St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-01-03
THE SAME LAW FOR ALL.

When Hugh McCullochE was secretary
of the treasury the question of what to
do with the greenback was pressing
one, much discussed. There were then
already those who. seeing the green
back perform, after a fashion, the func
tons of money in making exchanges,
had come TO regard it as money and to
imagine that the government could
make money by printing it. Later
they gathered force enough in congress
to stop, in 1878, the wise policy Of grad
by McCullOch and practiced until some
forty million dollars had been retired.
AT that time McCulloch wrote letter
that was published in the Nation, in
which he said that the solution OF the
question would be much easier if it
were realized that the nation is but an
aggregation Of men. and that the same
business methods which were safe for
the latter were the only ones nation
could safely adopt. Whatever a sound
business man would do under the same
circumstances the nation should adopt,
and it could not, except for little
longer, follow unSUund courses than
could a business man. The laws OF
trade are as imperious as that of gravity,
and cannot be defied by man or aggre-
cations of men with impunitv.
Applying 10 the present situation in
the nations finances the ordinary laws
of business. asking what sound, level
headed business man would do under the
same circumstances were the situation
proportional to his affairs, the solution
does not seem so difficult. Consider the
nation simply as Uncle Sam, an extern
Sive business man, in the dilemma tile
nation is in, and what would he, as
business man, do? What he would do
the nation should do. 1t has no magic
at its command by which it can suspend
laws none the less omnipotent that they
work through human action.
Our individual Uncle Sam, then, is en-
gagged in business in which he has
issued a larke quantity of demand notes
bearing no interest, but redeemable in
gold Oh call. He has kept, and aims to
keep, a quantity of the yellow metal on
hand with which to meet calls for re-
demption. But after lie has redeemed
them he turns about and reissues them.
so that while the fund of redempti0nary
coin is growing smaller, the quantity Of
demand notes i'll circulation remains the
same. Would any business man do
this? Wouldn't his efforts be to protect
his reserve fund by withdrawing and
canoeing his notes drawn on the fund
as fast as possible? And would not the
need of keeping idle this redemption
fund cease when the demand obliga-
tons on it were Withdrawn, except as it
was required to meet his time obliga-
lions?
What would be the result if this
Uncle Sam should, instead of retiring
the notes that drained his gold, not only
keep on reissuing them, but 90 into the
markets to borrow more gold with which
to keep his fund up? What would be
the effect on his credit? Would it not
impair confidence in his ability to sus-
tain himself in this course? Wouldn't
the holders Of his demand obligations
bacome SolicitouS to convert them into
sound money as fast as posi- bic?
Wouldn't the lack of confidence in his
business acumen extend to his time
paper and weaken its value? And if
other people were using his notes for
currency would not the aiStruSt extend
to their creditors?
This is what certainly would occur
were business man TO pursue the bust
ness course the United States are fol-
lowing, and it is what results solely
from that course. The present condi-
tons are due to the widely held notion
that there is difference in something
else than degree between the United
States and any of their citizens engaged
in trade; that 60,000,0 900 of people are
somehow exempt from the laws that
control any one of them. This fallacy
underlies all the yagaries OF socialism,
the dreams of PopuliSm, and the opin-
ions many men hold of the currency
functions of government. Nothing will
so clear the discussion Of its mistS as
clear conception that any goYernmen
is simply and nothing more than the
people VINO compose 1t, or are repre-
scented by it, and that it cannot do what
any one of them cannot do with safety.
The same laws govern the merchant
prince and the peanut vender that gov
ern a nation. The common sense of
this is recognized by some business man
who, in an interview, said: II know SO
little of political economy, however.
that l cannot avoid tine conclusion that
that which is good for individuals should
not be ignored by communities or ma
TONS" thus unconsciously showing his
familiarity with the bed rock of politi-
cal economy.