Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-11-06

giving You greenbacks instead. He would
hardly do that. The banks must call in
their circul Ition, and you must pay your
Indebtedness. And the effect OF that is
twofeld. First. to make . very sharp de.
mand for money. You have circulation of
less than sex, 000, 900 of paper, and you
would want, within ninety DAYS. to meet
your bank notes nearly one half. But if
you succeed in that, as you probably would,
and you would have to at some cost, when
You have taken up your notes and given
the banks theirs, your circulation would be
short Just $685., O0O, 900, would it not? Oh,
NO, they say, it would not be short, because
the greenbacks would take their place.
How would that be? The greenbacks could
possibly be printed in ninety days. But to
print them is one thing-to
GET THEM INTO CIRCULATION
is another. They would not be pitched out
of the treasury windows for you and to go
and help ourselves. You could not borrow
them. The United States does not lend
money-does not lend even its notes, and
you would not trust the United States to
make loans. You used 70 trust your state,
believe to loan on real estate. You have
not gotit all back yet, have you? Laugh
ter You are not likely to try it again in
this state, and you never will try it with the
GOVERNMENT of the United States. There is
but one way to get that money into circula-
tion-to pay it ou.. Pay it out to whom
To the creditors of the government? Who
are they? Your mail contractors, and your
other contractors, and your postmasters and
your collectors of customs, and your sena-
tors and representatives, and those who
have salaries, that they must take in what
ever the government sees fit to pay them in.
There are certain creditors you owe that
you
CANNOT PAY IN THAT WAY,
your consuls and your foreign ministers,
who are serving abroad, where your notes
of hand are not current. You must pay
them, and always have paid them, in coin
and you have certain bonds outstanding,
the interest of which, twice or four times a
years as the case may be, must be paid in
coin. But you have to disburse something
like ninety or a hdndred millions which
could be disbursed in these notes, and, you
see, in the course of two or three years, il
you meet with no head winds. you would
get out the whole 1922 ,OOO, 600, and SO fill
the vacuum. But there would be a sharp
contraction all that time, would there not?
We are told, at least, that we are
suffering because of the retirement of $44,-
00O, 900 twelve years ago. And yet you
are invited to put upon the statute
dreds of millions out of circulation at once,
which could not be replaced in long. long
time. But after this currency had got out
of the treasury would it be in circulation?
After your postmaster has got his quarterly
installment, and l have got my monthly in
stallment, we would want to do something
with it. would want to pay my note to
the bank, perhaps; would want to buy
some meat or grain, and would go to the
I-o< T 60
My creditor would say: AZ don't want this
paper" Well, but you must take it. it is
legal tender. /" don't believe it is a good
legal tender; won't take it anyway" Very
well, l have nothing else to pay. every
well, then, I shall sue you" There is law
suit
A MYRIAD OF Law SUITS
all over the country. The same contest
arises everywhere. The lawyers have q
good time. This new currency don't cir
culate, you see. There is a terrible stagna-
ton. All these suits are commenced and
the country stands gaping to know how the
great controversy will be decided. Com
menced perhaps, in Justices courts, perhaps
in Circuit Courts ; in the course of years it
gets in the court of last resort and there it is
decided one way or the other. The court
will say that it is good tender or that it is
not Suppose they say that it is not good
tender. There are 1922, OOO, 600 of this paper
in your pockets worthless, denounced by
the courts, repudiated by the business of
the country and you have nothing to do but
STEP UP AND PAY YOUR COSTS.
Suppose they say that it is q good tender.
What the court will say, am not going to
predict. l am going to remind you of this,
hOwever-that when we did issue the first
legal tender, many men. eminent as states
v -
utterly denied that congress had any au-
thority to do it. The Supreme Court once
decided that no such authority existed, but
finally another court, when the bench was
full and some changes had taken place in its
members, affirmed the constitutionality OF
the act. But there is nothing in that de-
cision authorizing you and me to infer that
the same court would ever affirm the consti-
nationality of a similar act passed in time of
peace. That act was passed in time of war.
Take your chances, as to what the court
would say as to the validity of this act
passed in time of peace. But suppose they
affirmed the validity of the act Why, then
these debts would bep AID, and any OF you
who owed debt, not payable specifically
in coin, and had this paper, could pay that
debt with this paper. But would that get
it into circulation? Whether you could
circulate it, and how you could circulate it,
uepe0uB very muCu lcSS w yOUI osoSutCS
than upon the temper of the business men
of the country. You
MIGHT BE ABLE TO PAY A DEBT ONCE
with paper-would be, if the court said it
was legal. But if the community continued
hostile to it, would you ever be able to con-
tract another debt. which could be paid in
that paper? When you want to buy . bar.
rel of pork or . web of sheeting, the seller
knowing that you intend to pay in that
paper, how would the negotiation be con-
Quoted? Do you think he would sell to
you as freely as if he knew that you were
going to pay him in coin. or that which
could be converted into coin. As it was a
legal tender for debt, it would be worth
something. How much would it be worth
From time to time it would be worth just so
much as those daily conventions of enter
prising gentlemen, known as the gold
boards, in your great money markets al
lowed it to be worth. When they wanted
to bear gold, paper would be worth consid-
cradle; when they wanted to bear paper, it
would be worth just Is little as they said;