The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-12-26

ask. "what is the paper really WORTH" II II
has value only as a debt -payer, they refuse to
loan or to trust A certificate OF discharge IL
bankruptcy has value for debtor, but none
for anybody else. So paper that wipes ou
debts may be wanted by man who has debts
to DO wiped out. But why should man pari
with goods or lands for debt-payi1g power, II
he has no debts? He can demand cash for his
goods IN hard money, and then pay cash him
self instead Of running into debt. SO, when
ever paper money is growing worse, we find
that fewer persons trust or lend.
Many carelessly suppose that deb. -caEcelllDg
power, which Government can give to paper, IL
the same as buying power, which no Govern
ment can give to anything. Out OF that blundel
comes the notion that Government can give
permanent value to paper by making it " full
legal tender" All that it can do is to wipe out
every debt, taxes included. When the fiat
money has done this, and thus has robbed
men OF their savings, what follows? Chips
the mechanic, must have meat for his family
and offers fiat paper. But Chops, the butcher
having cleared off bis deb;s, charges "two dol
lars pound, IN that stuff" Until wages rise
Chips must quell the cravings OF hunger if be
can with a fiat beefsteak. He gets higher
wages, but now Chops refuses to sell at all foi
fat paper. Chips expostulates: 1T s legal
| | had N faka 0r wa
The butcher answers that no law obliges him
to sell meat unless he pleases, and he does not
please to sell except for coin. Chips urges
that debts can be paid with the paper. Chops
answers, Il have paid mine, with just such
paper, and now 1 shall sell for coin and pay
coin" What can the poor mechanic do? No
onewill trust him, for the debt can be wiped
out with fat. Until he can get into debt to
somebody, his fat money is Of no more use
than key of the jail to man who is free al
ready. Over a fiat dinner, Chips learns lesson
they get paid in the same way. II is this
Government can make paper cancel debts
and pay wages, but it cannot make paper buy
bread, meat clothing, or anything else.
This is not fancy, for this very fate has be-
fallen workmen IN many countries. They were
paid in legal-tender paper, and had to take it
to the end. The last expiring flicker of the
debt paying power before it goes out altogeth-
or is usually payment Of wages to soms poor
man who fails to get any one to sell HIM food
or clothing for worthless paper. Too poor to
strike, the workman still takes the paper cloth
ed by law with the power TO pay debts, after all
dealers have stopped taking it for goods. The
power for cancelling debts remains after all
power for buying has gone. Again and again,
dishonored legaltender has robbed laborsrs
longer than any other class, and fiat money,
though quicker poison, would have the same
effect. II issued, 1t would go the same road
, into the waste-basket. Men who have debts
to pay would take 1t long enough to wipe them
out, and then would refuse it st any price. 1t
would be infinitely SIMPLER and better for Gov
eminent to enact that all debts should DO IN
stantly cancelled. The same vast robbery of
all creditors would take place. But debt pay ing
/ paper would not accumulate in the hands of
workmen, ana die there. Fiat money would
rob oil creditors first. But 1t would rob work
men to the very last, and in their hands would
find Its final resting place
Some ask, will not the amount OF buying to
be done keep up the value OF the buying tool ~
Before its value can be affected the tool must
first have some value or buying power, and
nat paper would have none. Legal-tender
notes have some, as long az anybody hopes for
their payment. They sink gradually, for some
men still hope after many have ceased. But
at last they reach point at VIII ch hope of paw
ment no longer sustalns them, and their buy
ing power vanishes. At that very point the
fiat money would start. At the outset It would
have no expectation Of payment 10 give it
value, and only that debt-paylng quahty which
clings to lega-tender notes after ,hey have be-
come worthless. Only while existing debts
we're being wiped out would il have even 4
semblance of value. Then it would star. as
buying tool where dishonored notes end, and
would not have Tar to fall. Is it asked how
people can get along without tool for buying
The history OF legal-tender notes gives the
answer. Society relapses into barter. Men
give goods for goods, as savag,s do. In tho
later days of the Confederacy doctors refused
money, and charged SO many hours work or 60
much corn for visit. school in Virginia
advertised that the tuition o! students should
be paid for in pigs, potatoes and other produce
When fat money had robbed creditors, and
had lodged in the hands of workingmen and
robbed them and there had lost it's power al
together, barter would come for time. and
then gold would return to use.
The following stiDging letter OF resignation
is from clerk OF the Maine State Treasury.
1t shows that there Is at least one honest man
connected with the present Democratic Green