The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-10-25
FIAT" MISREPRESENTATION.
Troy Chief.


1t is expected that the average fiat
money advocate viii make all manner
OF wild statements, for he does not know
anything about the question, and does
not care what he says ; and facts are not
the things he wants to sustain his doc
tr1ne; but there are some among them
who ought to have better sense.
and have some reputation for fairness,
and they ought to try to stick to facts
Of this number we rank the editor of the
Junction City Tribune; yet, in his last
issue he got off this stuff:
''The first greenback bill was passed
by congress in 1861. 1t authorized the
issue of fifty million dollars full legal
tender United States notes. In Februa-
~, 1862, ten million dollars more were
added to the amount, making in all six
t. million dollars of full legal tender
money, good for all purposes, the same
as gold, including duties and imports
and interest on the public debt. This
money circulated through the entire war
at par with gold, and sometimes above
gold. 1t never sunk below gold at any
time, but was frequently at premium
above gold, on account of its greater
convenience. Now this perfect green
back, as good as gold at all times, is the
greenback that all true greenback men
are in favor of 1t needs no coin re-
demption whatever. 1t is itself better
| than coin, standing on the same CON-
| modify redemption that coin stands on.
In February, 1862, and at various
| times afterward, the issue of greenbacks
was authorized to the aggregate amount
of four hundred million of dollars, which
were not full legal tender. They were
not receivable for duties on imports nor
for interest on the public debt; and still
later laws were passed preventing their
use in payment of the principal of the
public debt. These disabilities attaching
to this money caused it to rank below
gold in the money market; sometimes
as low as forty cents on the dollar as
compared with the full legal tender
notes and with gold.
Now the true greenback men propose
to remove these disabilities of the green
back, making it full legal tender for all
purposes, and thus make it as good or
better than gold. The hard money sham
greenbackers propose to continue the
disabilities, and then to prop the Grip
pied money with gold redemption"
Now, the editor of the Tribune knows
that he is misrepresenting the question.
Those first $6O,OO0OOO of greenbacks
were called demand notes, and were pay
| able in gold, on demand. This was what
made them on q par with gold. The le-
gal tender notes spoken of were the sub,
sequent issue of $400,0OO,OOO. Every
dollar of them promised that the United
States would pay, yet they went far be
low par, and kept there until recently
These facts at once knock the Tribune's
arguments in the head. If the govern
ment's promise to pay on demand made
paper as good as gold, and the promise
| to pay at some indefinite time in the flu
ture sent them away below par, what
| would paper be worth that the govern
E2cnt promised never to pay? This last
is what ''..i:,:" money is, and what the
Tribune now advocates. The Republi
cans advocate greenback that promis-
es to pay. 1t is the will pay of the
government that makes the greenback OF
any value whatever. Men may talk as
they will about the power of the govern
| ment to make absolute money; but the
government has never yet attempted to
make money out of anything except the
valuable metals, or paper that promised
to pay them.