Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-02-26
The Gfeenbackers.

plstform, which may be found elsewher,
in this paper. Though the body sly lee
itself national convention, fourteen
States were unrepresented In 1t, aud th'
bulk of the representatives present APP
pears to have come from few of the cen
trail States. Two persons from Maine
participated in the proceedings, but none
from New Hampshire OF Vermont.
An examination f the platform revea IS
nothing that is new in regard to the ideas
and purposes of the greenbackers. They
appear to believe that Congress has the
power to so order things in this country
THAT every man and woman may, by
their own efforts. secure a competence.
They expect the government to regulate
and control everything. 1t must coin and
create money, and this money, whether
of metal or paper, must be a full legal
tender for all debts and dues OF all kinds,
and Congress" So the platform says,
"shall provide said money adequate to the
full employment of labor, the equitable
distribution of its products, and the re-
ouirements OF business, fixing a minimum
amount per capita of the population as
near rs NAV he, and otherwise regulating
its value by wise and equitable provisions
of law. so that the rate of interest will Sc
cure to labor its just reward.
Are we 10 understand by this that when
there is a scarcity n employment Con-
eress must issue fresh batch OF green
backs or when there is a hitch in the dis
tribuli0n of products or the requirements
of business that the government has on
ly to send out more greenbacks to make
things work smoothly? Then how is the
per capita amount of currency necessary
TO be issued to be ascerained and fixed by
wise aud equitable provisions of law ?"
II is very easy TO resolve in convention
that this shall be done, but how to do it is
the question that no man in this or any
other country can answer satisfactorily.
Prof. Sumner, in his History OF Ameri-
can Currency" while remarking that the
amount of currency is relative to the re-
quirements of the country for the purpose
OF performing its exchanges, says What
the recruitment is. hewever. no man can
tell. There is no rule for finding it. 1t
does not depend on population, or wealth,
or the amount of exchanges. 1t bears no
fixed relation to any known or ascertaina-
BILE quantity. An agricultural country
wants more, for the same population and
wealth, than manufacturing country. A
sparsely populated country wants more,
other things being equal, than densely
populated one. A country in which the
means of communication are poor wants
more, other things being equal than Il
country with good means OF communica-
ton. 1t is idle to attempt to compute il
at so much per head, or so much per
thousand of wealth"
If the issuing of inconvertlbe paper
money in large quantities were an excel
lent thing we ought to know it, for exam
pies OF that kind are numerous yet there
Is not one that does not tell OF disaster and
failure as the result. We would like 10
see all labor well paid, aud everybody in
comfortable circumstances, but the ISSUING
of paper promises to pay in unlimited
quantities will never bring one solid COM
fort to the poor man, add nothing to his
means to purchase commodities. The
Confederate States ought to have been a
Paradise II an abundance Of paper money
were blessing, but the quantity of such
money it took to buy IA man dinner was
enormous. In 1886, there was paper
money party in Rhode Island. which car
ried the election that year, and began TO
carry out their ideas in the colony. The
bills, however, that were issued, depre-
ciated at once. Merchants refused to deal
and closed their shops and farmers retail
lated by refusing 10 bring produce TO the
cities. The paper money men attempted
by stringent Legislation to force their
measures, but only made matters worse.
Lawsuits multiplied aud disorder reigned.
Men who came TO court in the spring of
1887 for the redemption OF mortgaged es.
tates came prepared with paper money in
handkerchieis and pillow-cases to redeem
their lands, but even then the Judges
would not recognize the money as legal
tender, and four judges were removed by
the Assembly for declaring the legal ten
der act unconstitutional. In 1889 the
legal tender act was suspended, and then
the depreciation of the paper was legally
fixed at eighteen for one. All the other
colonies suffered in like manner AS Rhode
Island by paper money. We have only
to scan the history of our own country to
learn that paper money not based upon
specie is deluslon, no matter who are its
advocates, or how plausible the arguments
10 It's favor. Daniel Webster said of il !.
1--WE have suffered more from this cause
than every other cause or calamity. 1t
has killed more men, peryaded and cor
rupted the choicest interests of our coun.
try more, and done more Injustice than
even the arms and articles of our enemy.'