The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1879-04-11
THE "e,EsEsENzsACzx. BASES.


Mr.. EDITOR l was passing along the
street the other day. and overhead gentle
man, somewhat advanced in years, and ap-
parently above mediocrity in intelligence, re-
mark: 81 am almost persuaded to the green
back faith, bnt cannot conceive of safe
and reliablee paper currency without a basis.
Put basis under your greenbacks and I am
with you." The object of calling up this
circumstance is to satisfy this gentleman,
and others who may be in the same dilem-
ma, that the greenback theory is not a
''baseless fabric but is founded on the
solid rock of finance, philosophy, and intrin-
sic reality. The greenback has the safest,
most reliable and permanent basis of any
money in the world.
No man ever accepts money In payment,
with view, or for the purpose of obtaining
its basis. It must be borne in mind that
gold and silver coin require the same kind
of basis to give them their money value
that greenbacks do Without the basis that
underlies coin, the precious metals would
be comparatively worthless. ''Let the CIV
ilized world demonetize these metqls, and
for all the uses society has for them, they
would not command their weight in blank
greenback paper" The moment their ''fat"
money value is taken from them, they will
cease to be even ornamental, for the beauty
loving eye of unbiased nature sees greater
splendor in colored glass than in gold and
silver.
What is the basis of gold snd silver Dur
ing the financial crisis in England in 1S47,
when legal-tender debt-paying money was
in urgent demand, no man could borrow a
95 note on thousand dollars worth of sill
yer. Why Because the basis of silver coin
had been removed by demonetization, and
although it was, intrinsically, as valuable as
ever, it did not possess money functions. 1t
was dead body without the legal tender
soul. The basis of mau is his immortal
spirit when that takes its fight, the body
becomes valueless like demonetized metal.
g In Calcutta, where silver only is legal-ten-
der, during a money stringency i'll 1864, it
was impossible to borrow d dollar on gold !;
and merchants who had hundreds of thous-
ands of gold coin, were obliged to allow
their notes to 60 to protest, because they
could not borrow $40 of silver on bushel of
gold" The question is not, 'What kind is
the dollar," but What will it do p Has it
the lagal-tender basis under it, and does it
possess debt-paying functions? Henri Ger
nuschi, an eminent French writer ON finance,
etU llluI VI ClcllC NlOuey, Soiu
the congressional monetary commission, IN
1877: "Money is value created by law.
lis basis is legal, and not material. 1t is,
perhaps, not easy to convince one that the
value of metallic money is created by law.
1t is, however, the fact. If you suppose
that gold and silver is not money-are not
legal-tender-the value is lost" In refer
ence to legal-tender greenbacks, Mr.. Ger
nuschi says: MANY people suppose their
value depends upon the promise of the Gov
ernment to repay them in metal one day or
other, This promise does not add to the
purchasing power of paper money. 1t maks
no difference of what material money is COM
posed, whether it is costly or otherwise; the
law Of legal-tender gives value to money,
and that value is increased or diminished
in proportion as its volume Is greater or less.
Men accept money in payment, not to use
but to exchange for something they can use.
They require basis as surety that the
money will perform this Office. Bank notes,
not legal tender, having no legal value,
simply representative of legal value, must
have that legal value as basis. or they fail
even to be representatives. Not so with
greenbacks or coin, Their basis is the law,
making them tender for taxes and debts,
public and private and as long as the law
continues their basis is secure. The basis
Ol DdUA IOtSS, IL COLI, Is ~
may take wings and fly to foreign countries,
leaving its representatives worthless. But
the basis of the greenback is anchored in
the laws of one land, and in every debt of
the nation /; public and private. Bank cur
rency is always considered safe when based
on thlrty-th per cent. of its face In re-
demption material, and when based on re-
serve of resumption material in excess of its
face, it commands premium over the par
of its basis. Greenbacks being legal-tender
are based on the public and private indebt-
edness of the country. Every dollar of it
is redeemable i'll debts as good as gold, and
if $50, 600, 900 of coin in the country is am
pie to carry $500, 900, 600 of paper at par, it
is strange if 81, 500, 0GO, 600 of private and
corporate debts, and 81 600, ,000. .000 of annu-
al taxes cannot carry S2,000,0 ,0O0,C00 of
greenbacks at par with those debts and
taxes.
''The basis of the coin is the credit of the
nation, or the faith and confidence the pub
lie has that the different nations will retain
the enforced coin standard. Metal coins are
simply representatives of the monetized
credit of all nations, while greenbacks are
representatives of the coined credit of the
United States, each being current money
within the jurisdiction of the nation or ma
tions which thus represent their monetized
crGQ1U ana no IufCQef. COlH IiOuey 1uOeS
not strengthen government as greenbacks
do. The whole fabric of our government
might tumble to the ground without loss to
the holders of gold whose metal is as valua-
bic in Europe as here. In fact, wars, pan
les, financial crashes, revolutions and periods
of bankruptcy are harvest seasons for gold
owners, who rather encourage such disasters
than otherwise. But with greenbacks it Is
the reverse They are based on the laws OF
the United States alone, hence with the
destruction of our government they would
become worthless.
Were the legal-tender money OF the
United States limited to greenbacks alone,
they would afford the most perfect SAFE
guard to the perpetuity of the government
that could be conceived of, for every man,
even if he lacked patriotism, would be I'M
PEELED by self Interest to support and defend
the government that gave value to money,
as much as he would to defend the box that
contained it. So by all the arguments OF
reason and philosophy the greenback IS the
best and most securely based money IN the
world. W. a. WELLS.
Corvallis Or, April, A, 1879.
They were playing game OF euchre
together, when she casually remark
6. G. uo,, faLa nv hpart do