The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-08-03
An Illustrator paper MONEY:
The Tobacco Journal SAYS:

The Tobacco Journal say '':s' Z
Too MucH TOP Acco. = There ts great room
10 fear that there Is an yer-pfoduction OF
the weed, and that this fact alone tends To-
tmpair the proftahleness OF its culture.
But when, as there is large reason TO appse.
bend. this excessive stimulation OF growth
Is accompanied BY, and probably tho actual
cause OF, the very palpabie depreciation 10
the quality OF the article grown, it Is time
to call q halt.
Here Is lesson for the Greenbackers.
An over.issuc oil. paper money Is no: only
an evil In ieseli, but Ia proportion as tue
quantity OF such currency increases, its
quality purchasing power diminishes. The
same is true OF an over-supply OF tobacco
OF course, as 1t is of cotton or any other
article. II now, instead Of oyer-supplying
the market with genuine tobacco or cotton,
the planters could print pieces OF paper
marked, eThis is one Hundred Pounds OF
Cotton,'' or, "This is One Thousand
Pounds Of Tobacco," and could get Con-
gress to pass law compelling people to ac-
cept these pieces OF printed paper rs cot
ton and tobacco, then, according to; the
theory OF the Greenbackers. there would be
no earthly necessity for cotton or tobacco at
all; for the pieces of paper would be Just
as good cotton and tobacco as the cotton
and tobacco themselves. All the country
has to do, according to them, is to cut loose
from the people OF England and other for
eigncrs who suppose that paper cotton is
not as good as genuine cotton and paper
tobacco not as good as genuine tobacco.
Or suppose we look at the subject in an.
other light. Suppose we make the pieces
OF paper read, "JoHN SMITH will on de-
mand pay One Hundred Pounds OF To-
bacco for this piece Of paper" then the pa
per tobacco (it is Just Us correct to speak OF
paper tobacco as OF paper money would be
worth its face in real tobacco, prouaded the
man who issued it was able and willing 20
redeem 1t according to the promise printed
on the face OF it.
Now this word "provided" tells the
whole story as to paper money. Ii tne 10Y
eminent that issues it il able and willing to
redeem it according to the promise on the
face OF it, it will pass for money, and be as
good as coin. But il not, not 1t is law
of Nature, or, in other words, a law OF COD,
that the paper promise to pay money cannot
be as good as money unless it is redeemable
in money. Paper "dollars +" which are rot
redeemable in dollars OF gold or silver
are to money just what an irredeemable
paper promise to pay pound OF tobacco
would be to a real pound Of tobacco, or, in
other words, what q gallon-measure with
the bottom out of it would be to gallon
measure that would hold the articles to
be measured and it would he Just
as easy to measure milk in pint
Gun having no bottom as to measure the
value of cur tobacco and cotton with cur
rencv which was ssredeemable in nothing"
What would the men in Richmond who
purchase tobacco for foreign markets do
with their tobacco-business II they had TO
use a non.exportable currency at homer
What would the agents OF the French and
the German Governments do? They would
estimate the value OF the irredeemable
ereenbacks in the COINS Of Europe and bid
for the tobacco accordingly. The deluslon
that we can crcumvent the laws OF nature
by printing pieces Of paper and calling
them money is inexcusable. There is no
body outside Of lunatic asylum who ought
not to know better.