Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-07-11


strikes, in the first place, every dis
cerning person who reads the Missouri
platform, which we simply select as an
example of the tone OF the absolute
money people throughout the country
that it eontradicts itself. An absolute
greenback is amisapprehension of term:
for the greenback is Treasury note
promising to pay so much money in
coin and depending for its value and
purchasing power upon the popular
faith in the performance of that
promise. But the absolute" scrip is
simply something which is called sc
many dollars, and it is not a note or 9
guarantee to pay anything at any time
to the holder. How Congress can
make the irredeemable paper "equiv-
alent to gold or silver" when it is
never to be redeemed in coin, and the
metal currency is to be totally eliminat.
ed and banished as relic of barbarism,
is something that passes the ordinary
comprehension. 1t would. be as re-
asonable to talk of establishing value
for the cowrie shells of Africa or the
wampum currency of the aboriginal
Indians of America.
tortuous paths of fiat" money. What
would these scrip slips with dollar
marks upon them represent? The ac-
cepted definition of dollar is minted
piece of gold or silver of fixed weight,
or paper promise to pay that piece OF
precious metal. But if we throw aside
the coin measurement, what idea OF
value will attach to one of these frag-
ments of printed paper? How Can one
denomination be worth more than
another in the way of eXchangeable
value? When farmer, for instance,
sells certain quantity of grain and
gets his pay in gold, silver, greenbacks
or national bank notes he knows that
the recompense is d substantial one.
He has in his pocket either the coin or
the redeemable paper based upon it.
But if he disposes of the same quantity
of bis produce and is paid with bit of
paper stamped, let US say, one hundred
dollars, can he possibly tell what he
makes or loses by the trade? That
little slip may be forcible legal tender,
but it is not measured by any tangible
thing. His grocer may demand it of
him for pound of sugar, for its only
worth is sentimental and subject to the
widest fluctuations. Intrinsically it is
good for nothing. What reason is
there for suppOsing that a slip of pa
per with the sign 81, 900 printed there>
upon will purchase more clothing or
food than similar scrap of paper
stamped with $50 or any other figure
No matter how we argue around it, we
return to the same difficulty, that no
known standard of value can be appli-
ed to the proposed absolute" money.
1t has no intrinsic or commodity
worth, and its use in barter is purely
subject to individual dictatio1. A slip
printed with the figures 81 900 is worth
no more property and is redeemable in
no more value than slip bearing the
$40 legend, because the mark of the
dollar conveys nothing substantial,
and is entirely arbitrary. To explode
the hallucination regarding stamped
paper, let us suppose that the Govern.
ment should take as much copper as
there is i'll the old pennies and pass it
through the fifty cent die. Does any
body imagine that its purchasing pow
er would be any greater than that of
the cent? And yet that would be
legitimate fiat money.
But this is not ali. The patent pa
per scrip would inevitably establish a
new relstion'of its own to commodities.
The alleged dollar might buy pound
of meat one week and ounce the next.
Naturally its purchasing efficacy
would continually decrease. The
finance thinkers propose to meet that
difficulty by issuing more and more
of it as it dwindles in value, and as
there is bottom to every descent, it
greater account than waste paper. bow
can prices be fixed in such money,
when one piece of irredeeinable scrip
is intrinsically worth no more than
another? Even if it be said that it
will be legal-tender in the payment
of debts and taxes, and thus some
value will attach to it, the reply is that
nobody will sell property on credit to
be paid in such currency; no debts will
be made payable in that kind of paper,
and no government can be maintained
on revenues of that worthless sort.
Nobody would serve the Government
or sell supplies to it and take such
valueless stuff in payment. OF course,
the currency having no worth, and
the products of mechanics and agricul.
ture being actually valuable, we would
be compelled to adopt a general system
of barter. Instead of rendering money
for commodities, one product would be
traded for another. The legal.tender
Office of the currency would be
supplanted by method of special
contracts for the payment of debts in
products, or in silver and gold. 1t
would, in fact, be retrogression to the
systems Of the rudest nations upon the
fice of the globe. Labor would be re-
compensed in articles of food and wear,
and so.called money would go to the
paper mills. This is the prospect to
which the apostles of this marvellous
financial scheme invite their country
men. 1t is compounded Of ignorance
and demagogism, but unfortunately
those two forces are asserting them
selves with a vigOr of which we cannot
but take note. The effective weapon
to use against them is glimpse into
that future which they are endeavor-
ing to construct.-Balto. American.
Terrible Storm at Pittsburgh.