The Portland daily press., 1879-07-24
THURSDAY MORNING, JULY "a.

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that the amount should be limited TO that
amount which can be maintained at par in
coin; otherwise you have paper money f1uctua-
ting in value, varible as the shade, and recur-
renee of all the evils which we have suffered
since the panic. There is but one way of test
ting the amount of paper money that is sutfc-
lent to transact the business of the country,
and that is by its convertibility into coin on
the demand of the holder.
Again, they say that they favor the lmmedi-
ate use of the coin in the Treasury for the re-
duction of the bonded debt.
This proposition is the pureSt demagoguiSm
unless it is desirable to have irredeemable paper
money depending for its value only upon the
mandate of the Government, or what is called
fiat money If we propose to redeem our money
we must have in the Treasury coin sufficient to
meet any sudden demand. The larger the
amount and the greater the certainty OF re-
demption when demanded, the less demand
there will be. AS a matter of course, by hold
ing this coin i'll the Treasury we lose the inter
est that might be saved by its application to
the payment of the debt. The amount of in
terest upon the bonds sold for resumption pur-
poses is S3, ,925, ,000 and this is the only price we
pay for the maintenance of resumption, but to
compensate for this we have already, since re-
sumption, saved i'll the process of refunding
S14, ,297 III a year and are now enjoying the
benefits of reviving industry and hopeful pros.
perity, largely the result of the maintenance of
specie payments. Without large reserve of
coin, a combination of brokers or bankers wish
in the market, could any day endanger resump-
ton or make panic 1t is hard to please our
Greenback friends. A year ago they protested
we could not accumulate enough gold to MAIN
tain resumption, and now, after resumption,
they protest that we have got too much.
They say they favor the substitution of green
backs for national bank notes.
This question of the continuance of the ma
tlonal bank notes is one OF grave difficulty,
which should be taken up by the people of the
United States and considered and discussed
with the utmost care | am not especially the
advocate of any kind of banks; but it is certain
that the national banks are the best that ever
were devised-conceded so be so by the lead
ing economists of other nations, and proven to
be so in our own country by comparison with
the State banks. They are generally distrib-
uted throughout the United States, and form
local agencies to promote exchanges. Their
notes are absolutely secure. beyond peradven-
ture. They are guarded against counterfeiting
so successfully that scarcely any loss happens
in this way. Compared with the old system of
State banks they are in every respect superior,
and no sensible man would exchange the Ma
tional system for the State-bank system.
These banks are free. are organized under
general law open to all alike; so that the busi-
ness of banking is as free as that of blacksmith
ing. There is no monopoly in it, except that
only men having money can bank, precisely as
only those can farm who either own rent
land These banks are chartered for twenty
years and the earliest to expire will be in 1888 so
that the question of their discontinuance can
not honestly be determined until then. The
substitution of greenbacks for bank notes if Sc
riously attempted, would make such a strn-
gency in money, and such disturbance in
business, thatin. comparison with it the panic of
1873 would be but shower to hurricane. The
withdrawal of the circulating notes from the
banks would necessarily compel the sale of the
bonds deposited for their security, and this
would unquestionably lead to the collection of
loans and discounts, which would affect every
village and hamlet in the land.
1t is objected to the national banks that they
draw interest on the United States bonds de-
posted by them, and also on the circulating
notes issued by them. As to the bonds held
by them, they are the property of the stock
holders, and not the property of the Govern
ment. We require them as security to the
holders of the notes because it is the best secur-
Ity. Ii the bank goes out of existence the in
terest of the bonds will still have to be paid by
the Government. AS to the circulating notes.
part OF them must be held in reserve and
part loaned to business men, but for this privi-
lege, open to all alike, they have paid to the
National and State governments, taxes aver
aging SIG, sos, ,1S1 year for the last ten years,
sum greater than five per cent of the entire
amount Of their circulating notes. If the tax
is not sufficient you can increase it, But, it is
said, the Government might issue these circu-
lating notes and save interest. In doing so,
however it would lose at once the taxes col
lected from the banks; it would violate the
public faith, pledged in an express provision of
the law creating the public debt that the
amount of United States notes shall not exceed
$400 900; it would make necessary larger
reserves to maintain resumption on the in
creased amount of United States notes, and
would eventually lead to the abandonment of
all idea OF specie standard, and again launch
the country on the sea of irredeemable money,
with the inevitable result of wild speculation,
panic and bankruptcy. Can it be that the
shrewd sagacious people of Maine cannot see
that by yielding an inch to these dogmas that
threaten the public faith and specie resumption
they open the sluice-way to reputation and
communism? Let US in due time, as their
charters expire, deal with these national banks
as may seem best for the public interest pre-
serving always the public honor and the specie
standard.
This platform says:
''The volume of our money should not vary with
the chance production of the precious metals or the
caprice of corporations
This dogma is an absurdity on its face.
Money is only needed to buy productions, and
the quantity, value, and demand for produc-
tions create a necessity for more or less money
in precise proportion to their amount. A fixed
volume of paper money is what the Greenback-
ers have hitherto complained of; and one of
the chief merits Of the system of free banking
is that it gives an opportunity for the ebb and
flow of currency, the increase or dimnution of
the volume depending, not upon the caprice of
corporations but upon the demand and neces-
sity for currency. In this respect national
bank-notes have greatly the advantage of pa
can only be paid out according to the wants
and necessities of the Government in the con-
duct of public business. The true doctrine is
that volume of paper money, always redeem
able in coin and maintained at par by ample re-
serves, increasing and diminishing according
to the demands of business should be provided
by the National Government under general.
laws, free and open to all alike: Our present
system, consisting of gold and silver coin equal
to each other, and United States notes and
bank notes, always redeemable, comes nearer
the ideal form of money than has ever hereto
fore been devised by man.
GREENBACK POLICY IN OHIO.
So much for the Maine platform. Let us
turn now to some dogmas in the platform of
the Greenbackers in Ohio. They say, first:
The General Government sho uld issue an ample
volume of full legal-tender currency to meet the
business needs of the country and to promptly pay
all of its debts"
Here is the broad doctrine that the General
Government must conduct all its operations
with fiat money, made a full legal-tender, and
supply enough to meet the business needs of
the country. How much does this dogma de-
mand? For the latter purpose to pay its debts,
it would need about $1,700y000000, and for the
former purpose, according to a moderate esti-
mate of a conservative Greenbacker it would
require anywhere from 800, 100000 to S2O0O,-
100000 more. In other words they propose to
strike at the foundation of all values by the is
sue of irredeemable paper money, to be used
part in paying the national debt in violation of
the public faith, and the balance as legal-ten-
der upon all contracts and debts between pri-
vate citizens. 1t is strange that honest men
should proclaim such a dogma and not be able
to see that the only effect would be to destroy
the value of this currency, and to compel citf-
zens to resort to barter. and finally, with or
without law, to coin again. This is the ex-
tremity of Greenbackism in Ohio
Again, they say eve are infexibly opposed
to the issue by the Government of interest
bearing bonds of any description for any pur-
pose whatever"
If this dogma had been adopted by the Gov
ernment, it would have been utterly helpless /
during the recent war-without credit, without
the power to borrow money, without the power
to conduct the operations of war; or to carry ON |
foreign trade. The power to borrow money is
indispensable to every government of civilized |
man. Barbarians may live without trade or
contracts or debts, but country that had no
resources except to issue paper money under
dogma number one, and denied the power to
contract debts under dogma number two. |
would be as weak as a rope of sand, and, under |
these conditions, our Government would re- |
lapse into anarchy or despotism.
They also say: