Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-08-13
The Greenbaek Party and the Currency.

the murQer OF DuckWOrtn.
The Greenback Party and the Currency.
Among the many financial issues up
on which the future elections in this
country seem likely to turn, there is
none of greater importance than the
difference between the advocates of pa
paper money, 1. e. those who argue that
the currency Should be issued exclusive
~ by the government, or, in other
words, should be 'greenbacks" entirely,
and those who favor a continuance of
the present system of National bank
notes, based upon a deposit of govern
ment bonds.
This question is an important one,
from the fact that it has already been
made feature in the platform of the
new party, the National Greenback
Labor Party" as it Is called.
Men of the most opposite views upon
the general subject of the volume of
currency and the convertlbility of pa
peSmeney, may yet agree in the adj
vocacy of greenbacks in preference to
bank notes as circulating medium, or
vice versa. It is very different ques-
ton from that of unlimited greenbacks
or irredeemable paper money. That
paper money of some kind we must
have themest extreme advocates of hard
money will be forced to concede.
A currency that is portable and con-
venient for large amounts as well as
small is one of the necessary instru-
ments not only of modern commerce,
but of everyday life in the ordinary
transactions of buying and selling, shop
ping and marketing. The popular pref
erence for paper, on account of it's greater
convenience, wherever its value Is as
sured, has been curiously illustrated by
the fact that since the decline in the
dollar, equally with the gold dollar it
self, obstinately refuses to come into
circulation. 1t stays in the vaults of
the treasury, and will neither he forced
nor coaxed into the pockets and purse
of the people, for the simple reason that
the people don't want it.
Not only, however, must we have .
paper money, but despite the theories
of those able writers who tell us that
no paper currency is safe which is based,
dollar for dollar, upon an equal amount
of specie held in reserve for its redemp-
ton, the probabilities are that We shall
need and have paper currency in vol
ume exceeding such reserve, and, there
fore, based in part at least upon credit.
Formerly, before the war, that paper
currency was furnished by the State
banks, which were in number legion,
and good deal of it was intrinsically
worthless, and much of it only circula-
ted at heavy discount. 1t may be
Eravely doubted whether any return to
the old system of State banks of issue,
the days of wildcat" and "red-dog'
currency, is either practicable or desira-
BILE. y
The war and the changes it has
wrought in peoples ideas and habits
have accustomed the country and the
business community to look to the gov
eminent, directly or indirectly, for their
supplies Of paper currency, and for the
credit which is necessary to give such
currency volume and circulation. The
contest which has arisen, and which
seems likely to grow in magnitude and
interest, Is whether that currency shall.
be greenbacks or national bank notes.
The new party, which borrows part Of
Its composite title from its distinctive
views upon this question, boldly starts
out with an appeal for the abolition Of
the national banks and the substitution
for their notes of the legal tenders of the
government. In several of the Western
States democrats and republicans. who
earnestly antagonize the new party
upon other points, seem disposed to
give in to its demands upon this. The
question will undoubtedly loom up in
the congressional elections, and it may
challenge the attention of the presiden-
tial platform makers of all parties in
1880. :.
In the discussion of the question upon
its merits, as between the kinds of cur
rency, sight must be lost of the legal and
question involved as to
the power of the gouerment to issue legal
tenders in time of peace. The decisions
of the Supreme Court which sustain the
legality of the existing outstanding legal
Issues of the government have not gone
further than to uphold them as legiti-
mate exercise of the war-making power,
the power to raise and equip armies and
10 borrow money for the purpose. The
legal tenders were in the natureof forced
bans. The government borrowed
from the citizen what is required for the
public service, and gave him in return
ts promise to pay, and the greatness of
he emergency and the plea Of necessity
with the majority of the
'ourt the justification for jts action. IT.