Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-10-24

their circul ltion, and you must pay youl
Indebtedness. And the effect oil that i,
twofold. First, to make q very sharp de
Inand for money. You have circulation o
less than 500, o00, 900 of paper, and yol
would want, within ninety days, to NEE
your bank notes nearly one half. But /
you succeed in that, as you probably would
| and you would have to at some cost wheI
you have taken up your notes and giveI
| the banks theirs, your circulation would b,
short just 1922, 900, 900, would it not? Oh
no, they say, it would not be short, becaus,
the greenbaeks would take their place
How would that be? The greenbacks coul,
po.siDiy De printed IN ninety days. But t,
| print them is one thing-to
GET THEM INTO CIRCULATION
is another. They would not be pitched ou
OF the treasury windows for you and | to &c
and help ourselves. You could not borrow
them. The United States does not lenc
money-does not lend even its notes. and
you would not trust the United States IL
make loans. You used to trust your state
| believe to loan on real estate You have
not gotit all back yet, have YOU? laugh.
teri You are not likely to cry it again in
this state, and you never will try il with The
governme ut of the United States. There is
but one way to get that money into eircula-
tonic pay it ous. Pay it out TO whom
To tn cfedi ors of the government? Who
ais .neyf 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 q
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, if
you meet with no head winds. you would
get out the whole 1922, 600, 900, and so fill
the vacuum. But there would be sharp
contraction all that time, would there not?
We are told, at least, that we are
suffering because of the retirement of $44,-
00O,JOO twelve years ago. And yet you
are invited TO put upon the statute
book a command which would throw hun
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 / 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
market for it. would go to pay my note.
Ny creditor would say: al 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, | have nothing else to pay. 'Very
well, then, / shall sue you" There is a law.
suit.
MYRIAD OF LAW SUITS
all over the country. The same contest
arises everywhere. The lawyers have a
glorious time. You and / don't have so
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, 600, 900 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 a 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
men, eminent as lawyers, eminent as jurists,
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 it's
members, affirmed the constltutionality of
the act. But there is nothing in that de-
cision authorizing you and me to in er that
the same court would ever affirm the consti-
nationality of q 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
in coin, aud had this paper, could pay that
debt with this paper. But would that gel
it into circulation? Whether you could
circulate it, and how you could circulate it.
depends very much less on your statutes
than upon the temper of the business men
of the country. You
MIGHT BE ABLE TO PAY A DEBT ONCE
with paper would be, il the court said il
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 a 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 il 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 as little as they said;
and you and your business would be
AT THE MERCY OF THosE GENTLEMEN
every day of the year. You know that al
though the present legal tender circulation
of the country was issued in the form of
promise-the promise of your government,
your government and mine-when it was
intended to be paid, and everybody be-
lieved, if the government lived, it would be
paid, yet we know that currency went
down at one time until it took $2S5 of it to
Guy 800 of coin? What do you think they