thousand and could :col-
lect but one what would his notes be worth?
That is the case with the Government.
As long as it issues notes limited in
amount to the taxes it collects those
notes may be worth their face. But
when it exceeds that limit what are the
notes worth? The idea of jefferson, 50
often quoted by the Greenbackers, 'Htreasury
notes bottomed on taxes" is this plan and
nothing more. But when the notes ex-
ceed the taxes, unless it is believed they will
be paid in some commodity equal to their
nominal value, they will be worth nothing.
The Greenbackers propose issuing billion
more, at least, of greenbacks. In order to
keep those notes good we must impose a
billion more taxes, increase the government
expenses that amount. How do the people
like that prospect? Do they care to be taxed
billion morea They must part with some
thing valuable in order to get these notes.
The whole expense eventually falls upon
them.
1t is true that the legal-tender silver dollar
passes for more than the trade dollar. So if
the Government should say, "We will take
the five cent nickel in discharge of five dollars
worth of taxes, but we will not take five
trade dollars" the nickels, were they limited
in amount to the taxes levied, would very
likely pass for more than the trade dollars.
But how would it be if the supply exceeded
the demand? Would the trader then sell a
barrel of flour for five nickeIs? Would he
sell twenty-five pounds Of coffee for five
nickels, knowing that it would take at least a
hundred nickels to buy another twenty-five
pounds to replenish his stock? Suppose the
Government collected its taxes in bushels Of
corn, and said Gin the payment Of taxes you
must use my bushels, containing only three
pecks each." Would not three pecks be as
good as four for the man who had taxes to
pay? But would the man who wanted corn
to grind into meal give as much for three
pecks as for four? Would the surplus after
the taxes are paid, command more than its
real worth? The case of the trade and the
legal.tender silver dollar is analogous.
But there is this advantage that the silver
dollar possesses over the irfedeemable "abso
lutte" paper dollar proposed by the Green
hackers. There is in each silver legal-tendel
dollar coined eighty-eight cents of meta
worth that to-day in the markets of the
world. In the paper dollar there is scarcely
cents worth of paper. The present superb
ority in current value of the legal-tender dol
lar over tfie trade dofIar sfmpay Shows the at,
surdity of the claim that'a Government can
beyond very limited extent, confer value b,
its stamp. As long as the number of legal
tender dollars does not exceed the amount o
taxes to be paid they may be receivable at on,
hundred cents. But when that limit il
passed they will sink to their bullion or en-
trinsc value.