The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-10-24
MASSACHUSETTS COMRADE
Gives His Ideas on the Greenback and Some
Personal Experience.

| Pcrsonai Experience.
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: In your is
sue of Oct. 10, G. H. Osborn, of Hopkins
Mo-, says: - Now, please tell the boys tha
the greenback always paid 100 cents of debt
and that is all IT pays now; and tell them als'
that 100 cents of debt is all gold dollar eve
paid. Question: Would any man with al
ounce of brains pay premium for a gold dol
| lar If paper dollar would answer the sam,
purpose ?" / wish to tell the comrade what
/ know. Soon after / returned from tn,
army, in the early part of 1865, had occa
| sion to buy barrel of -four. | paid SIS il
greenbacks for it, Itwas offered to me for s.
in gold, for the merchant knew he could
readily exchange the So in gold for S1s o
/ greenbacks A man here in Massachusetts
paid off a $400 mortgage on his farm with
| 5000 in gold, and the man who received the
gold swapped it for $400 in greenbacks
| These men all had more than "an ounce oi
branseach v; they were really smart business
| men.
Comrade Osborne falls into the common
error of speaking of paper dollars. There is
no such thing rs a paper dollar. The paper
| Is only promise to pay dollar, and anyone
who can read can see i by looking at one.
Uncle Sans note promising TO pay dollar,
is no more money than is youI note comrade,
agreeing TO pay dollar. The Government
issued greenback in 1861, receivable for
all public dues" Later issues read, "except
duties on imports and interest on the public
debt" The early issue would pay duties
the same as gold, and consequently sold in
the market the same as gold. / had a $40
note of this early issue, which | sold with two
gold dollars for $42 in greenbacks to broker
in Springfield, and be made profit, Of
course.
As Comrade Osborne says, "All money is
fiat, +" but gold is the only thing that has the
fiat" of all civilized nations on 1t, and,
therefore, must he the standard of all value,
as long as the tirSt-class nations refuse to put
their fiat /" on other metals at an agreed
ratio to gold. Sixteen ounces of silver was
worth at one time more than one ounce of
gold, and that is the reason why only about
5000, 600 of silver dollars found their way
into circulation prior to 1873. Since then
great many times 100000 of them have
gone out, and anyone can get all he wants by
applying TO THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE with
any other kind of currency for payment. j
believe they had call for s. from someone
in Maine Why don't the Western and
Southern people, who seem 10 be so eager for
silver, send for some?
At the present time it takes about 30
ounces of silver TO buy one ounce of gold, un-
less the Government has put its fiat on the
silver by coming it, which makes the silver
about half fiat and half intrinsic value. If
Comrade Osborn is worth SO, 900, his notes
i. e., promises to pay-are, perhaps, good up
to that amount but not much more. So,
Uncle Sam should limit his promises to pay,
whether his promises are stamped on silver or
paper, or his credit will be impaired. In
fact, we have seen lately that he has had to
pay higher interest since he began TO increase
his debt than he would have had t. pay three
years ago. when his debt was decreasing.
A nation has a limit TO its ability TO pay,
the same as an individual. The Argentine
Republic issued few years agr, too many
pr misses to pay, and found themselves in
deeper financial water than they could swim
in, and, consequently, had to sink, carrying
down with them Barring Brothers, or, rather,
would have carried them down had not the
English Government pulled them out at the
last moment-H L. NARAMoRE, Sharon,
Mass.