Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-10-02
TIE CREED OF TIE eRgENBAcKERs.

evil and not good. We propose also to
show that these measures are calculated to
produce the most harm to the very classes
it is pretended they would specially benefit.
namely the working classes. The creed of
the Greenbackers is as follows
Abolition of the National Banks, and the
issue of Treasury notes in the place of their
circulation.
Payment of the Government bonds
which mature next year and thencefor-
ward, first by the use of all the gold and
silver now serving to protect the green
back circulation second. by the issue OF
fresh Treasury notes.
These are the main points in the policy.
It is claimed that the National Banks
should be abolished because they enable
bondholdeTs to make two profits on their
bonds, and because the Government can
save all this interest on circulation by
issuing the currency itself. These objec-
tions to the National Banks are not valid
These banks are not, as asserted, privileged
monopolies. It is open to any man or set
of men to start National Bank at any
time. The reason more are not started is
that there are many ways in which greater
profits can be secured. The National
Banks pay taxes to the State and General
Government aggregating Sl5,O0OOO0
per annum. Their profits on circulation do
not exceed II per cent. per annum, which
fact shows that they are not growing rich
by this means. In exchange for this profit
of II per cent. per annum on their clrcula-
ton, the National Banks furnish the peo
pie and Government with several important
benefits. In the first place, they afford
safe places of deposit. The losses to the
people through National Banks have been
infinitesimal compared to those accruing
through private and savings banks. In the
second place, they have been absolutely M
valuable in assisting the Government to re-
fund the national debt. They now hold
nearly one. quarter of it, and their demand
for bonds has put them at premium and
kept them there. BY this means the coun-
try has been enabled to refund the. greater
part of the debt in a and per cent.
bonds, thus saving some twenty millions OF
interest yearly, and with the same aid the
Secretary of the Treasury viii next year
be enabled to refund the fves and skies
which then mature, in 81 per cent. bonds,
thus saving thirteen millions year
more in interest. Without the help of
the National Banks none of these operations
would have been possible, and we should
still have been paying interest on the
whole debt at the rate of and ! per
cent. In the third place, these banks
affect very important saving in exchange.
They give the people uniform currency.
If they were abolished it is certain that
the old State Bank system would be re-
verted to. That system was much more
profitable for bankers than the present one,
and much more costly for the people,
As Secretary Sherman showed in recent
speech, before the war exchange In New
York was sometimes as high as % per cent.
As the amount of exchange drawn on the
East by the South and West is estimated
at four thousand millions year. it is plain
that the National Banks save an enormous
amount in this connection also. In fact,
the one item of exchange far exceeds all
the profit on both circulation and deposits.
The claim of the Greenbackers that green
backs would serve the same purpose as
United States notes, and he equally safe,
is not well-founded. In the first place it
is no part OF the business of government
to issue paper money. This is not money
in the scientific sense OF the term. 1t
represents nc capital. What it represents
is debt, and nothing else. Now the Green
hackers propose that the Government shall
pay off its debts with its debts. That is
what they really mean when they demand
that the bonds shall be paid off
with new issues of greenbacks. But
we viii recur to that point presently. The
Government has no right to issue evil
dences of debt as money, without making
provision for redeeming its promises to
pay To do that would be dishonest, and
it would be destructive to the public Gre
dit. Such paper could not be kept at gold
par. Again, its volume would be luctuat-
ing continually, since Congress would be
tamp9ring with it all the time. And finally,
the country stands pledged not to exceed
the four hundred million dollar limit which
has already been reached, and the Supreme
Court has ruled that fresh issues of paper
currency in time of peace are unconstitu-
tional.
The Gresnbackers, having abolished the
National Banks, propose to pay off the
public debt in a hurry. They say that the
first thing to do is to take all the gold and
silver in the Treasury, and apply it to the
payment of the bonds between seven and
eight hundred millions), which mature
next year. As there are only Sl56, 900, 600
of gold and silver in the Treasury it is clear
that to pay off these bonds would require
fresh issue of at least $500, 600, 900 of green
backs. Now let us see where this would
bring us. We will suppose the National
Banks abolished. and their Issues, in
amount $3.50, coo, 600, replaced by green
backs That would give us nearly $780,
100000 of greenbacks. It is then pro.
posed to pay away all the gold and silver
now held in the Treasury for the redemp.
ton Of the greenbacks. This would leave
the greenbacks without any specie basis,
at the instant that their volume was
doubled. We should then have an ire
deemable currency, and in the moment that
it was deprived of its coin reserve five
hundred millions of fresh paper would be
added to it. That would give us 81, 30O,-
100000 in paper. Can anybody form an