The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-09-30
No. 81

/ HO AuaA "Ou4u Oo IOOl enough TO take
from the government on his crop a
| deprecated currency-a dollar that
would not pass on parity with gold
when his cotton or wheat had to be
sold in the mar Sets Of the world on a
gold basis, and the debt he owed to
the government paid after the volume
of currency outstanding had been con-
tracted by the consumption of the
very crops themselves.
COTTON AND WHEAT SAFER THAN SILVER
BULLION.
Which is the safer currency, that
based upon cotton and wheat, which
must be consumed within year. on
gold basis, to only 80 per cent. of
their value, or that based upon silver,
purchased in the open market at the
ixe1 rate Of about S7O,OOO,OOO an
nually, and stored in the treasury,
where it can be neither consumed nor
| distributed IL is clear that in the
case Of the currency based upon cot,
ton or whea,, an equivalent in gold or
the currency itself issued on the wheat
or cotton would flow back into the
| treasury as the wheat and cotton were
consumed, and that gradual expansion
and contraction would result; while in
| the case of silver, an arbitrary expan-
sion takes place yearly while the com,
modify accumulates in the treasury
st the end of decade the, will be
outstanding about 100000, 600 of
silver Ger ifcates based upon com
modify whose price has been advanced
and regulated by the governments
own purchases, and which, if the gov
ern nent undertook to sell, would en-.
ormously de preciate In the one case
the holder of the governments note
would know that within a short time
gold or it's equivalent would pass into
the treasury; in the other, he would
know tt at there was comodmity
steadily accumulating in the treasury,
which, by the very law under which
the note he held was issued, was
scarcely any farther advanced towards
consumption or distribution than it
was when unmined in the western
hills.
1t may be safely assumed that no
paper currency in the world would be
more stable, more sound, or more Ger
tain to pass on parity with specie,
than the treasury notes of the United
States Government based upon the
great staple crops, provided the method
of their ISSUANCE was properly hedged
about and protected 1t is impossible
20 present all the arguments in sup
port of this position in an article neces-
sarily limited in space, but before
passing from this branch of the sub
jest under discussion, there is one
other point to which attention should
be called. AS has been before s a ed,
more than 1856, 100000 of treasury
notes now pass readily at par with
gold, with nothing behind them but
the governments promise to pay.
Why then would not additional notes
of the same char acter, secured on the
great crops, representing their dis
tribution for consumption, and issued
only to those who accepted them
voluntarily on the gold basis, continue
to pass readily on parity with gold?
That eminent Georgian, Judge Crisp,
who has so ably represented the Safe
in Congress, in his letter to the farm
ers on the sub treasury plan, declared
himself upqualifedly in favor of an
increase of treasury notes. To this
position the Democratic leaders have.
been committed for more than twenty
years. How is it more conservative
and more safe to issue these treasury
notes arbitrarily, and without any
security pledged for their payment,
than it is to issue them voluntarily on
demand with the great staple crops
pledged for their payment :?
FLEXIBLE CURRENCY DESIRED.
But it has been contended that
fexibility in the volume of currency
would tend to disturb business inter
ests. and render uncertain business
obligations. There is an apparent
plausibility in this argument. But
it is based on a misconception, and
evidences great ignorance, of the real
| conditions surrounding commerce.
Nothing would tend to render prices
so stable or business obligations so
sure, as the certainty that the supply
of money would exactly correspond at
all times to the volume and require
ments of trade. If it were possible TO
perfect a system OF finance under
which this would be the case, the cost
of money, interest, would always re.
main the same, and two important
elements of uncertainty possible
stringency in the money market and
varying rates of interest-would be
removed from commerce. Stability
in prices, therefore, is promoted to
elasticity in the volume of currency,
and not by rigidity, that allows for no