Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-08-14

Gin coin, and shall also be lawful money and q
illegal tender in payment Of all debts, public and
"prvate, within the United States, except duties
ION imports and interest rs aforesaid"
An enactment requiring persons to sell goods at
Fixed price 10 paper money. and afiiying penal
ties to the acts of those who refuse PAPER, who
make different price when coin is the medium of
payment, 10 the last resort of desperation and
tyranny. 1t was one of the exped ients OF some of
the American colonies in the frat half of the
eighteenth century, and the French adopted it
subse lently to give forced value TO their assign
ats, but it has always failed in every case where
il has been tried. Unless the papel-money cisze
has gone deeper than we think it has, such an eS-
pedleut as this will not even be suggested in this
country. Without 1t all that is necessary to draw
the fangs of the paper money seipent--to
plagiauze from Kearney-is that all persons hsv-
ing anything TO sell shall act for their own inter-
est, and refuse to receive any money which threat
ems to depreciate, to allow any debts TO be
traced that may be paid in deprecated money
1t i, the simplest thing in the world. Our neigh
bors 10 Canada have been accustomed ever since
the suspension of specie payments in this country
to practice the principle Go into a store in
Montreal and you will fad two prices for goods,
one for Canadian money, the other for greenbacks,
the value of the latter being estimsted at a frsc-
ton below the current vslu- 10 New York 1t is
inevitable that some such plan as this must be
adopted as between gold aud silver dollars if the
two kinds of money should get into circulation
together. one is as good as the other to pay
debts, but their real value is different, and the
difference will be considered in the purchase and
sale of goods and in all the ordinary basiness
transactions of life in the way, and for pre-
cisely the same reason, that distinction has been
made for the last sixteen wears between gold and
paper.
Where our grcenback wanderers from the d.
rect path al fault, is in supposng that what is
as good gold for the payment Of debt must be
as good gold { the purchase of provisions.
They complain that the legs-tender quality of the
gre, nback Is limited, but 1t Is ouly limited in
class OF tran. actions between the government and
The peope. la 1890, Massachusetts, issued sper
money which read, This IndeDted Bill of (twen
"iy shllnss 81 De from tue Province of the Mas
"sachusttts Bay 10 New England to the Possessol
"thereof shall be in value equal to Money And
"Shs be accol DINGHY accepted by the Treasurer
"a0d Receiver Subordinate 10 hin in all publick
payment and for any stock at any time IN the
"Iteasuiy." This was what was known as the
"od tenor" In 1897, owing to the great depreca-
ton of this fiat mOney,--it then took 26 shll
lings of paper money 10 buy one ounce of silver,
IA depreciation OF about four to one,-issued
b. Is in new form, in VIII he phraseology OF
the concluding part OF The bill was changed. The
hill was To be received by the Treasurer aud his
subordiLstes "ln all payments Ohe duties of I'm
port aud Iunnage OF shIpprg and incomes of
1.-The Light House only excepted" etc. Our
furefathers tried (but faed) to bring up the value
OF their paper by adopting The very expedient
which the gIeentsckers OF to-day condemn as de
prcclatipg paper money. The transactions
with the government are but a miserable fraction
of the business of the country. The weekly
clearings of the New York banks are a hundred
million dollars 10 excess of the entire annual re-
ceIpts of the national government. 1t is not
what government receives money, but what is
accepted by merchants and bankers, that decides
the value of the currency. What, therefore, the
people really need whe her they ask for 1t or not,
j. money that will he of stable value al the gro
Gerry, the dry goods store and the shoe shop. If
they demand cheap money 10 use 10 paying their
debts, they will only discover that after they have
paid The higher prices for the cost of living, 10th
my will be left to 20 toward their Indebtedness.