The Portland daily press., 1892-10-07

Gratis are trying to wreck the country,
yet it by no means follows that the doc
trines which they advocate may not as
matter of fact be dangerous to the pros
perity of the country. A few yeals ago
| the Greenbackers advocated an unlimi
| ted issue of irredeemable paper money.
| The great mass of the people of this
country believed that such policy would
bring wide spread financial ruin. But
nobody thought then that the Greenback-
ers were public enemies DESTROYS of in
volving the country in financial chaos.
Yet no opponent of Greenbackism would
have regarded that fact as sufficient an
swer to the charge that the policy was
dangerous one
Now this kind of an answer is no more
sufficient and conclusive in the case at
issue, the revival of the State bank cur
rency, than it was in the case of the pro-
posed issue of unlimited national paper
money. We do not suppose that the
Democratic party expect that the revival
of the State bank currency will produce
serious evils. But they can give no guar
antee that it will not. The Republican
party on the other hand believe that such
a revival will be fruitful of bad results.
Here are two honest beliefs, Numerically
opposite, regarding a proposed govern
mental policy, and the people are to de-
eide between them. Certainly the be-
liefs of the two parties can help them
very little because one offsets the other.
Evidently other light must be sought.
Luckily in this case the people have the
light of experience. We have had State
bank currency. Many people now living
remember it, and the people who are too
young to remember it caneasily ascertain
the facts in regard to it, for concerning
those facts there is no dispute. 1t is a
fact that this currency was unstable and
fuctuating in value. 1t is fact that the
notes of the banks of one State were sell
dom taken in another State without dis
count. 1t is fact that while this cur
rency existed counterfeits were abundant
and hard of detection. is fact also
that this currency went out of existence
when Congress imposed a tax on the
State banks, and because of that tax.
Now if that tax extinguished the State
bank currency, it is reasonable to as
sumo that its removal will bring it back
again. Indeed, there is no doubt that
that is the purpose of its removal. Now
the Democrats admit that the old
State bank currency had the faults
and weaknesses here enumerated.
But they say that when it is revived it
will be free rom these faults and weak
nesses. 1t will be surrounded by addi-
tional safeguards which will render it
perfectly secure. What guarantee can
they give of that? Nothing better than
their belief. If this currency was to be
national one it would be possible for the
party in power to control the conditions
of its issue, to make those con-
ditions the same all over the country.
But it is to be issued by forty-eight
different States, and local ideas and in
terests will vary the conditions and
safeguards under which it is issued, and
SO there are likely to be forty-eight diff
ferent kinds of currency circulating in
the country, different in the conditions
on which it is issued, different in it's
security, and therefore different in it's
value. Is this currency, issued under
these various conditions. likely to be free
from the evils which afflicted the curren-
cy of the old State banks? Can it be made
free.from those evils, no matter how
honest or how sincere the men may be
who advocate it? Are not those evils in
separable from currency of that kind?
These are the questions which present
themselves, and they are crucial ques-
lions. The fact that the men who advo-
cate this kim. of currency are not de-
1iberately intending to throw the country
into financial disorder, will not save the
country from financial disorder if the
currency turns out to be bad.
We have heard of people who honestly
believed that kerosene was a curative
agent and recommended it, but the vic
tim of the dose suffered none the less
because the person who prescribed it was
sincere.