The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-08-25
The IrredeemabIe Dollar.


Mr.. Ben Butler has adopted and publicly
professed the doctrine of an irredeemable
national paper currency, currency which
shall pass as money throughout this coun-
try, though the government sball not be
obliged or expected to redeem it with
either gold or silver or corn or potatoes.
This would be an easy way for the govern
ment to get rich, for it would only have to
buy all the material it might want and
obtain all the services it should need and
then settle for them in stamped paper
paper which would not even convey q
promise to pay.
This plan is precisely in keeping with
Mr.. Butler's usual principles and practice.
That in to say, it is not honest. If the
government buys q cannon or q mule or
sack of oats it ought to give something of
equivalent value for it, or at leaet pro.
mise to do 80. Taxes are levied on the
people with this understanding govern
ment must have something with which to
pay its way. But what is the use of gath
pedient as the Butler Kearney patent, the
treasury department can put any figure
or figures it pleases on piece of paper
and call it 90 much money! Away, then,
with taxation, and set up paper mill.
Ah, no! answers Butler: We propose
that this paper shall be taken back by the
government for all dues coming to it. Even
so; that does not cancel the original dis.
honesty, it only limits it to the first issu
ance. If parties who then received it can
work it back for taxes, or sell it at par to
others for the same purpose, 80 much the
better for them if not, the loes sustained
by then is robbery.
But besides the intrinsic dishonesty of
the idea, there is q woeful lack of financial
soundness at the bottom of it. The only
sound idea of dollar is something that is
a actually arorth dollar. 1t is generally
piece of gold or silver, but by taking more
room it might be a piece of copper or leath-
or. There is many bottle which ia worth
Eve cents, and there is no reason in the
world-except inconvenience-why bottles
should not be made currency in place of
nickels. Gold has market value as plain
ly marked as that of wheat, but as it's equi
valent value is contained in a much smaller
space and as it is more imperishsble, it is
preferred to wheat as q currency. It is
even preferred to precious stones for that
purpose, although they are still much less
bulky, because they are not susceptible of
coinage.
Gold, therefore, has been settled on by
all civilized people as the standard of val
ues, not because it is an immutable one,
but because of it's convenience and because
if it huctuates in market value, it will
simply have more or less purchasing power,
though the name of the coin would remain
the same. That is to cay, if some immense
discovery of gold should be made which
wonld food the world with it to such
an extent that it woald have only half
of its present relatire value, gold dollar
would still be called a dollar, but it would
buy only as much as q half dollar buys
now.
It is simply preposterous to call anything
a dollar unless it has intrinsic value to
that extent. A paper dollar is so only in
the sense that it is convertible into a real
dollar at will, but if it is inconvertible and
irredeemable by it's own showing it is q
fraud and lie.
Moreover, this Butler Kearneyism is a
studied insult to the world at large. Old
Ben commenced by insulting the ladies of
New Orleans; the indulgence of evil habits
strengthens them, and he then went on
into an insulting warfare on the press.
This but whetted his appetite for safe i'm
pudence, and now he stands with his left
arm around Kearney's neck and his right
thumb pivoting on his nose, while its
neighbOripg fingers are gyrating contemp-
tuously al all the world outside of the
great United States. Messrs. Butler and
Kearney are willing to cut adrift from the
financial fellowship of the general human
family and adopt the Chinese fashion of
isolation. They want a kind of money
that will be bound to stay at home, and
that will not and cannot possibly, be he
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