The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-08-08

that society exists merely for the profit
and prey of rumsellers.
B@ Scion Chase, the greenback dem
agogue of Maine, in speech in reply
to Secretary Sherman, says that the
honest dollar is the one that from de-
cade to decade will bny about the
same amount of goods. Perhaps the
same test will apply TO other products
besides gold. An honest bushel of wheat
ought always to buy the same amount
of coffee. An honest pound of butter
ought always to buy the same length
of calico. An honest days work ought
always TO buy the same number OF
pounds of meat. And so on I'D infn-
itum. Mr.. Chase's dictum has pleas
ing sound, but all the same exchanges
cannot be regulated by any cast iron
rule as TO prices. Mr.. Chase and his
admirers have lived long enough to
know that prices are regulated by all
memorable law of supply and demand,
When produce is easily raised and plen-
tiful it will take less amount of mon
ey to buy a given quantity than when
seasons arc poor, help scarce and crops
are partial failures. Suppose Mr.
Chase's idea be applied in another
way. For instance, in some season OF
plenty when prices arc low, suppose
the honest bushel of wheat brought
fifty cents in gold. Mr.. Chase would
say the honest bushel of wheat should
always bring fifty cents. Would his
hearers agree to that? When, through
drouth or storm, their wheatfields have
produced only fraction of their nor
NAL yield, would they deem it just that
their seasons labors should yield them
only fifty cents a bushel, when the
world is willing to pay higher price
for it? Probably not. And when the
dollar buys large amount Of the
farmers produce, as it does to-day,
does not the dollar that he gets buy for
him proportionately large amount OF
what he wants? Is it not as we'll for
him that his dollar is as powerful as
other peoples dollars? But Mr.,
Chase would say, mans debts do moi
shrink with tho shrinkage in the value
of his produce. That is where the
trouble lies. The whole greenback
movement is founded upon the desire
to escape the payment of debts with
more valuable dollars than they were
contracted in. To q certain extent this
is just feeling, for the man who to-
day pays with grcenbacks debt of one
hundred dollars contracted in 1868, re.
ally pays his creditor twice rs much
value as he received from him. If il
were possible to so adjust matters that
creditors should receive no more value
than they gave, such plan would nc
doubt be desirable. This is probably
what Mr.. Chase means when he says
the honest dollar should always buy the
same amount of goods, or produce
that is, that the same amount of goods
should always pay the same number Of
dollars of Indebtedness. But such 4
plan as this might be as unjust to
the creditor as payment in current
dollars can be TO the debtor. There is
always some insuperablo difficulty in
attempting TO adjust the balance be.
tween debtor and creditor. No human
intelligence can do it SO as to be fail
all around. In this difficulty there are
two methods of proceeding. One is,
TO consider that when a man runs into
debt he does SO at the risk of having to
pay back greater value than he re-
ceives, just as he also takes the chance
that he may be able to pay with less
value, and to pay accordingly. The
other way is to repudiate the debt in
part by deprcciating purposely the me-
dium in which it is TO be paid Either
way is productive of injustice, but the
first way involves no dishonesty, while
the second is utterly dishonest and
senselcssly unjust, because the repudi-
ator will ALWAYS go further in seeking
relief than justice warrants. The first
is the Republican plan; the second is
the Greenbacker's plan. For the sake
of benefiting tho class OF debtors, the
Greenbacker would have large share
of honest indebtedness repudiatcd,
would unsettle values and place the in
dustries of this great nation back upon
the dangerous basis of wild imitation,
with its Inevitable further running M
of indebtedness, and consequent perma-
nent perilous condition of finances, to
be followed by the usual desolating
crash. There is no safe way to nav
debts but to pay them. Tho payment
may be attended with suffering many
an honest man may sink forever be-
meath the burden; but once they are
paid the ground gained Is safe, and the
financial body healthy. To repudiate
In any degree would be attended with
as much or more of disaster, and the
resulting condition of fnances is.only
permanent evil. The country has al.
ready gone through the troubles and
dangers resulting from bringing our
finances into an honest and healthy
condition, and the effort to put Il back
m 1870 Ia uaur eanaalaoo o,eI .-.t.I-.l