The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-08-22
Congress and Greenback.


district that the candidates more prominent
ly in the public mind for Congress should
advance views and advocate policy in re-
lation to national finances so Numerically
opposed to the genuine interest OF the peo-
pie and the substantial prosperity of the
country.
Capt. Paul favors the issuing of two thou
sand millions of greenbacks to pay the
bonded debt of the government.
The repeal of the resumption act.
The repeal of the national bank laws.
The repeal of the internal revenue laws,
and claims that such legislation would in
ure to the welfare of the people. revive in
dustries, and give prosperity to the coun-
try.
He seems to lose sight of the fact that the
issue of an indefinite amount OF greenbacks
would not be adding to the wealth of the
nation, but would be simply representing
debt and the inevitable result would be to
stimulate trade upon false basis, with the
certain result of disastrous revulsions. He
does not seem 10 recognize that the national
bank issues are the representatives OF sur
plus capital-created wealth, and that the
basis OF their circulation is the accumulated
wealth of the enterprise and industry OF the
country. The theory of this greenback
movement is precisely that upon which the
Confederate government issued its ire =
deemable promises to pay-the assumed
wealth of the territory and resources consti-
tuting the Confederate States. Neither
represented recognized, ascertained and ac-
cumulated wealth, but debt-the exhaustion
of the government and its inability to meet
the legitimate demands upon it. The his
tory of the greenback, as we'll as Confeder-
ate money, shows the utter inadequacy of
such currency for The wants of the people
in times Of peace and the substantial growth
of business and national prosperity. AT
one time the greenbacks were rated in the
market at two and half for one of coin,
and unit! the policy of funding them was
adopted, they continued at ruinous de-
probation. We all know the history OF the
Confederate paper and its utter failure to
answer the purpose of currency. Bot
were the ''fiat'' money of the respective
governments-they were redeemable in
nothing, and consequently had no solid
value, nor could there be any security to
business or safety in calculations based upon
such currency. The simple stamp of the
government did not make them money, in
its legitimate sense. They had no substantial
value, and emily served the purpose of cur
rency in the eXigencies of the respective
governments in times when necessities in
vented expedients.
At the time the resumption act was passed
it was deemed best for the nation that the
business of the country should be educated
up to a safe and steady standard of trade
and to do this certain date was fixed when
the currency Of the country, both paper and
coin. would be equal in purchasing power.
Present realization inclnes us to the belief
that probably the same result might have
been accomplished without that legislation,
for we are faced with the fact that tile
government was ready for resumption before
the day fixed by law, and that it is the law
that prevents the accomplished fact. If this
result could have been reached, as we be-
lieve it could have been, without the passage
of the resumption act, then the enemies of
healthy financial system would have had
nothing to strike at, and no excuse for their
clamors about the disasters of contraction
and the ruin of resumption. They would
have to acknowledge that the revuision in
business was the result of excessive eXpan-
sion of credit and reckless speculation, and
that reaction had to come as the logical and
inevitable sequence. Although resumption
has been practically consummated, and the
business Of the country is being rapidly and
surely adaptcdto it, giving security and sta
bility to values of all kinds, and trade and
enterprises of every scription-inspiring
confidence and encouraging legitimate en-
deavor-yet for clamor and sensation,
the law is denounced and its repeal de-
manded. In other words, it sproposed to
reverse the financial policy of the govern
ment, which has reduced the public debt
five hundred millions Of dollars, while it has
lesseneJ the taxes OF the people two hundred
and fifty millions of dollars, advanced the
credit of the nation beyond that of almost
any people on the globe, and brought the
paper currency to par with gold and silver
thus forcing into the channels of trade
over two hundred millions of gold, hereto
fore held for speculative purposes and about
the same amount held in the United States
treasury, and actually giving to the people
more currency than they have ever had be-
fore. 1t is proposed to upturn this entire
policy, to throw the business of the coun
try into chaos, disturb values, and unsettle
all the relations of trade, that the wild no.
tons about irredeemable greenbacks may
become the basis of the commercial transac-
tons of the country! There was never a
more dangerous fallacy lncucated in this
or any other country-one more apt to mis-
lead the thoughtless or more threatening to
the prosperity of the masses.
We have so frequently exposed the fallacy
of the notion about Virginia paying so much
internal revenue tax that it is hardly neces-
sary to repeat it here. 1t is we'll known to
everybody who will think for moment that
the tax on tobacco and whiskey is paid by
the consumer, and the people of Virginia
only pay in proportion as they use tobacco
and whiskey. 1t is a voluntary tax paid
upon ones cwn volition, for his own graft
tication, and for no other conceivable reason.
If Virginia tobacco and whiskey are used in
other States and countries, it is there that
the tax, assumed to be paid by Virginia, is
paid, and not by our own people. The pre-
is that we do not pay over one
twentieth of the seven millions of dollars
off of Virginia tobacco and whis-
key, and all that we do pay is of our own
choice.
Not only was it stated by Capt. Paul that
the taxes of Virginia, including this inter-
nal revenue tax, were twelve millions of dol
lars, but that we only had about three mill
ions to pay thenlwith. This last assertion suf-
ficently answers the first assumption-that
is, hat the people of Virginia pay the in