Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1878-08-08
Currency CatechiSm.
american Voters RE limited TO Read
and Think of at.

uhCS HtHh " IL.
Question.-Why was the greenback
or legal tender dollar issued?
Answer. To defend the American
Union against armed traitors
@. Were the first greenbacks
legal tender?
\. They were not for seven months
after the law authorizing them had
passed.
Q. Did the earliest greenbacks,
called demand notes." fall below
coin value?
A. They did not, but were always
equal to coin at the treasury, or for
payment of tariff duties
Q. Is it necessary to make paper
currency a legal tender, in order to
give it circulation at par value?
A. 1t is not. The old United
States bank notes were of uniform
value with coin throughout the land,
and the present national bank bills are
now of the same value, yet neither of
them have been legal tender from
man to man.
O. What was the protested rea son
for making the second issue of green
backs legal tender?
A. To enable the government to
raise the sinews of war, by forcing its
promissary notes on the soldiers and
contractors, and all others from whom
it needed services or supplies.
Q. Was there provision made in
the legal-tender law for the payment
or redemption of its currency?
A. Yes. The law expressly stated
that it was issued for Temporary pur-
poses" only, and provided that it
should be exchangeable for Z. S. six
per cent. bonds of the United States.
Q. Was this promise kept by the
government?
A. No. The exchangeability of
legal tender notes for six per cent
bonds was fobidden after July 4,
1863.
@. What was the effect of this
limitation?
A. TO crowd down the value of
our paper currency SO that it fell from
about IS cents on the dollar in July
to 80 cents on the dollar one year
afterward.
Q. Is it necessary to have coin
basis for our currency?
A. Yes, SO long as we trade with
countries which have that basis. Our
annual export and import trade with
such countries averages more than
1000. 900 for every day in the year.
We cannot hold our own, much less
make a profit of this trade, unless the
measure of value which we use agrees
with their measure of value.
Q, What has made England the
richest nation in the world in money
capital?
A. \ perfect stability Of her fnan-
cial system. All values for several
centuries have been reckoned wholly
in coin.
Q. Can the United States wrist
this financial supremacy from Great
Britain?
A. Yes. if we will adopt an I'M
varying standard Of money value.
We have a vastly larger territory,
more productive soil, greater variety
of staples, more inventive and en-
terprising people, cheaper food, cheap
er materials for clothing, more album
dant coal and iron, and large quantities
of gold aud silver mined within our
own borders.
Q. What is needed to make the
United States the imperial business
nation of the world?
A. A perfectly stable monetary
system whereby all our trade, COM
MERGE and manufactures can be planned
and calculated with certainty that
the cash results will neither shrink
nor swell. The profit of one farthing
a yard on cloth is enough to keep
British mills in motion; but if their
currency was liable to shrink two far
things before the cloth was sold, hun
dredS of mills would stand still.
Q. Is it just for the government
to pay interest on the money borrowed
for its benefit?
A. Yes, the same as for it to pay
wages to soldiers and officers, or to
pay for their meat, clothing and
weapons. or to pay for the carrying of
its mails, or the printing of its adver-
tisements, or the building of it's edi-
fees, or anything else which 1t re-
quires. The government ought to pay
interest on just as much as individuals
or firms pay it, and all honorable gov
ernments do pay it. There is no
moral difference between 40, 100000
and one person, when they take your
property.
q. Could the government have
ever been established or preserved
without the power to borrow money?
A. No, and this power is ex-
pressly given in the federal constitu-
ton.
Q. Could money have been bor-
rowed without the promise of the gov
eminent to pay the interest?
A. No, for this would deprive