The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-09-24

that best represent the thought OF the
organization have been Tor six months,
with infinite tact and skill, testing the
public temper on the subject. The
public has not taken alarm. The time
seems suspicious. The plans have been
contaminated. The bill is already be
ing prepared for efecting the desired
end.
What is the motive behind all this9
The ostensible motive is this: The
greenbacks are exchangeable on de-
mand, at the United States treasury,
for gold. They are the vehicle by
means of which the gold reserve has
been taken out Of the treasury. o.
the face of eff airs they are to blame
for the treasury's recent troubles
what more plausible, therefore, than
to say, as the bankers do, that the real
remedy is to retire these greenbacks as
fast as redeemed, destroying them at
once instead of reissuing them, and
thus putting a stop to the "endless chain
of buckets" that is carrying away our
gold9
This is the argument. 1t is plausible.
Is it sound or ~sincerel
No. On the contrary, it is impossi
BILE, when n is acquainted with the
facts. either to believe that the pro-
posed action will remedy matters, or to
believe that the bankers believe it will.
In the first place, the greenbacks
have not caused the Treasury's trou
hles, for they have circulated for
twenty years without trouble of any
kind, and c)nditions, so far as they are
concerned, are the same now as hereto
fore! The gold drawn from the Treas
ury has been drawn for export. De-
stroJ ing the greenbacks would not de-
stroy the demand for gold for export,
nor render it any more difficult to OBJ
tain it. The situation would be as
Matthew Marshall, the financial writer
of the Sun, says it would:
IF the legal tenders were retired all
debts, including bank deposits, would
become really payable in gold, though
nominally in silver also. The exporter
of gold would demand it from the
banks, and the banks would have
either to pay it or to refuse to pay it.
If they paid it the country would lose
the gold just as it is losing it now, and
if they refused to pay it We should
come to the suspension of gold pay
ments, to avoid which we have for the
last two years made such strenuous
efforts"
The Treasurer now reissues the green
backs in payment of governmental ex
penses. If he is, instead of that, to de-
stroy them, he must pay those expenses
in some other way. If he must receive
greenbacks, but cannot any longer pay
out greenbacks, it is as evident as that
two and two make four, that the Treas
ury, instead of being relieved, will be
still more greatly embarrassed, and
more in need of help than ever
No; the associated bankers are not
proposing this action for the relief of
the Treasury or the relief of the our
try. Their ostensible motive is not
their real motive. 1t is impossible to
believe that it is.
What then is their real motive9
Listen
With the greenbacks out of the way,
there will be no longer any reason for
the Treasury's keeping a gold reserve.
1t will, as a matter of course, gradually
disappear as the greenbacks are retired.
when that event occurs, the banks will
be the only place to which any one can
go to get gold.
The entire circulation of the country
will be based upon gold, but the banks
will have a complete monopoly in the
matter of supplying gold, barring alone
the slow production of the mines. The
Government itself will have to look to
to the banks when it wants gold with
which to pay the interest on its bonds.
This is the reason for the project of the
bankers
Another and similar reason is that
the greenbacks are a constant object
lesson to the people that the Govern
ment itself can supply a safe, sound
and convenient currency as we'll as the
banks. The greenbeck is a constant
threat to the bank note. And now,
when the bonds on which the bank
note issue is based are near maturity,
the whole bank note system is near an
end, unless the $40, coo, 900 Of green
backs can be forced out of existence,
leaving a vacuum that must be filled
by something else. This is why the
=