Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-02
SOFT MONEY LOGIC,

SUI
One of the signal examples of the
strange bedfellowships caused by political
exigencies is presented by the New York
Post defending the plank of the Demo-
cratic platform calling for the repeal of
the prohibitory tax on State bank notes.
The Post finds even this demonstration of
Democratic soft money tendencies palat-
able on logic which may be summarized as
follows: First, it quotes the authority of
Senator Sherman that the national bank
circulation has got to go anyhow; second,
it asserts:
Any form of circulating medium that the
States are likely to permit, and the general
Government to authorize will be more to
the advantage OF the country than either
greenbacks or silver certificates. wildcat
banking is thing of the past, and will
never return. 1t must be borne in mind
that State bank notes never can be legal
tender, even in the States which authorize
them. Therefore, nobody will be obliged to
take them. They must go upon their own
goodness If they go at all Moreover, the
general Government can prescribe condi-
tions upon the issue of notes having an
interstate circulation. and will undoubtedly
do so.
This is about as remarkable specimen
of monetary logic as was ever emitted
from journal which processes to base its
views on solid principles. The assertion
that State bank notes resting on variety
of securities from the nature of the case
will be better than greenbacks or silver
certificates resting on that pledge of the
Governments faith, which has been the
solid basis of the country's currency for
nearly two decades, is simply fatuous
dogmatism only rivaled by the assertion
that 'wildcat banking is thing of the
past and will never return" When the
two principal cities of the country have
recently displayed prominent and stu
pendous examples of the desire to gouge
the public by reckless banking, the guar
antee of that assertion against the use of
the far greater facilities afforded by the
liberty of putting worthless notes in circu-
lation is very slight
This remarkable argument is, however,
cast in the shade by the esteemed Posts
proposition that the general Government
can prescribe conditions upon ''the issue
of notes having an Interstate circula-
tion." Our cotemporary should furnish
plans and specifications of this brilliant
idea. Will the interstate notes under
this plan bear on their face notification
by the Government that they can be cir
culated in more than one State, and the
statutes contain warning that they must
not be paid out to anyone except in the
State where they are issued? What will
be the penalty for rendering to grocer in
Jersey City note intended for circulation
in New York, a mile distant? And after
the grand idea of State and Interstate
banks-one possibly wildcat and the other
presumably stable by the regulation of
the national Government-how will the
regulation of the latter differ from the
national bank regulation which, according
to che Post, has got to be abolished at the
start?
This is perhaps the best argument that
can be made by paper which has deter
mined to swallow the soft money plank of
the Democratic platform for the sake of
its free-trade heresies. But it is very
weak one after all.