The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-08-11
:Greenback{ Grievances.

A correspondent of the Neav Era echoes
one of the most common of the Greenback-
ers' fanciful grievances when he says, ''The
farmer is forced to sell his wheat, his corn,
his pork and VIII atever he raises at half its
| value.' This is not a correct statement.
| The farmer may sell his wheat, &C., at half
the price he got in flush times; that is, the
| stuff he sold for a dollar then will bring him
but fifty cents nOw But it is not to the far
mer alone that this change has come 1t
has come to all men who have anything to
sell; to the shop-keeper, to the tailor, to the
shoemaker, to the halter. Has it not? Ii
! this be so, the farmer will find that with the
| fifty cents he gets for the stuff that used to
command dollar he can go trade with his
neighbors-who are in the same position heis,
and whose stuff formerly valued at a dollar
| is now valued at fifty cents-and get with
his fifty cents what formerly cost dollar.
His fifty cents now will go as far as dollar
would then. 1t will go as far toward the
purchase of hat, of pair of shoes, OF
barrel of -four On the other hand the tai
lor, the shoemaker, the miller, find fifty cents
| going as far as dollar would toward the
| purchase of farm products. So all things
are as they were before. The eechdnged6te
ralue of things has not changed. The only
! alteration has been in the value of the units
that make up the medium of exchange. The
hundred cent dollar will buy twice as much
| as the fifty cent dollar, and it costs twice as
much to buy it. That is all.
In illustration: Supposing the yard-stick
were made to consist of six feet instead of
| three He who bought yard of cloth
would get six feet, and the price would
double; but he would get just as much cloth
at just the same price as though he bought
| two yards at the old measurement Or sup
pose the yard-stick was reduced to one foot.
| Then yard of cloth would sell for one
| third the old price. The purchaser would
| get one-third as much cloth, and at no less
price, though he would have three yards
| instead Of one.
! People see this easy enough, but seem to
| get confused, like the boy in the story who
was accustomed to do his sums in apples
when the same process takes place with dol
| lars. The currency was doubled in volume,
but not really increased in value-one might
| add gallon of water to agallon of molasses,
and would still have only gallon of mo-
lasses though having liquid of two gallons
| volume. So with the purchasing power OF
| money which remained the same though the
| volume of the currency was doubled. 1t
took two dollars to buy what one would buy
| before But no man was richer. He got
! twice as much for his labor or his goods,
but paid twice as much for what he bought,
| and the surplus Of income over expenditure
was really the same, for it only had half the
purchasing power.
The Ne,c Era correspondent touches upon
another Greenback complaint and proceeds
with his farmer thus: "He has to pay just
as much interest now as he had to pay when
he got fair prices for his products" The
correspondent means inflated prices. His
statement is true That is the curse of run
ming in debt, and of a currency of fuctuat-
ing value A dollar ought always. to mean
| the same. The debtor contracted to pay
dollars when dollars were worth fifty cents,
and is called upon to pay when dollars are
| worth one hundred cents. 1t is hardship,
| as it was a hardship to the creditor who lent
dollars worth one hundred cents and had to
take his pay in dollars worth fifty cents.
But the creditor did not know that
the value of the dollar was to be
changed. He was put to hardship through
no carelessness of his own. The debtor went
| into the contract with his eyes open. He
| was warned when we made our departure
| from the coin standard that we should re
turn to it as soon as possible The men who
passed the legal-tender act told him that.
| He was again warned, three years in ad-
vance of the date, when we should take up
| the old standard. He was in the position OF
a manufacturer who should contract to de-
| liver some time hence a thousand yards OF
cloth at the price per yard ruling when the
contract was made, though he had been Of
| ficially warned by Congress that the yard
| stick would be increased to six feet before
| the day of delivery. He might go ON with
| the trade, trusting that Congress would
break its word.
Is HOW tIlc Case SlttlitlS tHCOlCtiSthJ'
Practically those who suffer are few. How
many debts contracted in flush times are due
now? The average length debts run can be
scarcely more than three months. Certain
ly few of them run thirteen years. And how
many debts in this country have been paid
off at from ten to fifty cents on the dollar?
When can we stop the process of protecting
the debtor against the risk he takes? The
personnel of the debtor class is continually
changing. Men are runningin debt everyd
Whatever distress has come is due to the
departure from the old standard, to the fluc-
tuations in the value of dollar We have
passed through that hardship. Do we want
to go back and tread that treacherous road
again? We ought to be as shy OF meddling
with the value of the dollar as with the
length of the yard stick.
IL